There are a number of frustrating issues that gain little traction, many of which have been around for years. Perhaps some of our resident MTGO experts who have repeatedly fallen victim to these shortfalls (@Montolio @ChubbyRain @brianpk80 @diophan @Brass-Man) can weigh in.

Excellent article as usual, @Smmenen. I particularly like the look back at the historical decklists from these micro-eras, as it provides a fun snapshot of what winning decks looked like at the time, and the thought process about what was important to them (for example, the number of Fireballs in a deck, number of Disenchants, etc.).

@mediumsteve said in [Old School] Building a Better Prison Deck:

As I understand, Song is mostly the kill condition in its deck? As in you drop it and swing for a turn or two and win?

Yes. Song is what you do at the very end, once you have a controlling position. You don't really want to run it out before then, because it turns off the abilities of your artifacts that you are using to accrue incremental advantages. I wrote about one version of the deck on EC (http://www.eternalcentral.com/old-school-magic-93-94-ugw-titanias-prison/), but there are plenty of different variants and color combinations worth exploring, and is something you could play long term without really getting bored, if you keep tinkering with different color combinations. It's definitely one of the most stylistic kill conditions in 93-94.

@hierarchnoble said in Two Card Monte:

@jaco said in Two Card Monte:

Workshop is very hit or miss in the deck. I have only been playing 3 recently as I test out other things. You could test out a Mox-heavy build instead, with something like 1 Workshop, 1 City of Traitors, 2 Urborg Tomb of Yawgmoth, and 1-4 Mox Opal in those slots. I would probably not play more than 1 City of Traitors if you go that route, because the fact that it is legendary, doesn't allow you to continue to make land drops, and doesn't provide any colors, makes it tough to use and build with.

While this is very good advice, City of Traitors is not legendary. It just takes a very odd game to end up with two in play at the same time, usually involving Blood Moon.

Yes, it is not legendary, don't know what I was thinking when I typed that. The effect is such that you can't afford to draw more than 1 in the first couple of turns though.

@scrum said in Two Card Monte:

I am missing 3 copies of Mishras Worshop. Is there a possible substitute for these lands?

Workshop is very hit or miss in the deck. I have only been playing 3 recently as I test out other things. You could test out a Mox-heavy build instead, with something like 1 Workshop, 1 City of Traitors, 2 Urborg Tomb of Yawgmoth, and 1-4 Mox Opal in those slots. I would probably not play more than 1 City of Traitors if you go that route, because the fact that it is legendary, doesn't allow you to continue to make land drops, and doesn't provide any colors, makes it tough to use and build with.

@chubbyrain the powerless JacoDrazi strategy really only wants Thorn of Amethyst when Storm-based combo presence is high. With the rise of Paradoxical Outcome combo it was definitely a nice tool in the toolbox, but it can be worked around when deck building. Null Rod is by far the best disruption in the deck, followed by Chalice of the Void, so if you want to add more disruption you can play 1 Thorn and 3-4 Sphere of Resistance in the 75 (they don't all have to be main deck, which is important). Mindbreak Trap has been back in my sideboard for some time now (instead of Leyline of Sanctity) to help combat combo decks, but some number of Spheres can also be at your discretion.

The far more devastating effect of the Thorn of Amethyst restriction is to White Eldrazi. Thorn + Thalia was the basis for that deck to begin with, so I think now is the time for those White Eldrazi decks to widely adopt Null Rod/Stony Silence, as well as fully integrate Sanctum Prelate in to their builds, and change their manabase slightly to accommodate the necessary change. I played a fair amount of Prelate in the end of 2016 and early 2017 (in both Eldrazi and Junk Hatebears decks), and it is as good as advertised, if you can cast it on time.

If the DCI wanted to hit something from Workshop decks, but still leave other decks more playable, they should have hit Sphere of Resistance, as mentioned by Steve in the podcast. They followed this logic in Modern when banning Eye of Ugin, but leaving Eldrazi Temple unbanned (when Eldrazi Temple was the stronger card in all of the problematic Eldrazi decks). That precedent and logic left Modern format Eldrazi decks hampered and slowed, but still playable, as evident with current iterations in Modern of Bant Eldrazi and EldraziTron.

With the past 9 months of Banned & Restricted List Announcements by the DCI, and the ensuing aftermath, the most generous pundit could only claim that 2017 has been a year of questionable DCI judgement at best, and capricious or incompetent judgement at worst.

@senor_bisquick said in Two Card Monte:

@jaco

Do you feel that Dark Confidant is still worth it given the ubiquity of Walking Ballista?

Dredge and Workshops have been the easiest matchups for this deck, including the current metagame. So I'm not really worried about Confidant dying to Ballista (as does Welder). This means they A) have to have Ballista in hand (or draw in to it immediately), and B) take a turn off of any other disruption they may have to deal with Confidant. I have tons of cards to help combat the Workshop matchup, as well as appropriate mana to power through Spheres, so I'm not going to sacrifice Confidant when Workshops only amount to 30-40% of the field, and Force of Will decks occupy 60%+. It's just too good everywhere else, and Confidant can easily be sideboarded out against Ballista (or Oath decks).

Also, regarding Confidant and average converted mana cost (ACMC), in the list above, the total casting cost of the main deck is 79, divided by 60 cards, equals an ACMC of 1.3167 (rounded).

I have no poetic words to offer, nor pictographs. Just hazardous technology, which the FAA never ceases to let go unmolested every time I travel through airport security.

I have played tons of different versions of 2 Card Monte over the years, including at the past couple Vintage Championships, and done pretty well with it in general. One of the issues I would run in to when piloting the deck was the fact that if your couple threats got countered, you would often just get outdrawn by the blue decks, or planeswalkers. This was an ongoing issue no matter what I tried. Because of this, I have played Dark Confidant in most versions I have played in tournaments (going back to 2011 even) , as another bomb to play on turn 1, and as another draw mechanism to pull even with the blue decks. I am not a fan of the Draw 7s in here, because if you can't muster the mana to cast both that and your kill condition(s), and activate them in the same turn, it will most often result in your own demise when your opponent untaps with mana in play (and a fresh full hand). I have sideboarded in Timetwister from to time, as another weapon against Dredge. Memory Jar floats in and out of my builds, and with the abundance of delve spells the past 2 years has been mostly out, but will probably make its way back in.

Unlike Ben, I still love Goblin Welder in this deck. Missteps abound, but Welder has immense synergy with your own Grindstones (Grind yourself, then Weld back in a relevant card, often for the win), and in most of my recent versions, with Dack Fayden and/or Bazaar of Baghdad. It also lets you play through decks packing tons of countermagic. I played something like this at Vintage Champs 2016:

I used to play multiple Ancient Grudges main, but found that Daretti proved much more beneficial at dealing with hate coming from different angles, and dealing with the Workshop and Eldrazi menace over the past year. Daretti is harder to cast, but you can definitely retool your manabase to accomplish whatever you want with this deck (hence my 3 Workshops, and multiple Urborgs currently). I have a love/hate relationship with Mox Opal (mostly hate), so it's sitting back on the shelf for now.

Over the years I have tried everything from Kuldotha Forgemaster, to Chromatic Lantern, to Thoughtseize, to Notion Thief, to Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas (which is slow, but actually very interesting for the effects it provides, and problems it solves). I have tried versions utilizing lots of pitch counters (aka Pitch Monte). I have tried Oath of Druids variants (both main and sideboard). So there is definitely a lot of room for innovation and latitude in design, depending on what you're trying to combat in the metagame.

I think the next version I am going to build around will probably incorporate an angle of attack using Dark Depths. I have tested this before, but never found a variant I thought was consistent enough. But I think it's probably possible with enough testing and tuning to get a very competitive version. Now that Solemnity has been printed, I think this offers some real potential (especially as yet another tool against the most popular individual deck currently - Workshop Aggro).

@hierarchnoble said in [Book] Eldrazi Meditations:

Hey @JACO, will there be any updates to this book in the near future? With @Thiim's recent Eldrazi Shops finish taking off and the book's birthday recently passing by, I'm curious if this project is getting any sort of refresh.

Mike, I do have plans to update the book, once there is enough that has changed in Vintage to provide a necessary update for metagame context, Banned and Restricted movement, or playable printings. I don't feel that is the case quite yet.

Thiim's most recent build is just a variant of Workshop Eldrazi Aggro, which I covered in Chapter 8 of the book. It subs out Tangle Wire for Phyrexian Revoker (which I would have been on board with from the beginning), and Slash Panther for Precursor Golem (I think both are average to mediocre). The most important thing (again, which I would have done in my older builds anyway, based on metagame considerations then and now) is to utilize Null Rod, which just buries Ravager Workshop variants, as well as the current Outcome decks.

@ten-ten said in [Book] Eldrazi Meditations:

Out of stock? :(

That original link in the opening post appears to have been out of date. It is definitely still available for order here (also updated OP). Thanks!

@Smmenen said in Cards to unrestrict:

@JACO said in Cards to unrestrict:

Anybody who wants to unrestrict Flash, I will offer to play you for $10/game at Eternal Weekend this year if I get to play 4 copies of Flash vs. your current deck. You will regret it. The deck should not be using the kill conditions mentioned above. It should be based on the article I wrote last year, with Show and Tell. You do not rely on the graveyard, but utilize it better than anyone else. Serenity + Hurkyl's Recall makes the Workshop matchup a joke.

Having access to both Omniscience and Bargain totally changes the calculus as compared to previous iterations of Flash. Giving the best color an even faster (effective) game ending 2 mana spell at instant speed is a very, very poor idea. I'm not sure how unrestricting Flash does anything to change the power and effectiveness of unrestricted Mentor decks (and the corresponding metagame), which have 4 copies of arguably the best kill condition ever printed.

This article: http://www.eternalcentral.com/giftsweek-gifts-rector-omniscience/ ?

What is nice about the deck, as you say, is that it doesn't rely on the graveyard, because you can just use Show and Tell. But it certainly wants to be able to use it's graveyard. Rector can't trigger with Leyline in play, nor can you flashback Therapy. Gifts/Will is pretty awkward as wlel.

This deck is definitely more difficult to hate out then the Flash decks I was brewing above, but it's also definitely alot less consistent in terms of being able to assemble the Flash combo. With Leyline in play, all you have to do is counter Show and Tell and your deck is largely dead in the water.

It's probably just as viable to do what Dredge often does, and bounce the hate rather than try to play around it like you do.

I'm not saying this isn't a good deck, I just don't think it would be dominant. Vintage has so many tools for combating these types of decks these days.

I said you would start with the deck shell in the aforementioned article, not use it as printed. You would want to dramatically lower the mana curve, and will not play 4 Gifts (1-2 will suffice at that point when you have 4 copies of Flash), because Gifts is more of a game-ender in that scenario. The consistency and power with 4 Flash and 3-4 Show and Tell is much more powerful than any combo deck we're currently seeing in Vintage at the moment. That is not a good thing, contrary to the claim that the format can/should be sped up by a turn (which I think is a poor idea also).

I'm not sure how unrestricting Flash does anything to change the power and effectiveness of unrestricted Mentor decks (and the corresponding metagame),

The idea of unrestricting Flash is an alternative way to deal with a metagame that is strangled by Shops/Mentor. It doesn't do anything about Mentor directly, except create a deck that could compete with it. Unrestricting Flash either creates new decks or strengthens an existing, marginal strategy. I don't think anyone can dispute that from a purely logical perspective. The issue isn't whether unrestricting Flash would do that, the question is whether the costs of having that kind of deck outweigh the benefits.

I understand this sentiment, and don't think giving the format a more busted combo deck is a great solution. People are doing well enough with Outcome and Gifts decks, and frankly are still in the beginning stages of innovating and adjusting those to compete with Mentor and 9Sphere.dec Workshop variants. The point of my comment is that Mentor is likely the best kill condition in Vintage, by a long shot, and simply adding an unfun and busted combo deck to the format isn't going to do anything to cure the ills of Vintage, and bring back people in to the fold who are sick of it at the moment. The card Mentor itself has done far more to push out other decks and strategies than any perceived damage that Gush or Gitaxian Probe ever did.

Anybody who wants to unrestrict Flash, I will offer to play you for $10/game at Eternal Weekend this year if I get to play 4 copies of Flash vs. your current deck. You will regret it. The deck should not be using the kill conditions mentioned above. It should be based on the article I wrote last year, with Show and Tell. You do not rely on the graveyard, but utilize it better than anyone else. Serenity + Hurkyl's Recall makes the Workshop matchup a joke.

Having access to both Omniscience and Bargain totally changes the calculus as compared to previous iterations of Flash. Giving the best color an even faster (effective) game ending 2 mana spell at instant speed is a very, very poor idea. I'm not sure how unrestricting Flash does anything to change the power and effectiveness of unrestricted Mentor decks (and the corresponding metagame), which have 4 copies of arguably the best kill condition ever printed.