In the summer of 2018, after a 10 year hiatus, StarCityGames dusted off the long running Vintage Power 9 series of events from the prior decade at last year’s SCGCON. This year StarCityGames once again unearthed the Power 9 series, at SCGCON 2019.

SCG did not do a coverage writeup this year, electing only to post T16 decklists, so we've done a full writeup. Full report of this year's Power 9 event, including pairings, results, standings, in-game photos, Top 16 decklists, and complete metagame breakdown of all 82 players can be located exclusively on Eternal Central here:
https://eternalcentral.com/scgcon19vintage/

If this is who I think it is (Mike), DM me and I can help you organize and promote. I used to be a regular at CrazyCards for a year or so when I lived in Chicago previously. I'm currently living in Chicago proper, and we have a handful of regulars who play Vintage, plus there's probably a good amount of people isolated in individual suburbs.

I will be there as well, hosting the Old School event on Thursday, and playing Vintage on Friday. Looking forward to playing in a 20 person Vintage tournament for Power.

@griselbrother said in North American Eternal Weekend 2018 Metagame Breakdown:

Great work. However, the decklist file is the one from last year.

It looks like the embed was using the correct link, but the download was last year's file. It's been updated and corrected. Thanks for the heads up. Enjoy.

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/

I play a variety of formats (mostly Vintage, 94, 95, and Middle School these days, with Modern and Legacy lagging far behind the past year or two). I enjoy playing different formats because they all offer different interactions, some overlap of cards used, and different things to enjoy. Rotating what you play and focus on helps ensure you never really tire of any of them, if you appreciate the differences between them. I have started organizing events based on this principle, and will continue to do so in the short term while it continues to interest me. Hopefully that mentality spreads.

• Vintage is basically at all time highs the past couple of years. Compared to other formats, it is always going to be viewed as on life support, because of the ever increasing cost of the cards. This will not change, even with so much new lifeblood being injected by MTGO and the VSL the past few years. Some people will shift in, while others age out or focus on family (or sell off collections for a final time to buy a house).
• Old School (and other similar retro formats) are growing in popularity for some of the same reasons that EDH/Commander is popular. Players don't have to pay attention to any real metagame to have fun, and they can jump in an out without much knowledge lost. The type of players that tend to gravitate towards these are also older, and enjoy their limited free time playing something they want to play, rather than just grind and compete. This is the difference between mature adults deriving enjoyment from beyond the more narrow scope of what the young grinder does.

There is almost zero chance of positive expected value (EV) of playing any type of Magic long term if you are focused on dollars and cashing checks. Opportunity cost/time, travel, food, and cards assure that it will always be costly beyond monetary return. The value comes in fun and enjoyment of playing, and casual formats translate to that much more directly than competitive formats for most people.

Containment Priest and Yixlid Jailer are fine. They are the reason I was playing 4 Barbarian Rings main deck in Dredge the past couple of months (including in the TVSL), because I was not interested in losing to the random decks that were playing a couple of main deck Priests. I think they are more valuable than Cabal Pit though if you are planning to cast cards like Ingot Chewer and/or Ancient Grudge, as they are essentially "on color" for your other anti-hate measures, which I found to be extremely relevant.

Like most anti-Dredge cards though, they are not standalone answers. They just buy you time, much like Null Rod or Stony Silence do against artifact decks, before the enemy finds an answer. Your hate cards work best when you can protect them and simply buy time to do something else powerful to quickly wrap up the game.