@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.

@JACO said in 6/24/17 - Long Island, New York - NYSE Open V - Power Eight, Workshops & Drains Tournament!:

NYSE V Shirts are finally here, with exclusive badass art, for a limited time only. Preorder in the next week if you want on-site pickup at the event. We also ship globally. Shirt colors this year are Platinum (light grey), White, Sky Blue, and Natural (creme). A portion of each shirt sold goes to support Nick and the NYSE project, and another portion goes to the artist Gilberto Rivera, who many of you have had the pleasure of playing against in previous Vintage tournaments. If you have some other shirt request color (pink, for example), please get it to me in the next day or two via email (jaco@eternalcentral.com), and I'll see what I can do. No dark shirts are planned for this round, because this image prints and stands out much better on light shirts. Order yours today:
http://www.eternalcentral.com/product/nyse5shirt/

#NYSEV orders for local pickup will close in the next day or so - please get your orders in ASAP! http://www.eternalcentral.com/product/nyse5shirt/

@wappla said in Vintage Challenge - 6/10/2017:

@vaughnbros actually everyone thinks that, but because people can't agree on what is fun, it's an idiotic way to make decisions.

Agreed, and this thread is a great example of why no matter what changes WotC does or does not make regarding the Banned & Restricted List, people will continue to bitch and moan, and we have over 25 years of Magic (and multiple iterations of TMD) as evidence. Not everyone will agree on what's "fun," because it's entirely subjective.

If you have data that you feel supports the scrutiny of a Banned & Restricted List change, present the data in a logical form with your argument. The endless droning on and on about "card X" is pushing other cards out of the format, or "card Y" is bad for the format are pretty useless, when they can be said about numerous cards in every historical format, and are simply a weak and generic proxy for good policymaking. We are dealing with the deepest card pool in Magic, and have many forgotten and overlooked answers to problems that exist. As more Magic sets are released each year new answers (and problems) will be printed.

WotC doesn't have a hard and fast set of rules or statistical metrics that they publish when it comes to B&R policymaking, because that would pigeonhole them in an adapting game, and prevent them from learning and using feedback on the fly. Not doing so affords them latitude to grow as a company, and to (hopefully) make better decisions going forward as they learn from successes and failures (insert your own snark here about failure).

Thank you to @ChubbyRain and @diophan (and associates) for their continued diligence in stockpiling and analyzing this data for us, such that we can continue to use it to have more intelligent discussions. It is much appreciated.

NYSE V Shirts are finally here, with exclusive badass art, for a limited time only. Preorder in the next week if you want on-site pickup at the event. We also ship globally. Shirt colors this year are Platinum (light grey), White, Sky Blue, and Natural (creme). A portion of each shirt sold goes to support Nick and the NYSE project, and another portion goes to the artist Gilberto Rivera, who many of you have had the pleasure of playing against in previous Vintage tournaments. If you have some other shirt request color (pink, for example), please get it to me in the next day or two via email (jaco@eternalcentral.com), and I'll see what I can do. No dark shirts are planned for this round, because this image prints and stands out much better on light shirts. Order yours today:
http://www.eternalcentral.com/product/nyse5shirt/

@Hydra said in Grixis Therapy:

@diophan I'm curious, what are the reasons you are running Grixis Therapy over a version of Mentor? Is there a particular aspect of the meta that you feel Pyromancer handles better, or is this more a personal preference?

Grixis Therapy is lower to the ground (meaning a slightly lower mana curve), and the disruption (such as Therapy) comes online earlier than UWR Mentor decks can often cast Mentor itself, which often lends an edge in the pseudo-mirror (if even by a turn or two). If Mentor sticks, however, you can often be in trouble, which is why you will often see Sudden Shock in these decks specifically.

It's also a matter of your expected metagame, and what tools you want access to in fighting that metagame. The tools that Mentor and white offers (such as Swords to Plowshares, Stony Silence, Containment Priest, and Fragmentize) are often preferred over the closest black tools (Dismember, Null Rod, Leyline + Cage, Ingot Chewer).