I was once young but now I am old. I have brought a new life into this world and learned some humility. And as I see the ages of the new up and coming vintage players on mtgo, I have developed a newfound respect for young players. Young players are always going to be better than us old heads because they’re more motivated with something to prove and they’ve got all the time in the world. I was best at magic when I was about 16 years old. The nostalgia I have for premodern and old school formats is really just the desire to be young again... to be back in the drivers seat of developing the latest tech or archetypes.

My hats off to you young players. You’ve got this. Always have. Always will.

Hey I think the popular opinion has always been that the pro formats have tighter margins, so it’s easier to lose a game due to a small error.

I feel like saying though that Magic is not a hard game. There are so many other more difficult subjects out there that you could be working to master. Having an elitist attitude over magic is like admitting that you’re not smart enough to do anything else.

This card is note worthy not because it’s particularly game breaking but it is the best “Terror” yet to be printed. Doom Blade has had a very minor roll in the sideboards of Dark Ritual decks since it can be used to kill a Lodestone Golem, Eldrazi, or random fish creatures such as Thalia, Magus of the Moon, or Collector Ouphe. Infernal Grasp clearly has more reach than Doom Blade now being able to hit DRS or Leovold. There may be better specific answers to things, but you’d be surprised at the lack of flexibility amongst black creature removal. This obviously isn’t breaking the meta, but it is note worthy and I will be picking up a few just to have on hand. I put it into the “Ingot Chewer/Goblin Cratermaker” list of cards you just ought to have on hand for some future meta you want to sideboard against. Terminate is a fringe modern staple that hits things beyond the scope of Unholy Heat or Prismatic Ending (Murktide). This basically better than Terminate, although regeneration could be relevant in the case of Welding Jar.

I miss paper events

I use it to grab the AK for 4 that I just exiled with my Psychatog

For all the times my opponent has made the very skillful play of turn 1 Trinisphere on the play, I’m glad Void Mirror exists. Because fuck Shops. You think it’s okay when you’re the one preventing someone from playing spells, well fuck you right back. I hope they restrict Workshop and every single card in that deck and continue to print cards like Void Mirror. Here’s a thought: play some lands that produce color. We had to deal with all your stupid shit for years — having to play basic lands and crap like Ingot Chewer. DCI bending over backward just to keep your stupid deck around. Adapt or don’t play the deck. For all of our sake and our children’s sake, I hope no one plays Shops again. It’s just a shitty and boring deck to play against.

You could just post that question here too. I am interested in that discussion. I use discord for old school, but Vintage is lucky enough to have its own dedicated website so might as well use it.

edit

Did I mention how lucky we are to have themanadrain? It takes a lot of resources to have something like this up and running. Thanks to Andy for catering to the nostalgia of a message board — and it’s only going to be as lively as the users that post here.

They should errata the card for Vintage so you can use it instead of Black Lotus

I would absolutely love premodern Vintage — in fact I actually already brew decks for such a format because it’s enjoyable for me to handle the cards from this era and fully anticipate it to be a thing in the near future.

I already am very enthusiastic about premodern and middle school and strongly dislike the new art, the new borders, Planeswalkers, and OP hatebears that dominate the modern vintage meta. I keep up with Vintage just for traditions sake, but actually playing modern vintage just isn’t remotely appealing to me.

The fact that it sacrifices itself could work well with Crucible.

The other side of this that hasn’t been discussed is “enchantment”. Enchantments are not a major theme in Vintage but hypothetically this land can be targeted by Force of Vigor.

@marland_moore said in StoneBlade:

@lienielsen Not sure I understand your point here. BUG and other creature control decks like the Archon decks work in a similar fashion and these are good solid decks.

It makes me shake my head when people say it is not Vintage to cast a Noble Heirarch or a Stone Forge Mystic. Why do you get to decide what Vintage is?

I play all of the decks, and I think Doomsday and StoneBlade and PO and 8-Cast and BUG and Oath and Tinker and Archon and whatever Bazaar or Shops deck you want to play are all Vintage

Hey I only get to decide what my opinion is. I’m not writing a glossary here or anything. I even stated that it was my opinion, if it wasn’t clear.

I think Kaldra sucks in modern too. It’s an uncastable non lethal threat

@marland_moore

Yeah anecdotal evidence.

A 5/5 is just a low aspiration in Vintage imo. Of course it’s hard to remove, but there isn’t a reason to try and remove it.

Another equipment id be looking at is Reality Chip: pretty much a Future Sight, which is always a strong effect in Vintage.

I’m not a fan of Kaldra because it’s dependent on a Stoneforge activation. And even then, it’s a 4 mana investment for a big “who cares”

@macdeath

The first factor is that Dark Ritual -> Doomsday is the best use of Dark Ritual and probably always has been. It’s a much more compact combo engine that allows you to get away with playing a ton of permission.

The other factor is not that many people play Vintage. All the original players and deckbuilders are gone, so “Grim Long” style of decks probably aren’t being worked with that often.

A personal view that I’ve been developing is that in a lot of ways, Dredge is just a better aggressive “black-combo” deck.

I’d be cautious about using Defense Grid when Boseiju, who Endures now exists.

@thewhitedragon69 said in [NEO] Boseiju, Who Endures:

@botvinik I don't think the comparison to FoW is being used casually - it really is THAT good. FoW stops some things on the stack on turn 0, but there are several things that did that (leylines being one). After turn 0, there are many things like other counterspells, spheres, tax creatures that all deal with that.
What Boseiju does is it handles all the things FoW never could and then some. FoW is no good after the oath of druids is already on the table. It can do nothing in hand vs a bazaar. It could only 1-for-2 the accelerated threats a Workshop churned out. And if it got behind a sphere or 3-ball, it was basically a dead card. Boseiju shrugs off ALL of that. It even shrugs off FoW itself, being uncounterable. Boseiju can kill almost any permanent-based boogeyman in the format and do it against spheres and permission. And then when none of that is needed - it taps for mana. FoW is a pillar card, but this land basically stands as a parallel of strength in the format going forward. I can't imagine any green deck not running this as an auto-4-of.

This is what I think as well. A sort of new disruption pillar. You can usually pair it with Force of Vigor which is flat out better than FoW in a lot of cases as well.

@botvinik

Ritual Tendrils decks had been great for a long time despite FOW. Let’s talk about something more relevant than DPS.

You can’t Force a Boseiju. You can’t Force an Urza’s Saga. You can’t force a Bazaar or Woekshop and you can’t Force if there is a Trinisphere in play. Force is pretty limited. Boseiju on the other hand answers a lot of things that Force could not, and otherwise it’s a land. You just can’t beat that. Boseiju is the end of workshops as a prison archetype.

@botvinik Boseiju is good it allows the format to exist it is clearly a good card

@botvinik

It’s a different card but probably in the same tier. It’s like comparing Force of Will and Urza’s Saga

@botvinik

Probably Force of Will level of interaction. A staple in any green deck

@protoaddict

Yes, except with Intuition/construct you only need a random artifact (Say Mox Jet)to start the loop. Salvagers wouldn’t do anything with a Mox Jet.