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.

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

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.

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.

@botvinik

We see this with formats such as premodern, and the player made ban lists are terrible.

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

MTGO is not fun. Never ask what would make me sit in front of that awful program for 8+ hours. No thank you.

1. Graphics - very laggy, cannot quickly navigate without risk of crashing the program

2. Sound quality - absolutely terrible

3. Entry cost - $500+ for a digital deck within an outdated program

4. Lack of players - nearly impossible to get a casual game in the tournament practice room and often wait 10+ minutes for a league game

5. Commitment - one game at a time on demand is fine on Arena. But even a best 2/3 match is unacceptable when you’ve got diapers to change

In person events are more desirable because I get to remove myself from an environment id otherwise be entrenched with responsibilities. Try telling your mother in law you can’t tend to your crying child because your opponent is trying to time you out with the chess clock. #pointless

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.

There’s actually a black land with this effect already. https://scryfall.com/card/eld/241/castle-locthwain

@botvinik

Yes. $25 for 16 days of unlimited access. Nov 15 - Dec 1

The real question is this going to attract the normal Eternal Weekend crowd? I honestly don’t even recall who/what won last years event. It’s spread across 3 different events. It just doesn’t feel like a Vintage championship if there are 3 winners.

@brass-man I still check in daily but there’s not really anywhere to play paper vintage. I don’t really get the same satisfaction from mtgo and so I feel left out of meta shifts.

Needs “draw a card” tacked on there somewhere

I guess this counters Thassa Oracle

Needs a “draw a card” tacked on

@moorebrother1

Well Ragavan is legendary and returns to your hand after use, so you never want more than one in your hand. 2.5 sounds about right for Vintage, where the opportunity cost for more Ragavans than you need is pretty high.

At least when I drafted my first list with Ragavan, I settled on 3 without thinking too hard about it. It’s a legendary 2/1 creature. You’ve got to assume the ground is going to be gummed up at times, making it a dead draw in situations.

Compared to modern where Ragavan is more powerful than most other cards, having redundant copies is more beneficial than not.

@moorebrother1

I’ve played some games with Ragavan and he felt very good. Also the most recent challenge has no shortage of Ragavan, so I don’t understand where you’re getting this idea that it’s disappeared.

As far as Urza’s Saga, what about the card is giving you trouble? There are plenty of counter strategies for the card specifically, such as Alpine and Blood Moon, but in a Vintage context, Saga’s construct mode seems slow — so if you’re playing a deck that gets beat by constructs, I’d think about playing something that attacks from a different angle.

@throwaway

I listened to all 11 parts of the alpha review. Why are you so anti-alpha? Alpha is so vintage

@throwaway

The contemporary vintage format is less relevant than when SMIP began.

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.