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

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.

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

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

@botvinik

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

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.

@john-cox

Just get FBB swamps. Or spend a little extra for betas

Not great timing. Everybody has covid right now

@chubbyrain1

Especially since fluster, force of negation, and mindbreak trap are cards now. They used to be able to win on turn 1 with Flash at like a 70% rate or something. Often with double counter backup. It’s still the most degenerate deck ever though. It’s like a modern Tibalts Trickery deck. Janky as hell but terrible gameplay patterns

@evouga

I don’t know for sure but here are my theories:

1. Hype. New card. MH2 hype. (The set has some format warping stuff) Its not legendary so it can’t be Karakased.

2. Card Advantage. When it hits, you get an instant +3 card advantage and a free Lightning Helix. One swing is likely game. (Deals 3 when it enters the battlefield and then swings for 9. A second Oath trigger will deal another 3 on that same turn. If they’re not dead you’re just burying them with card advanatge) In this respect it’s basically an Emrakul that cantrips.

3. The meta. A lot more creatures. Pithing Needle in every deck.A lot more threat to your life total. Activating Griselbrand might not be possible especially if you then have no way to interact with the board. Archon at least gains 3 life and generates CA without any activated abilities.

Main point? Perhaps every deck playing Pithing Needle and deploying giant constructs is enough to give Archon the nod over Grisel.

@evouga

I don’t think we should count on the art for assistance in executing the card effects.

The deck that won the Mox Ruby event reminds me of Team ICBM’s Gush Meloku deck from 2007-2008ish. Just a collection of good cards that don’t necessarily conform to some pre-existing archetype definition. If Gush was the culprit before, I think Saga AND Ragavan are now filling that role.

Looking at spoilers, no one probably thought they were going to play Ragavan and Saga in the same deck, however they actually boost each other up. (Well Ragavan boosts constructs and is by itself an incredible early game strategy)

Well here we are. It’s like we’re nearly playing Workshop and Mana Drain in the same deck. It’s like there aren’t any deck building restrictions anymore that can’t be overcome. Your deck can be Aggro/control/combo all in one and you can play any color with a plethora of cards that don’t cost any mana at all.

@marland_moore

It’s almost pointless to discuss. Everyone has their opinions. My MTG Arena handle is “UnrestrictGush”, but unrestricting Gush for the 4th time might be a classic case of not learning from the past. All we can do as players is just play what our overlords tell us we can play.

@blindtherapy

Yeah same. Except it’s so much better with the god accounts. The whole manatraders process is kind of annoying (and expensive) in comparison.

They should just make all of mtgo free to use any card but with cash tournament entry

I played in this event and it was a blast playing Vintage.

@maxxx17

Frozen 2 stands out the most