Eternal Conflict – A Mixed Bag

Today’s article is going to be a fast-paced look at a whole bunch of different topics. I’m going to give some of my recent Classic results, talk about a rogue deck idea, discuss the future of the format, and much more. Today we’re going to hit topics quick and hard. Let’s get started!

Legacy in 2010

Aaron Forsythe recently announced that Legacy would become an official format on Magic Online in 2010. Here are his exact words, in a list of ‘what you can expect in 2010:

“The Legacy format will debut on Magic Online (albeit a few cards short, for the time being, of the paper format).”

I’ll be honest, this one was a pretty big surprise for me. Not because Legacy is so incomplete on MTGO, but, rather, because Vintage is. By the end of 2010 we’ll have Urza’s Block and Master’s Edition 4, which will fill out Legacy online nicely. There will still be a few missing options from Masques block (notably Unmask and Submerge) – but for the most part Legacy on Magic Online will be good to go.

So where does this leave online Classic/Vintage? That really remains to be seen. If Classic turns out to be Legacy plus a few restricted cards, then that is not very exciting. If they bring power into the mix, then we are suddenly looking at a legit online Vintage/Legacy split. This would be awesome, and I’m personally 100% behind this move. Even if it somewhat devalues the paper power that I own, it’s a small price to pay for the sweet balance that both Vintage and Legacy being to the world of eternal Magic.

In paper, Vintage and Legacy form two separate and distinct parts of a complete eternal metagame. Vintage is home of all of the broken power, and Legacy is a high-powered environment where you can play all (or most) of your old favorites – yet “tier-2″ decks can often do quite well. Online Classic is dangerously close to falling into a ‘worst of both worlds’ scenario. It doesn’t have all of the broken cards, yet it does have some powerful cards/archetypes that make tier-2 decks very difficult to play.

Here’s a example. Due to the recent unrestriction of Entomb in Legacy, I had a desire to try out some eternal Reanimator decks. I made one for Legacy, and it wasn’t top of the line – but it could be reasonably competitive in an average tournament. I sat down to put one together for Classic… and then stopped. What’s the point? Bazaar of Baghdad empowers the ridiculously powerful Dredge, which splash damages a rogue decks like Reanimator clear out of the metagame. It’s really not smart to run a deck that relies on the graveyard when everyone is packed to the gills with graveyard hate to fight Dredge, which is a far more powerful graveyard strategy. Bummer!

The current Classic situation definitely isn’t ideal, but it isn’t a disaster either… and if we have Online Power(9) in our future, then I think Eternal Magic will live a long and healthy life.

Google Wave

I’m sure that many of you are aware of Google’s new tool: Google Wave. If you’re not, then here’s a product description and video link:

Google Wave is an online tool for real-time communication and collaboration. A wave can be both a conversation and a document where people can discuss and work together using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.

Check it out here.

While Google Wave has about a million different uses, it is an absolutely fantastic tool for Magic deck discussion and collaboration. Not only does it allow a bunch of people to contribute to a deck idea through commentary, decklists, polls, and other media – but it organizes the information in a clean way with a presentation that can be rewound and replayed in order to see how the discussion developed. It’s hard to describe in words, but I recommend checking out the video linked above.

If you’re the type of person who enjoys working on decks with other people, then I can’t recommend Google Wave highly enough. It’s exactly what you’ve been looking for. The only bummer is that Wave is currently invitation-only, but there are a lot of invitations out there by now – so if you look around then I’m sure you can find one.

From the Vault: Relics

If you’re one to search out Magic spoilers then you’ve probably known that From the Vault: Relics has been coming for a while – but Wizards has finally officially acknowledged this product. Check out this link.

Notice something weird about the promo image? It looks exactly like Conservator!

That’s right, Conservator – the terrible artifact that has been around since day one of Magic. Now it’s probably a good thing that Wizards has confirmed that the promo art ISN’T Conservator, but I’m really baffled as to why they would make it such a lookalike. I guess they liked the idea and thought that only old players like me would ever really notice the difference. They’re probably right.

So if it’s not Conservator, then what is it? It’s almost definitely Nevinyrrals Disk, although some people seem to think it might be Sol Ring. Here’s my guess for the rest of the set:

Keep in mind that this is just my guess, and chances are I’ll be way off. It’s just a general shot at the caliber of card that you can expect in this set. If you’re a tournament Classic player, then Sol Ring is likely the most exciting possibility from your point of view.

You may be thinking to yourself, “Isn’t Relics the perfect chance to get some of the Power 9 onto Magic Online?” That may sound like a good idea, but it has about a 0% chance of happening. First of all, this would mean introducing a bunch of Power into the paper world – which opens up a whole gigantic can of worms. Second of all, the Power 9 (and much more) are on the ‘reserved list’ which is an outdated policy that Wizards is clinging to that determines which cards they are able to reprint without a fuss. Hopefully some day Wizards will revisit their policy, but until then Master’s Edition 4 is our only hope for reserved cards online.

Zvi Mowshowitz’s “My Files”

Top8Magic has recently released a compilation of Zvi’s earliest material titled My Files Part 1. They had previously compiled Mike Flores’ material into Deckade, and now Zvi gets the treatment. Check it out here.

Zvi is probably the smartest dude to ever dedicate a solid portion of his life to Magic writing, and that fact definitely shows through in this volume. I’ve been reading Zvi’s material since he started writing, and this book represents his work exactly how I remembered it: very analytical, very complete, and a demonstration of a depth of knowledge that’s hard to find. If this sounds like fun to you, then you’ll love this book! I’ve read through the entire thing from cover to cover, and enjoyed every page.

The only word of warning that I’d offer is this: most of the value in Zvi’s work is represented via in-depth analyses of formats long gone. If this doesn’t sound appealing, then you may not like the book. In Deckade, Flores always had a bunch of interesting stories to tell about the characters, minds, and events that shaped our game. Zvi’s writing is much more down to business; if the topic material isn’t compelling to you, there’s not much to sweeten things up.

Classic Oath

Recently I’ve been playing a bunch of Oath. I’ve played it in a whole ton of 2-Mans, and right now I’m 3-0 in a daily event… waiting for the finals to fire at 2:15AM. So far I’ve defeated Flash and Dredge twice, with the Oath mirror coming up. Here’s the list that I’m using:

Classic Oath piloted by spg

Creatures (2) 1 Platinum Angel 1 Iona, Shield of Emeria Other Spells (36) 4 Ponder 4 Brainstorm 4 Mystical Tutor 4 Oath of Druids 4 Thoughtseize 4 Force of Will 1 Vampiric Tutor 1 Demonic Tutor 1 Tinker 1 Gaea’s Blessing 2 Mana Drain 3 Spell Pierce 2 Senseis Divining Top 1 Balance Lands (22) 4 Forbidden Orchard 3 Polluted Delta 2 Flooded Strand 1 Strip Mine 2 Wasteland 3 Underground Sea 3 Tropical Island 1 Tundra 1 Island 2 Seat of the Synod Sideboard (15) 2 Engineered Plague 1 Helm of Obedience 4 Leyline of the Void 1 Mindbreak Trap 1 Pithing Needle 1 Platinum Angel 1 Progenitus 2 Tormod’s Crypt 2 Krosan Grip

Buy this Deck

Click the arrow to download the above deck in .txt format

To be honest I’ve been tweaking between zero and three cards in between most 2-Mans, so this list just represents where I was at when the tournament fired. One of the coolest things about Oath is how configurable the deck is – every version runs 4 Oath and 4 Forbidden Orchard… but from that point there is a lot of room for customization.

My list may not be 100% refined and tuned, but I feel that it’s a strong version of Oath for the current metagame. There may be better tweaks and card selections, but here’s what I was thinking: win your Oath mirrors by being the control. Oath mirrors, in my experience, often come down to a huge battle over either Oath of Druids or Tinker, and the winner of this counter war is in a great position to win. My plan in the mirror match is to hit every single land drop and defeat your opponent through resource overload during the ‘big turn’. The way I try to make this happen is through 22 lands (somewhere between 1 and 3 more than typical Oath lists) and two copies of Senseis Divining Top.

One of my favorite ways to approach mirror matches of a powerful archetype is to craft a deck that’s just a little bit slower than the typical list. I’ve found that this is a pretty good place to be situated in the metagame. I’m also really comfortably playing Control on Control, so that might have something to do with it. Looking at the list now, I almost can’t believe that I wasn’t able to fit in the fourth copy of Spell Pierce… that card has been a total MVP so far. Duress is another card that would be great to have more of.

Check back in the future for more analysis of Oath!

Vintage Oath

Oath isn’t just a popular deck in Classic, but it’s also a top level deck in Vintage. Earlier this week I was trying to get some ideas and different looks at Oath by playing around with some different Vintage versions. Here’s the decklist I personally had the most fun with, known as Vroman Oath. Take a look at the list:

Vroman Oath

Creatures (1) 1 Iona, Shield of Emeria Other Spells (42) 1 Ancestral Recall 1 Ancient Grudge 1 Brainstorm 1 Flash of Insight 1 Gifts Ungiven 4 Force of Will 1 Krosan Reclamation 1 Mystical Tutor 1 Rebuild 4 Spell Pierce 1 Thirst for Knowledge 1 Vampiric Tutor 1 Demonic Tutor 1 Merchant Scroll 1 Ponder 1 Regrowth 1 Thoughtseize 1 Time Walk 1 Timetwister 1 Yawgmoth’s Will 4 Oath of Druids 1 Black Lotus 1 Lotus Petal 1 Mana Vault 1 Mox Jet 1 Mox Pearl 1 Mox Ruby 1 Mox Sapphire 1 Mox Emerald 1 Sensei’s Divining Top 1 Sol Ring 1 Time Vault 1 Voltaic Key Lands (17) 4 Forbidden Orchard 4 Misty Rainforest 1 Library of Alexandria 1 Forest 1 Island 1 Strip Mine 1 Tropical Island 3 Underground Sea 1 Tolarian Academy Sideboard (15) 1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind 2 Extirpate 1 Oxidize 2 Ravenous Trap 1 Slaughter Pact 1 Balance 3 Sadistic Sacrament 1 Tinker 1 Pernicious Deed 1 Tormods Crypt 1 Tezzeret The Seeker

Buy this Deck

Click the arrow to download the above deck in .txt format

Despite the obvious inclusion of power, Vroman Oath runs a sweet combo kill. The first step is to Oath Iona into play (naming Blue usually), and then activate Oath again to mill your entire library – since there are no creature left in your library. From here you flashback Krosan Reclamation to setup Black Lotus and Yawgmoth’s Will – draw one and Flash of Insight for the other. Use Yawgmoth’s Will to play out a ton of Moxen, cast Time Vault/Voltaic Key for infinite turns, and then Timetwister your library back into your graveyard. Not too shabby!