An Introduction to Vintage

I remember my first time playing Vintage. I joined the Inaugural AZ Vintage League tournament series out of curiosity and figured it’d be fun. I wasn’t sure what to play and didn’t want to invest too much into the format, so I found a basic BUG Control list that I had most of the cards for and was able to use the 15 proxy allowance to complete the deck. I spent about $30 buying the random cards like Mental Missteps, Trygon Predators, and a Strip Mine to complete the deck.

The way the Vintage League works is you pay a $20 entry and you’re paired with an opponent each Sunday. You must meet up with your opponent and complete your match by the following Sunday and submit the results on the Vintage League Facebook page. Every few weeks, you are given the option to change up your decks and after 8 weeks of Vintage you break to a Top 8 bracket! Once in Top 8 you play for sweet prizes! Beta Demonic Tutors, Expedition Strip Mines and Flusterstorms oh my!

Below is the list I played:

My first match or two I got destroyed, but I had a blast trying out this strange new format.  

Vintage is a format unlike any other you’ve ever played. It allows the most broken things to happen. Turn 1 kills happen, but are not too common and the decision trees are so intricate that even the slightest misplay can have a tremendous impact on the outcome of the game. You get to play with cards like Yawgmoth’s Will, Necropotence, Strip Mine, Sol Ring, Tolarian Academy, Mishra’s Workshop, Bazaar of Baghdad, the 5 Moxen, Time Walk, Ancestral Recall, and of course…Black Lotus! Want to take unlimited turns? That’s just a 2 card combo in Vintage.

I played the first season of the Vintage League and had a great time. I made the Top 8, but got crushed by local Oath player Logan Gunnison with his quickly dispatched Griselbrand. A Time walk into Snapcaster Mage, Time Walk couldn’t buy me enough time to find an out.

I took some time away from Vintage to play other formats, but soon found myself drawn back to the purest and most powerful of magic formats where the only banned cards were the old ante cards. With proxies I’ve been able to test a variety of decks: Oath of Druids, Pyromancer Gush, Gush Storm, TPS/DPS, and now most recently Dredge and the blisteringly fast Gush Mentor deck. Anything is possible in this format and anything can happen in a given match when you have access to a card pool spanning back 23 years.

Arizona has been fortunate to have the AZ Vintage League, a venue where you can play the most powerful format of magic in a competitive environment. Most people feel the format is inaccessible or intimidating based off the high cost of entry to the format, however most Legacy and Modern players with a decent collection would be surprised that with 15 proxies most Vintage decks can be made with little to no investment. Have some duals and fetches? You’re just a few proxies away from playing Vintage!

Below are some Vintage decks that can be easily assembled with the 15 proxy limit that most casual events including the AZ Vintage League allow. If you’re looking to try something new in Magic I would recommend giving Vintage a shot. You can check out the Vintage Super League on Youtube to watch some of Magic’s greatest players engage in some insane Vintage matches and maybe find your first Vintage deck to sleeve up!

If you have Legacy Dredge you’re less than 15 proxies away from having Vintage Dredge. Also with 15 proxies you can put this deck together for less than $200. A good bit of the cards in this deck go for a buck or two and Dredge is considered a tier 1 deck in Vintage.

Have Modern/Legacy Merfolk? Well, I don’t even know if you would need 15 proxies to make this Vintage fish deck. Skeptical to its power in the format? You’d be surprised how fast this deck can kill with the boost it gets from power and the protection; it has with access to the most powerful counterspells ever printed.

If you’re a Legacy player and you have duals and Forces this deck can be played with 15 proxies and a minimal investment in the key cards of this deck (oath of druids, Forbidden Orchard and Griselbrand)

To conclude, I hope some of you may have gained a newfound interest in the oldest format of Magic. Vintage is a lot of fun and with proxies is not so difficult to break into! This season’s Vintage League is about to wrap up so if you are interested, I would look out for the announcement to the next season in the coming months. Also, Tempe Comics currently runs casual Vintage FNMs at least once a month, which is a great opportunity to check out the format. Lastly keep your eyes peeled for an upcoming announcement for a local Vintage proxy event coming up with prizes, including dual lands and possibly even a piece of the Power 9!