Vintage 101: Don't Cross the Streams!

by Joe Dyer // Aug 2, 2019

Howdy folks! It's time yet again for another edition of Vintage 101! I'm your host with the most, Joe Dyer, and this week we're going to be talking about community, with a focus on those Vintage streamers that you should probably be watching! We're also going to be talking about some Vintage Challenge results like always and our regular dose of spice. Thankfully this week has been rather slow in regards to the format!

Crossing the Streams - Vintage Streamers You Should Be Following on Twitch

Streaming Vintage is a tall order for some. It comes with the need for the ability to explain the format well to the outside looking in, as the majority of players who might be unfamiliar with the format could become lost easily. Thankfully, these streamers I'm talking about today are excellent at showing off their skills in addition to being able to explain what is happening. So without further ado, let's hop right to it!

#1 - Rich Shay: The Atog Lord

Twitch URL: https://www.twitch.tv/richshay

Stream Archive: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-9UBiY5DL2NA_OD4ny5mMA

We couldn't mention Vintage Streamers without mentioning Rich Shay, one of the most prolific streamers of the format. While Rich does stream other formats on occasion, most of his stream archive is sweet, sweet Vintage action. He can also be found talking about powerful wizards and sorcery, and he loves Atogs!

#2 - Justin Gennari: Paradoxical Master

Twitch URL: https://www.twitch.tv/iamactuallylvl1

Stream Archive: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsozgtk-WCyOjSOK6mvs5lg

As one of the primary developers of Paradoxical Outcome, Justin is one of the best resources for streaming the deck for those who want to learn it. Justin also does a fantastic job of archiving his content, so you can definitively watch the evolution of PO through his YouTube content.

#3 - Brady Iba: Survival / Dredge

Twitch URL: https://www.twitch.tv/briba20

Brady is a solid Vintage player who has some powerful wizardly results to his name. He can often be found playing variants of Survival and Dredge on most occasions.

#4 - Matt Murray: Brew King

Twitch URL: https://www.twitch.tv/chubbyrain1

Stream Archive: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6GDk8z86F9xvNJ1vt1FUbA

Matt Murray is a powerful brewmaster who plays a wide array of different deck ideas. He is well known for his use of foils on Magic Online and plays some pretty interesting decks from time to time.

#5 - GeekyJackson: Powerful Wizard

Twitch URL: https://www.twitch.tv/geekyjackson

GeekyJackson is a powerful Vintage player who mainly tends to pilot Xerox based decks, but has played combo such as PO and Storm in the past as well. Suffice to say if you're looking for a streamer to learn Xerox based strategies from this is a great place to start.

#6 - BusterBohny: BUG Midrange Master

Twitch URL: https://www.twitch.tv/busterbohny

Nico Bohny (otherwise known as Shir Kahn on Magic Online) is a Professional MTG player who has been on the Pro Tour and also writes for Channel Fireball. He can be found streaming BUG Midrange/Control variants and is very good at them.

#7 - Brass Man: DEATH SURVIVES!

Twitch URL: https://www.twitch.tv/tmdbrassman

Besides being the awesome head of The Mana Drain, Andy "Brass Man" Probasco also streams Vintage from time to time, and is famous for his DEATH SURVIVES list, a Survival list playing none other than Death's Shadow.

#8 - Mitch Milum: Dredging for Life

Facebook URL: https://www.facebook.com/Msquared13/

Mitch currently plays a lot of Vintage Dredge and also streams video games!

#9 - Erin Campbell: THE DREDGE QUEEN

Twitch URL: https://www.twitch.tv/originaloestrus

The Queen of the Graveyard herself can often be found streaming different variations of Dredge, including a recent stream with our good friend Zias on Prison Dredge. While Erin does play other formats from time to time, Vintage Dredge is definitely one of her one true loves of the game.

#10 - Josh McCurley: Shopping for Days!

Twitch URL: https://www.twitch.tv/infant_no_1

Josh is a prolific Shops player mainly, but can often be found playing a variety of things as well within the format. He's also a member of Team Cardhoarder, which is super awesome!

Uncrossing the Streams

All of these streamers are pretty awesome! It's great to see a wide variety of Vintage Streamers out there as well helping to develop and play and the format. Go check each of these fine people out and give them some love!

Vintage Challenge 7/27

We had yet another Challenge this weekend on Magic Online, so let's take a look at how things shaped up with it!

Deck Name Placing MTGO Username Dredge 1st SwiftWarkite2 Dredge 2nd Ravidel85 Survival 3rd Mathonical Dredge 4th Lord_Beerus BUG Midrange 5th DancingJesus191 BUG Midrange 6th ReneRandrup Ravager Shops 7th GGoggles Dreadhorde Control 8th ChubbyRain (Matt Murray)

Whew. That is a lot of Bazaars in this Top 8. Half of the decks being Bazaar decks while the other half is partially comprised of Deathrite Shaman based strategies is a weird place to be for these challenges. The winner this week was SwiftWarkite2 on Dredge. Let's look at the list, shall we?

This list continues the trend of playing Dread Return over the Hogaak Menace, which is an interesting change of pace, but I can see the necessity of cards like Ashen Rider in this current meta game. Congrats to SwiftWarkite2 on their finish!

Also showing up in the Top 8 this week was BUG Midrange with two slightly different builds, but mostly the same game plan of cheap effective disruption and the power of Deathrite Shaman.

Speaking of one of the Vintage Streamers I talked about earlier, our good friend Justin Gennari brought a Mono Red Hate list that screams fun.

As we always like to do with these events, let's look at the various cards from newer sets and how many copies of each show up.

As has been evidenced for some time now, Force of Vigor continues to define the format. Played across nearly every green deck in the format, this card is still very powerful even as it continues to push down Shops variants. However, Shops, specifically Karn based variants continue to do very well even in a format with lots of Dredge. We're going to keep an eye on the format for now and keep reporting this information on these challenges. Hopefully this information is proving to be useful for those of you following the format.

What I'm Playing This Week

I decided to play around again with Mystic Forgebots again this week, this time changing some things up by adding four Defense Grid to the deck. It's been pretty interesting!

Spice Corner

Proving that Merfolk players never give up regardless of format... here's a list from last weekend's Challenge!

Wrapping Up

That's all the time we have for this week folks! It's been a bit of a slow week, but there's still lots to talk about. Besides Vintage, I've been also playing some Legacy and some Pauper as well, trying to stay fresh on those formats as well. It's exciting!

Also if you haven't had the chance to check out Episode 2 of Matthew Fletcher's Babel Fish, I was featured on it! Go check it out! We play a little Vintage and have a great time doing it.

As always you can catch me at the following locations:

I'm also always around the MTGGoldfish Discord if you would like to chat about Vintage or any other format I generally show interest in! Hit me up!

Next week we're going to be doing another round of costs of Vintage in 2019 and talking about Vintage as a format to get into either via Magic Online or also via paper as well. I've been seeing quite a few comments here or there about the cost of Vintage, and there are some myths I'd like to dispel. So... of course, it's an episode of... "Mythbusters - Vintage Edition!"

Until next time folks!