Steve Menendian is one of the most famous Vintage players in the world. Stephen is the 2007 Vintage Champion and the Season 1 Vintage Super League champion. He is the author of several books on Vintage Magic, and has written nearly 500 strategy articles for MagicTheGathering.com, Starcitygames.com, Inquest Magazine, QuietSpeculation.com, and EternalCentral.com. Steve is an avid enthusiast of Old School Magic.

Steve Menendian is one of the most famous Vintage players in the world. Stephen is the 2007 Vintage Champion and the Season 1 Vintage Super... Read more

Series Index

Chapter 1: Back to the Future – An Introduction to Old School Magic

Chapter 2: Old School Magic – The History of “The Deck”

Chapter 3: Old School Magic – A Visit to the Zoo

Chapter 4: Build Your Own Old School Format

Chapter 5: New Strategies for the Old School: The Transmute Control Deck

Chapter 6: Banning and Restriction in Old School

Chapter 7: New Strategies for the Old School: Blue-Red Aggro Control

Chapter 8: 2nd Place at Eternal Weekend, 2016 with Blue-Red Aggro-Control

Chapter 9: Reanimator Rises to the Top!

Chapter 10: Rules of the Road

Chapter 11: The Untold History of Combo in Old School

Chapter 12: Building a Stronger Prison

Welcome back to another installment of my series on Old School Magic for VintageMagic.com! As always, I provide a series index at the beginning of each article so that you can catch up on any articles you may have missed.

Last month I shared the origins, design decisions and development process behind the Blue-Red Aggro-Control strategy I piloted to a 3rd place finish at the 55 player Eternal Weekend Old School event hosted by Eternal Central in 2015, along with my tournament report. This article builds on that analysis, effort and performance by describing the changes I made for the 2016 event as well as the choices I considered, and includes a detailed tournament report.

Blue-Red Aggro Control is one of the most inherently powerful strategies you can play in Old School. This color combination provides some of the most efficient spells in the format, epitomized by dueling Red and Blue Elemental Blasts. It also has some of the best threats and answers in the format. It’s positioned in the metagame well against nearly everything in the format, but it’s strongest against quick strike strateges like White Weenie and R/G Beats, like the so-called Granville Explosion deck profiled in Chapter 1, which sometimes overwhelm slower control decks.

After Eternal Weekend 2015, I turned my attention and energies in Old School to developing other strategies, which I will continue to recount and share in future articles in this series. I am fortunate to live in an area with semi-regular organized Old School events and a monthly meet up. Our meetup locale, the Albatross Pub, reminiscent of the Eagle and Child in Oxford, England (J.R.R Tolkein’s old haunt), but with a more spacious back room, is so ideal in comfort and ambiance for Old School Magic that it would be hard to design a place better suited for it.

Old School Magic Players @ Albatross Pub (Berkeley, CA)



But Blue-Red Aggro-Control was never far from mind. With Eternal Weekend looming, and my other projects either insufficiently developed or unable to fully abuse the eccentricities of the Eternal Central Banned and Restricted List, and most of my free time focused on Vintage, I decided to play blue-red Aggro-Control once again. This time, however, I would correct a mistake I unhappily reflected upon last month.

My fundamental take-away from the 2015 event, aside from the bruising memory of losing to Randy Buehler in the Top 4, was that I made a terrible mistake not running a full complement of Strip Mine. Not because that error would have changed any specific match outcome, but because it was the most unfair unrestricted card permitted in the Eternal Central environment. I wanted to play a deck that fully exploited the Eternal Central Rules, which had the incidental effect of undermining a set of strategies I had been working on for months for the San Francisco Bay Area environment. Having resolved to run back Blue-Red Aggro-Control, the first question I had to address was: which cards seemed like possible cuts?

For reference, here was my deck from 2015:

Stephen Menendian’s Deck for Old School Tournament @ Eternal Weekend 2015

Taking a broad view, the first card that stood out as an obvious possible candidate for trimming or removal was Eartquake. This is not a slight against Earthquake, which is incredibly synergistic in this deck. Rather, it seemed reasonable to cut because it is so redundant. I am playing one of the strongest anti-weenie strategies in the format, already armed with 10 burn spells that can pick off ground critters. The card advantage potential of taking out two or more creatures at a time is the main lure, but that only happens in particular matchups. I decided to cut at least one Earthquake, but only if I resolved to place one in the sideboard.

The second cut, unfortunately, was Amnesia. In a format with four Strip Mine, resolving Amnesia, while possible, is not reliable; especially while also protecting it. Amnesia would be a top cut.

Third, as great as Blood Moon is, it neutralizes one of my strongest threats: Mishra’s Factory. My burn and removal is so overwhelming that Mishra’s Factories often march across empty battlefields. Playing Blood Moon turns off opposing Factories and wrecks The Deck and other popular multi-color strategies with few basics, but it cripples one of my best threats. Perhaps even more importantly, it undermines my capacity to use Strip Mine to deny specific colors and generate a tempo. Blood Moon is unquestionably one of the reasons to play this deck in most Old School environments. But in a format with four Strip Mine, it’s simply not as good. I resolved to shave a maindeck Blood Moon, but retain at least 2 in my overall 75 package.

In 2015, I sought to gain an edge by bending down my mana curve, and overall land count. This reasoning led me to run only three Factory and three Strip Mine. That edge, virtual card advantage, was a noble effort, but undermined by the greater power of simply running more Strip Mine than anyone else. There are more games to be won by simply blowing out opponents with multiple Strip Mine and Chaos Orb than are to be won by drawing more spells over a 20 turn game.

So, with a Blood Moon, two Earthquakes, and Amnesia as possible maindeck cuts, I had four slots to play with. Two of them were obvious: the 4th Strip Mine and 4th Mishra’s Factory. In the year since Eternal Weekend 2015, Mishra’s Factory has come to be regarded by the Old School community as one of the most broken and restriction-worthy cards in the format (one reason for this, as noted in Chapter 2, is that Factory works differently today than it did back in the day).

As you may have noticed, City in a Bottle is another weakness of my deck, especially in a game 1 scenario, because it destroys nearly half of my threats. Mishra’s Factory also has positive marginal utility, given the ways in which each Factory boosts another. It’s a card is better in multiples.

That left two open slots.

Given my views on unrestricted Strip Mine, and a decision to cut a Blood Moon, the next card I focused on was a single Stone Rain. The winner of the most recent NoobCon (a major European Old School event) played a single Stone Rain maindeck in a format with Strip Mine restricted. I decided to borrow from that playbook. With 4 Strip Mine and Chaos Orb (and Recall for recursion), I felt it couldn’t hurt to have another copy of this effect.

That left one slot left. I tested a half dozen cards (including a Wheel of Fortune), but the card I ultimately settled on was a single Shatter. There was no single overarching reason for this decision, but the accumulation of many. First, Shatter reinforces my mana denial strategy. It can easily pick off a relevant Mox or Sol Ring or even (perhaps ideally) a Mishra’s Factory. Second, Shatter addresses some of the most annoying threats to this deck: City in a Bottle, Mirror Universe, Jayemdae Tome, Disrupting Scepter, and can even randomly take out a Chaos Orb. I believed that having a single Shatter maindeck would be worth the slot more often than not.

That left some adjustments to the sideboard. First of all, because it is cumulative, I resolved to make sure I ran at least four Energy Flux, up from the three I played in 2015. Second, I needed to squeeze in a single Earthquake. With a Shatter moving to the maindeck, I only needed to make one cut. Although I was not thrilled to make it, I cut a Control Magic for the Earthquake. This might weaken my game against Juzam, but kept a promise to myself.

Here’s what I played at the Eternal Central sponsored and hosted Old School tournament at Eternal Weekend 2016:

Stephen Menendian’s Deck for Old School Tournament @ Eternal Weekend 2016

This year, the event was hosted inside Golden Biersch, a micro-brewery/restaurant in the Arena District, a block or two from the Columbus Convention Center, where the rest of the Eternal Weekend events were held. Over a hundred players registered, but a record 86 players showed up for the event. Unfortunately, it was the same day as the Vintage prelim tournament this year, but there was no question about which event I would play.

Upon arriving on site, all players were instructed to sign the stack of Dust to Dusts that would be given to each player (with further instructions to have each opponent sign it over the course of the day), and a stack of other prizes for the top performers. The event this year had a few minor changes in structure. First, instead of a swiss and Top 8, the format had switched to a Swiss+1. This is a format change I recommended, but only with untimed rounds. The second change, to avoid draws, was a tiebreaker “Chaos Orb” flip-off (details here). After a little bit longer than expected, pairings were posted and players found their opponents.

Round One: James Tork on Team Tusk

James was a polite player sporting the orange and black “Team Tusk” shirt. Before we began, he offered a self-effacing comment about getting his “losses out of the way.” Ironic, because James blasted me out of the water.

“Tork” resolved six Juzam Djinns in two quick games. In the first game, I had almost no hope. In the second game, I couldn’t find Control Magics and burn couldn’t keep up with his production of Juzam. After the match, he commented that he “never draws” Juzams that frequently, and hoped to sit near me the rest of the tournament for “good luck.” I told him I wished for the same, and he left to report our match result.

Although I did not know it at the time, here is what James played:

James Tork Deck for Old School Tournament @ Eternal Weekend 2016

Having been defeated so quickly, I was approached by a tow-headed young man who asked if I would be willing to battle him in between rounds. Without much thought, and little else to do, I quickly agreed. He introduced himself Nick, a midwest player who has gotten into Old school. It turned out, Nick was playing UR Aggro-Control as well, but with a number of elements I felt were sub-optimal. Instead of the full complement of Factory and Strip Mine, Nick was playing four Fireball and four Power Sink, as well as all of the off-color Moxen (you can see his actual decklist here). I crushed him in two swift games, and after the match, he asked me for some feedback on his decklist, which I graciously provided. He also requested that I sign his Dust to Dust, commemorating our inter-round match for the day, and I had him do the same. I tracked his progress through the day, and Nick ended up in 3rd place at the end of the tournament! Good thing our match didn’t count 😉

Round Two: Randy Buehler

Randy was surprised as I was to be facing off at this stage in the tournament, with both of us having suffered a round one loss. He tweeted as much as he snapped this photo (Randy photographed his opponents and reported his progress through the day on twitter):

Unsurprisingly in light of our performance, both of us were playing the same deck as last year. Here is what Randy played:

Randy Buehler Deck for Old School Tournament @ Eternal Weekend 2016

Since Randy was my only loss last year, which inspired or informed virtually all of my deck changes, I felt good about my chances, and was unabashedly looking for revenge. The first game, however, is challenging as I have roughly 10 strategically useless burn spells. That said, I drew Library of Alexandria, which gave me a real shot to win the first game. I was careful to keep Library active as long as possible, until I engaged Randy in an intense fight over my Disrupting Scepter, which I gambled would be worth lowering my hand size to protect. The Sceptre resolved, but my hand was reduced to three or four cards in the process.

Although I emptied his hand for more than a few turns, Randy broke a Scepter lock by topdecking more Disenchants than I could stop in quick succession. With the tables turned on me, I was forced to fire off a Hail Mary Timetwister. The Twister was pretty good, drawing Time Walk (with an Efreet in play), but it didn’t have all of the tools I needed. I deployed a second Serendib Efreets and a Serendib Djinn with enough damage already on him that he was dead regardless of what he did next turn (including The Abyss) unless he had Balance or could find Balance. I had a lethal attack next turn. I gambled that my Timetwister probably gave him about a 33% chance of having Balance or drawing it. Unfortunately for me, he did. I considered scooping immediately, but he was low enough that I wanted to play as much of the game out as I could, and was playing quickly. It didn’t take long for Randy to consolidate his position, and swiftly attack me with Factory beats in a staccato pattern of “draw, attack, go.”

Stephen Menendian vs. Randy Buehler @ Eternal Central’s Old School Magic Tournament 2016

I boarded in my Energy Fluxes, all of the blue and red Blasts, and the Shatters for my ten burn spells. In game two, I drew Library again, but this time was able to leverage it on behalf of relevant spells. He did Strip Mine my Library before it got too far out of hand, but my superior spell selection ultimately allowed me to win this game.

We started game three understanding that time was very tight. This was by far the most interesting game yet. He countered an early Blood Moon and Red Elemental Blasted my first Energy Flux, but my hand was very strong with a steady succession of threats and answers. About six turns in (for both players), just as things were heating up, time was called, and we were both disappointed we weren’t going to be able finish it out. I can’t say who would have won, but I felt very good about my chances, and knew it would have been a memorable game.

I was dreading a Chaos Orb tiebreaker, as Chaos Orb flipping is not a perfect science. I estimate that I only make slightly better than about 4 of 5 Chaos Orb flips, despite actual Old School experience and good technique.

Randy and I pulled our 1st and 3rd place prizes from last year as Chaos Orb targets, and got to work. After winning a coin toss, I elected to “receive” – that is, let Randy flip first. He successfully made his first flip, as did I. He missed his second flip, but I did as well! We both made our third flips, but he missed his fourth, and, with all of the pressure on the world, I did not. Here’s a reconstruction of the final shot of the match:

Chaos Orb Flip action {landing}

It was not victory the way I imagined or hoped for it, but I’d certainly take the points, and the sweet nectar of revenge!

Record: 1-1

Round Three: Jeremy Toma-Cooper

My round three opponent was an appropriately colorful individual who goes by “Tomo,” playing a very personalized black deck with a pair of Demonic Hordes:

Jeremy Toma-Cooper Deck for Old School Tournament @ Eternal Weekend 2016

In the first game, I bolted or otherwise destroyed every creature he played except a Demonic Hordes, which I countered. I won this game with an early Serendib Efreet.

In game 2, Toma had Turn 1 Hippie, which, uncharacteristically, I couldn’t deal with because of a lack of red mana. I did manage to play Control Magic on a Juzam Djinn, but two Hypnotic Spectres in the air out-raced my grinning demon.

In the third game, I had a ridiculous opening. I played a first turn Ancestral Recall off a basic Island, and a turn two Strip Mine on his Swamp and Sol Ring. On the third turn, I played Library of Alexandria (drawing a card) and Serendib Efreet. Nonetheless, he played a turn three Hypnotic Spectre, which I Chain Lightninged, and a Juzam a turn or two later which I killed with two more burn spells, followed by another Efreet, which won the game a turn later.

Round Four: Nicholas Rausch

This was one of the most interesting matches of the day. Nicholas was playing a deck I would have greatly enjoyed playing, a Workshop Aggro deck:

Nicholas Rausch Deck for Old School Tournament @ Eternal Weekend 2016

In game one, he played Mishra’s Workshop, Felwar Stone, Sol Ring, and Timetwister, erasing a strong opening hand. I was them steamrolled by a Turn 2 Triskelion, and Turn 3 Sage of Lat-Nam and Su-Chi. I tried my best to assemble a defense, but his stream of threats continued, and I was soon toast. Triskelion, I discovered, is very difficult for my deck to deal with.

Fortunately, anticipating that this might be one of the decks in field, I was well prepared. I brought in 4 Energy Flux, 3 Shatter, and Elemental Blasts of both colors.

In game two, he mulliganed to 5, and I gradually resolved no less than three Energy Flux. He hung in there for a little while, using Sage of Lat-nam to generate some value for each artifact he’d otherwise have to let go. But the cumulative upkeep ensured that he wouldn’t be able to win the game, and eventually an Efreet put him out of his misery.

Game three was defined by me Stripping his first couple of lands, while a first turn Black Lotus allowed me to resolve Ancestral Recall and Energy Flux (so he lost his Mox Pearl, as well). I think he may have ended the game with no permanents on the battle field.

After the match, we discussed design options for Workshop decks in Old School, and I offered a few suggestions going forward and wished him luck.

Record: 3-1

Round Five: Shane Semmens

I have crushed every multi-color control deck I’ve played with blue-red Aggro-control at Eternal Central events except when piloted by Randy Buehler, so I felt pretty good about this matchup. Here’s what Shane played:

Shane Semmens Deck for Old School Tournament @ Eternal Weekend 2016

In the first game, I played three Strip Mine and Stone Rain on him in quick succession. He still had a few mana sources (thanks to a pair of Moxen), but was locked out of most of his best plays, and I won this with Efreets and factory workers.

In game two, I cast an early Djinn with City of Brass, Mountain, Island, Sol Ring and a Black Lotus. He tried to Plow the Djinn, but I countered is Plow in a gambit move. Unfortunately, he used this opportunity to Mind Twist my entire hand – a Timetwister, Recall, Efreet, and a Red Elemental Blast. I lost this game when he successfully removed the Djinn a turn or two later.

In game three, I Strip Mined both of his early lands, although he still managed to get a Tundra and resolve Time Walk. I squeezed him further by Shattering both of his Moxen. My mana denial strategy worked, and he had almost no mana when I resolved Efreet. Amusingly, he was able to play a Spirit Link on it. I had to use a Chaos Orb on the Spirit Link, however, because it would net him life every turn. I was tempted to simply Orb out his final mana source, but I felt it was better used removing the Spirit Link, which worked. Finally, I resolved a Djinn which, with the Efreet, quickly won the game.

Record: 5-1

Round Six: John Grudzina

John was playing a beautiful version of The Deck, pictured here:

John Grudzina Deck for Old School Tournament @ Eternal Weekend 2016

Before the match began, John reminded me that we had played in the 2004 Vintage Championship (that I top8ed), where, I believe, he was playing 4c Control. We both felt old, but that’s why we were here.

In game 1, I kept a very poor hand for this matchup: Bolt, Bolt, Chain, Island, Sol Ring, Time Walk, and Red Elemental Blast. Had I known he was playing The Deck, I certainly would have mulliganed. But my hand is so good against other decks, that I felt I couldn’t afford to throw it back.

I played Island, Sol Ring, and he opened with Underground Sea. I cast Time Walk, and drew Black Lotus, which I used to play a turn three Blood Moon, which would have been completely devastating, and I had Red Elemental Blast to protect. Unfortunately, he floated white, and cast Disenchant after Blood Moon resolved.

Eventually, I played a Serendib Djinn, which I protected with counterspell against his first Plow. With my defenses down, he played a Jayemdae Tome, and tapped out to activate it. I got two swings in before his Tome surfaced another Plow, and this one resolved, sending the Djinn farming. Unfortunately for him, the swings with Djinn got him low enough that my long-held burn finished him off.

Our second game of the match was one of the most exceptional and hilarious games I played all day. I resolved a Blood Moon in the first few turns, which, as you can see, is fairly devastating to John on general principle. After more than a few turns of just playing lands, John cast The Hive. This was a critical moment. I had Energy Flux in hand, but just one counterspell at this point in hand. Should I counter the Hive or simply bet on Energy Flux and artifact removal to handle it?

I decided to counter The Hive, just to be safe. In retrospect, this proved to be a mistake, as I not only resolved my first Energy Flux, but two more throughout the game. Although he managed to eventually destroy two of the three Energy Flux in time, it prevented him from doubling up on Tomes and Scepters, and would have more than dealt with Wasp tokens. Having used that counterspell would prove costly.

Interestingly, he had gone all in on Ivory Tower as well. And, at a certainly point, started resolving Towers once he removed all but one Flux. The Tower life put him safely out of range for any attack, even if I were to resolve threats. I started thinking about how to win by decking him. After many, many turns (probably 25-30, he managed to destroy the Blood Moon. This freed up multiple Strip Mines and Factories on both sides. He Strip Mined my Factories, and I Strip Mined his. At the critical moment, I successfully countered his lethal Fireball, but he played a Demonic Tutor for another Factory to try to win the game. Eventually, I drew another Factory, and Shattered his Factory. Although I could not kill him with damage, John had no way to win the game, and scooped before I decked him.

Wild match.

Record: 6-1

Round Seven: Craig Winzer

This was the matchup I had been waiting for all day:

Craig Winzer Deck for Old School Tournament @ Eternal Weekend 2016

Craig was a nice guy, but it was clear that he was mostly a kitchen table player riding a hot streak, including, I believe, defeating some of the best control pilots in the room. Things went according to plan this round. Bob Maher sat next me in this match, watching a few matches in his vicinity, soaking up Old School action and ambiance.

In game one, Craig opened with Taiga, Kird Ape, which I immediately targeted with Chain Lightening. I resolved a Turn two Ancestral, and played Library and began drawing additional cards every turn. I burned out every threat he played, and eventually resolved Serendib Efreet. I attacked for 4 turns, and then cast a Bolt and Psionic Blast at his head, going to about 10 life, for the win.

In game two, my Strip Mines completely took over. As with game one, he opened with Kird Ape, but off a Mountain. I zapped almost every other creature he played. I Stripped his first two lands, and Chaos Orbed the third. At multiple points in this match game he had no permanents. I played a Serendib Efreet, and, after a few turns, double Bolted him for the win.

Round Eight: Jame Cano

Jame is a long-time Vintage regular, but traveled to Eternal Weekend with some friends from Spain. I was excited to play Jame. Jame was playing so-called Disco-Troll, which I regard more as ICT or, for those of you who don’t catch the reference, the Invincible Counter Troll – an infamous deck played by an equally infamous online personality in the early aughts. The crux of the strategy is using Disk and Sedge Troll as a weaponized offense, the Troll being able to regenerate from the Disk blast concussion. In any case, here is what Jame brought to Eternal Weekend:

Jame Cano’s Deck for Old School Tournament @ Eternal Weekend 2016

I neglected to take notes after this match, but the match was fairly straightforward. The first game was defined by a first turn Library of Alexandria on my side, which I leveraged into overwhelming advantage. In the second game, Jame turned the tables, by playing Turn One Library against me. I mulliganed an all-mana hand that had Strip Mine, and cursed when my new hand neither had Strip Mine, Stone Rain or Chaos Orb, and failed to surface one for many turns. What’s the use of playing so many Strip effects if I can’t find them?

Game three was an actual game. In this game, however, my deck’s greater spell density kicked in. Slowly, but steadily, I ran him out of counters. I deployed a steady stream of Serendibs, and, to my surprise, a few resolved. I attacked for three damage a turn until a he scooped up his cards, revealing nothing but mana in hand, while I held a grip of countermagic.

Final Record: 7-1

After defeating Jame, and no player with a perfect record, the only question was where I would fall in the Top 4. That would depend on tiebreakers. My tiebreakers were good despite losing the first round, but another player’s were slightly better {Please click for larger view of results}:

In the end, 2nd place was an upgrade from my 3rd place finish in 2015, but not the top spot I was hoping for, by 1.5% points of opponent match win ratio. Still, I was happy with my deck, my play and my card choices, and once again greatly enjoyed the old school experience. For my effort, I was awarded a Beta Braingeyser that will find plenty of good use.

Next month we will take a look at the exciting possibilities with Ice Age in Old School.

Until then,

Stephen Menendian