Serious Vintage

Episode 7 of our #SeriousVintage podcast sees Geoff Moes (@ThallidTosser) and me (@GrandpaBelcher) catch up with Anthony “Twaun” Michaels (@Twaun007) after his finals appearance with Twaunspresso Stax at the December 30 Team Serious Open in Columbus, Ohio. We also look at the early Gatecrash previews and review food options at the Columbus Convention Center, specifically North Market.

At the time of recording, there were 84 cards spoiled from the newest Magic the Gathering expansion Gatecrash, and we took a look at 11 of them that we felt had the most potential for Vintage. Unfortunately, the pickings were pretty slim. I feel a little bad that we were so harsh on the new set. Obviously the threshold for playability in Vintage is pretty high. New cards must compete with every card previously printed, so to make an appearance they either need to be better—more efficient, more powerful, more flexible—or do something unique, either by themselves or in combination with an earlier printing.

Obviously new cards make waves in Vintage all the time. Lodestone Golem is only three years old, for example, and completely overhauled the Workshop strategy (combining two previous Vintage playables, Juggernaut and Sphere of Resistance, probably didn’t hurt). Cards like Deathrite Shaman, Dryad Militant, and Izzet Charm from Return to Ravnica have seen successful play as well, so it’s reasonable to expect playables from any set. We just didn’t see much in the first third of Gatecrash that has been spoiled thus far.

Gatecrash has potential especially as the home of House Dimir, which combines Vintage’s two favorite colors, blue and black. Also in Gatecrash, the Simic Combine (blue and green) has produced powerful creatures and anchors the Noble Fish deck; the Orzhov Syndicate (black and white) and the Boros Legion (red and white) are largely untapped combinations in Vintage, except in conjunction with blue; and the Gruul Clans (red and green) combine the two colors best suited to hate on blue. Basically, if we’ve seen the worst of Gatecrash for Vintage, there could be a lot of good stuff coming!

Twaun finally reset his top-eight counter, ticking since the Sunday of GenCon 2011, a total of one year, nine months, and four days. He did it in grand style too, taking his unique, Serum Powder-fueled Stax deck with an eight-Leyline sideboard to the finals against the Dark Lord of the Sith, Stephen Menendian.

Twaun covers a lot of his choices and plays throughout the tournament in the podcast, so I won’t recount them here. Usually the deck will lock out its opponents and grind away at them using Smokestack, Tangle Wire, and Crucible of Worlds, but it can be surprisingly aggressive with Lodestone and will win suddenly with Karn, Silver Golem. Remember that he built the deck for the Columbus, Ohio, event specifically, so remember to take your own metagame into account when building your own version.

Columbus’s North Market has been in existence since 1876 but opened in its current location in 1995. Today the 44,000 sq. ft. building houses 35 merchants, grocers, and restaurateurs. Visitors to the Columbus Convention Center, including Magic players at Grand Prix and Star City Games Opens, have the luxury of the market being a short walk across High St. with operating hours from 8 to 5 on Saturday and noon to 5 on Sunday.

In the podcast, we talk about food from:

If you ever have the opportunity to play at the Columbus Convention Center, be sure to scrub out early so you can get some awesome food at North Market. Check out their list of vendors and find the ones that interest you. And if you do actually scrub out early (and are of legal drinking age), they have a wine and beer store so you can drown your sorrows.

If you want more recommendations or just want to talk to us about food (or Vintage, I guess), hit us up on Twitter or reply in the forums. We’re Serious.

For listeners and readers in the Ohio area, there are Vintage tournaments coming up where you can hang out and game with the Serious Vintage crew. Who knows? Maybe you’ll even end up on the show!

Here we go with the half-dozenth hour of #SeriousVintage, hosted by Nat Moes (@GrandpaBelcher on Twitter), Geoff Moes (@ThallidTosser on Twitter), and Josh Chapple (@joshchapple on Twitter). In the holiday spirit we decided to give you some of our vast knowledge of Vintage; share with you some thoughts on one of our favorte decks, Wizards!; and then relax with some yuletide potent potables in a #SeriousVintage party.

Our thoughts on interactivity aren’t anything new or unexpected, I don’t think, but they are something that players forget. People always talk about interacting with their opponent and how they want to force their opponent to interact etc. Really, that’s not true.

Magic decks want to force their opponent into a position where they can’t interact, to essentially setup a goldfishing scenario where their opponent might as well not exist. Whether this happens when you counter everything relevant your opponent plays, when you bury them under a pile of Spheres, or when you negate their deck by activating and triggering abilities in your graveyard is up to you, but don’t pretend you came here looking to interact with your opponent. You came here looking to ignore them completely.

One of the prime examples of this kind of faux interactivity is the Wizards! deck. We took our build from one presented by Omar Nieto in 2011.

Omar then played a revamped version of this deck, capitalizing on the power of Cavern of Souls, in a 47-person tournament in Spain. I said it was sanctioned in the podcast, but I see now that it allowed nine proxies. Anyway, he split first and second with a UWG Noble Fish player. Also, yes, Nieto’s lists have 61 cards in the maindeck.

Omar’s deck is filled with trump cards against Vintage’s most powerful archetypes and strategies, so if he finds the right trump and plays it uncounterably or for free, using Cavern or Aether Vial, he’s got a good chance of winning. Multiple trumps will just bury an opponent. Grim Lavamancer versus opposing creatures; Voidmage Prodigy and Magus of the Unseen versus blue decks using Yawgmoth’s Will and Tinker, and Qasali Pridemage and Magus of the Unseen versus Workshops are all gamebreaking effects.

The list we created has a more broadly based mana-denial attack to hamstring the opponent and prevent his being able to respond before hate bears take him down.

This version is specifically metagamed for Ohio (USA), which has many Workshops and creature decks. As we discussed in the audio, there are many different options for creatures and spells that can improve your matchup against any deck. We talked a little about some outliers like Bonds of Faith, but the big one we neglected was Baleful Strix, which is a good answer to flipped Delvers, Lodestone Golems, and Tarmogoyves.

We think this deck (and Nieto’s) are both a lot of fun, and frustrating to play against. You can set up many games where your opponent won’t be able to interact with you usefully at all.

Of course we had a lot to talk about here. Holiday gatherings are great opportunities to kick back, relax, and have a few drinks with friends. And when holiday shopping or office- and family-get-togethers get annoying, it’s a great opportunity to kick back, relax, and have a few drinks by yourself…while goldfishing Belcher, in your underwear.

Anyway here’s links to some of the recipes and beverages we talked about:

Eggnog

Mulled Wine

Leopold Bros. Fernet

Last but not least, the beers:

All of these come highly recommended, though I will mention again that the Shiner Holiday Cheer’s peaches and pecans are an odd flavor combination for this time of year. Let us know what you think on Twitter or in the comments with the #SeriousVintage tag!

Welcome to the fifth installment of the Serious Vintage Podcast, hosted by Nat Moes (@GrandpaBelcher on Twitter), Geoff Moes (@ThallidTosser on Twitter), and Josh Chapple (@joshchapple on Twitter). This week we are joined by Abe “Katzby” Corson (@AbeCorson on Twitter). We discussed the physical reprints coming in Modern Masters next June, and the digital reprints coming to Magic Online (MTGO) in the form of Power 9 in the Online Cube. Then we talked to Abe about judging in Vintage, and learned a little about the history of the format in the process. Finally we wrapped everything up in a flaky crust and talked about #ManyInsanePies for the holiday season.

There’s not too much to add to the first part of the show. The prospect of these reprintings — Tarmogoyf; maybe things like Dark Confidant, Vendilion Clique, and Arcbound Ravager; and online Power and Mana Drain — is sexy and alluring for Magic players of all kinds. We’re all exited for the potential benefits to Vintage from both Modern Masters and online Power, but it’s tough to predict the ultimate results. Anything that might add to the interest and player-base of Vintage is a good thing for everyone involved in the format, for sure. Either way it should be a lot of fun, right?

I’ve known Abe Corson since 2008 when he facilitated my move to Virginia by giving me a ride to a Star City Games Power 9 event in Richmond, where I rendezvoused with the Team Serious Ohio contingent and got a ride back to the Buckeye State to pick up the moving truck, after playing in the Power 9 tournament, of course (such are the benefits of the Vintage community). You may know him from his extensive judging participation up and down the East Coast. He has been around Vintage for a long time, always has interesting Magic: the Gathering stories and factoids to share, and will gladly explain Magic rules and policies in detail.

If you’re interested, he has a few ten-year-old Keeper tournament reports available online:

You can get some insight on how to play decks like this one from February 2002.

It’s great fun especially for those who have an interest in Vintage history. If you enjoyed Stephen Menendian’s latest History of Vintage series, you’ll enjoy these retrospective pieces as well.

Finally, pies. Glorious pies. All you need to know about baking for the holidays. Here are the pie crust recipes that Geoff and I use.

Butter crust ingredients (other versions could be found online as pâte brisée):

Shortening crust ingredients (props to Irma Rombauer and the Joy of Cooking):

For both recipes, the process is largely the same. Combine the dry ingredients (flour, salt, sugar). Then cut in the fat (either butter or shortening) until the mix makes pea-sized balls and smaller. You can use a pastry blender for this or two knives cutting crosswise, though that takes a while. Then drizzle the water over everything and cut it in with the blade of a spatula.

Once all of that’s done, form the dough into round flats (one for the butter recipe; two for the shortening), wrap in plastic or wax paper, and chill for at least a half hour, preferably a few hours. After chilling you can flatten using a rolling pin and flour until you have the crust roughly circular and about 1/8 in. thick. Transfer the crust to the pan, trim it, shape it, and bake or fill it according to the rest of the pie recipe.

Tips in either case would be to not add too much water during the mixing or too much flour during the rolling. Also work with cold ingredients throughout the process; don’t mix or roll out the dough next to a warm oven, for example. These will make working with the dough easier and will produce the tender, flaky effect you’re going for.

For more suggestions on baking and filling your pie crust, be sure to check out #ManyInsanePies on Twitter. Plus, feel free to share your own suggestions, recipes, and pie stories. Josh would also like to recommend The Humble Pie Store to listeners in the Denver area.

Thanks again for listening, and we’ll catch you next time with more Serious Vintage.

Welcome to the fourth installment of the Serious Vintage Podcast, hosted by Nat Moes (@GrandpaBelcher on Twitter), Geoff Moes (@ThallidTosser on Twitter), and Josh Chapple (@joshchapple on Twitter). Thanks for joining us for our inevitable Belcher show. Team Serious members have played more Belcher than most other players, in both Vintage and Legacy, so we thought we’d give you a little insight into the deck in both formats, when and why it’s a good metagame choice, and some of the tactics that go into playing it. Then we’ll look at some of the food you might be

Nat’s rules for Belching, which Josh references early in the podcast, are as follows. They’re part of a more extensive primer and history of the deck that Nat wrote in 2009, which is available on The Mana Drain here.

1. Mulligan like you mean it

We’ll also reference a few Belcher lists during the podcast.

You can read Geoff’s SCG Columbus Legacy Open Top 8 tournament report here on Eternal Central. Any extra detail on that list would be covered there, including the meaning behind the 15-Island sideboard.

To contrast with Geoff’s cantrip-based list, here is the more traditional Burning Wish list played by Brian Guess at SCG New Orleans Legacy Open.

One thing we had meant to bring up during the podcast was a comment on Brian’s sideboard, and many of the sideboards from Burning Wish lists: the lack of Trash for Treasure. As a one-shot Welder activation, Trash for Treasure off of Burning Wish can be a huge boon if your early Belcher gets countered. It works well with Lion’s Eye Diamond and you have a decent number of artifacts to sacrifice. When I’ve played Burning Wish in Legacy lists in the past, Trash for Treasure is always a one-of in my board.

Lastly, the Vintage Burning Wish list played by Randal Witherell at the Team Serious Open in Columbus on October 21.

Ultimately, Randal doesn’t use Burning Wish to get more than Tendrils, Empty the Warrens, or Yawgmoth’s Will, but the deck was a good choice to beat a field of Workshops and non-blue aggro control. Normally, we wouldn’t recommend Belcher in a sea of blue where you’ll drown in Force of Will, Mental Misstep, Flusterstorm, and Mindbreak Trap, but it sure looked good in Columbus.

As for our food and drink report for the upcoming Modern GP in Chicago, here are the relevant links:

Thanks for listening, and good luck in Chicago if you’re going!

Welcome to the third installment of the Serious Vintage Podcast, hosted by Nat Moes (@GrandpaBelcher on Twitter), Geoff Moes (@ThallidTosser on Twitter), and Josh Chapple (@joshchapple on Twitter). This was a special episode as we spent some time with Anthony Michaels @Twaun007 on Twitter), an expert on Mishra’s Workshop prison decks in the Vintage format. He’s also an expert on Sandwich Punch, the gentleman’s game that has swept through the Midwest Vintage scene, so we’ll look at that as well, along with sanctioned Vintage and casual Magic: the Gathering.

In the “Workshoppin’ with Twaun” section we talk about the cards that go into a typical Workshop prison deck like Stax or MUD. Twaun explains some of the auto-includes he uses in these decks and makes note of one auto-exclude, Trinisphere. Make sure you hear the story on that; it makes more sense than you might think.

The following cards are the basis for any Workshop deck, according to Twaun:

Business Spells

Mana Sources

These spells and mana sources give you the best of the best in terms of grinding away at your opponent’s board and ability to play spells. Other cards get added as the metagame dictates.

For example, the list Twaun played at the Team Serious Open in Columbus, Ohio, on October 21 (below) was built to beat the metagame we outlined in that section of the podcast.

Serum Powder helps find the Leylines that beat Dredge, Oath, and Burning Long; the Crucibles that beat opposing Shop decks; and the Mazes and Tabernacles that beat creatures. The lower numbers on Thorn of Amethyst and the inclusions of both Karn and Duplicant are also nods to the creature and Workshop-heavy metagame.

Unfortunately for Twaun, the metagame was different from what any of us predicted, to the point where Goblin Welder was the most played card in the top four and there was no Long combo. Twaun finished at 2-2, beating Dredge and UWB Wizards! and losing to Mono-Red Shops and Oath. Twaun says that Goblin Welder and Gorilla Shaman from the Mono-Red deck made an effective tag team against him and that even his Oath opponent, John Beste, acknowledged ripping his only outs in two hard-fought games.

Twaun is still playing Vintage and still chasing his former glory.

Lastly, for those of you interested in joining the growing ranks of Sandwich Punch players, the rules follow. Be warned that once you know the rules, you are automatically a player for life. If you do not wish to join, tread no further. You have been warned.

1. Once a person knows the main rules to sandwich punch they are a player for life. Never punch a person’s sandwich unless they are playing.

2. The game begins when one has first modified his or her sandwich.

3. Once said sandwich has been bitten, ripped or cut into, the sandwich is open for punching.

4. Once the sandwich is set down it must be covered with an object. Any object is welcome as long as it is an adamant object. Example: you can put a ketchup packet on the sandwich but you can’t just put ketchup on top of the sandwich. Sesame seeds don’t count; don’t be an idiot. Other examples of objects you can use: fries, forks, spoons, knives, salt or pepper packets, napkins, wrappers, A FREAKIN’ OBJECT OF ANY SORT!

5. In the event that a sandwich has been bitten, ripped, or cut into by its owner and set down without an object being placed upon it, that sandwich is legally punchable (Note: the sandwich owner must have his hands off the sandwich as well.).

6. Once punchable that sandwich is punchable until an object is placed upon it, or until it is picked up or touched by the sandwich owner.

7. The object used to cover the sandwich cannot be touched or manipulated by anyone at any time. Example: if someone bumps your table in an attempt to knock off the fry that’s covering your sandwich and the fry falls off, the sandwich cannot be punched because that person has manipulated the object. There is an exception to this rule however. Se Bylaws; Acts of God.

8. In the event that a sandwich is unjustly punched, the person that wrongly punched the sandwich must buy the victim a brand new sandwich.

9. Enjoy! Welcome to the sandwich punch game. You are a player for life, and we look forward to punching your sandwich soon!

Bylaws

Acts of God

The Complete Sandwich

Thanks to Twaun007 for joining us on this podcast, and good luck to you on your future Vintage and Sandwich Punch experiences. We’ll be back in a couple of weeks with more Serious Vintage. In the meantime, you can follow us Twitter at the links above! Thanks again for listening and reading.