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Magic: the Gatheringhas been around for over thirty years, and there are close to 30,000 unique cards available to play with. But both new and returning players might discover that their older cards or pieces from the preconstructed Commander deck they bought aren’t permitted in Standard events, which only allow the most recent few sets. Players hoping to use a wider variety of cards will often be directed to the Vintage format.
The Vintage format, formerly known as Type I, has the deepest pool of available cards, stretching all the way back to 1993’s Alpha edition, and you may use almost any card ever printed. This allows Vintage decks to be some of the most versatile decks you can build.
Vintage Basics
Like the majority of other constructed formats, Vintage games are played asone-on-one games between two players. Each player usesa deck consisting of a minimum of 60 cards, with the option to include a15-card sideboard. Aside from basic lands, cards with special rules, and cards on theVintage Restricted List, players may useup to four copies of any cardin their decks.
Some cards are considered too powerful for players to have multiple copies in their deck. Therefore, the Restricted List was put together to limit players toa single copyof these cards.
Chalice of the Void
Gush
Monastery Mentor
While Vintage and Legacy formats have access to a very similar card pool, Vintage decks are often played at a much higher power level. This is because the main difference between the formats is that Vintage decks have access to some ofthe most powerful cards ever printed, such as the Power Nine, which are banned in Legacy.
What Cards Are Legal?
As an eternal format,all cards are legal in Vintage decks, with some exceptions: cards with a gold or silver border, cards with an acorn security mark, andcards that appear onthe Banned Listare all prohibited.
Gold-bordered cards are cards from the World Championship Decks series, printed from 1997-2004. Each of these decks is a duplicate of one of the top-ranked decks from the World Championship of the year that they were printed, with a special back and a stamped autograph of the player who built the deck.Since these cards do not have a standard back, they aren’t allowed, even if the deck is sleeved.
Silver-bordered cards are usually from one of the “Un-sets,”which were designed to be silly and entertaining, not for actual competitive play. As fun as it is to prevent damage by doing the hokey pokey or taking off your pants, these actions are not intended to occur in a tournament setting.
The fifth Un-set printed all cards with black borders, but marked a little over half the cards with adistinct acorn-shaped security stamp. The acorn stamp signifies that the card is not legal for play in any official format, butcards from that set without the stamp are legal in Vintage and other eternal formats.
Outside of these exceptions,a handful of cards appear on the Banned List. Cards on the Banned Listcannot be used in Vintage decks. Banned cards fall into five general categories: cards that are limited to a specific format, cards that reference ante, cards with racist text or imagery, cards requiring feats of dexterity, and Shahrazad.
Assemble the Rank and File
Hymn of the Wilds
Shahrazad
Why Is Vintage Different?
The biggest difference between Vintage and other formats is thehuge card pool. It shares most of the card pool with the Legacy format, but the distinct difference between Legacy and Vintage is thatthe Vintage Restricted List is banned in Legacy.
Since these cards are available in this format, Vintage is played at a much higher power level than Legacy,and games tend to be much shorter.
The availability of high-powered mana-producingartifacts such as Black Lotus, Mana Vault, Sol Ring, and the original five Moxesand low-costsearch and draw cards such as Demonic Consultation, Mystic Tutor, and Ancestral Recallresult in fast-paced games that may not even last two turns.
Key Decks In Vintage
Combo
Combo decksare designed with a very specific strategy, and a variety of tools to make that strategy work.There are a variety of combo decks, but an example template revolves aroundGoblin Charbelcher.
A Charbelcher deck typically runs 0-2 lands andrelies on fast mana cards such as Black Lotus and Mana Cryptto play Goblin Charbelcher on the first turn and use it toreveal their entire deck for lethal damage. These types of decks tend to either win quickly or fail to get off the ground, andare often weak to disruptive effects.
Shops
Shops decks take advantage of theabsurd mana production of Mishra’s Workshopto play almost exclusively artifacts. These decks come in two flavors: Prison and Aggro.
Both decks aim tolock opponents down using cards like Trinisphere and Sphere of Resistance, but Prison shop decks try to win usingcreatures that double as lock components, such as Lodestone Golem, while Aggro shop decks includemore aggressive attackers such as Arcbound Ravager.
Mono-White Initiative
Mono-White Initiative decksarepowerful, consistent, and resilient enough to keep playing even after early-game interruptions. Theytake advantage of the Initiative mechanicto gain both card and board advantage, and use that advantage to playlock pieces similar to Shops decks or powerful creaturesearly enough to cause problems for their opponents.
Dimir Bowmasters
Dimir Bowmasters plays similarly to the Beanstalk Control decksin Legacy, but the availability of fast mana sources on the Restricted List means that they can function without the Up the Beanstalk cards that give the legacy staple its name. As quickly as players tend to draw in Vintage games,an early Orcish Bowmasters is an enormous threat, punishing opponents for drawing cards with bothdamage and a growing army of orcs.
Dredge
Black has always had spells toput creatures into play from the graveyard, and Dredge decks take full advantage of that mechanic. Bydumping a large portion of their library into the graveyard, Dredge decks create fertile ground toreanimate large threatsearly using cards such as Dread Return, orcreate an army of zombieswith Bridge from Below.
Dredge decks are consistent enough and powerful enough to be favorites in a lot of matchups, and they’re the reason that extremely powerful creatures such as Emrakul, the Aeons Torn can’t be moved into a graveyard.
