In the land of Lotuses, dynamic change can occur quickly, so it is always good to stay sharp and on point. Last month, I explored the Catalonia metagame, which is one of the most happening hot spots for competitive Vintage play on the planet currently. Now, a month later, it is time to check in again with the latest LCV results to see how the most powerful decks in the game are faring.

Rule #32: Enjoy the little things.

Here are my predictions from last time:

Is MUD poised to take the mantle back from blue and stomp these proto-combo decks off the face of the world?

MUD is certainly at a low point and almost certain to make a comeback in the coming months. MUD can't suck this bad for much longer, can it? As blue decks continue to metagame against each other, MUD's stock will go up, and it WILL begin to come back. I think MUD is going to give blue a good fight, but will not dominate again.

What can we expect from Dredge?

Dredge is never better than in a convoluted world of blue mirrors. Rest in Peace makes Dredge a risky pick, but sooner or later when greedy boys and girls are trying to find room for those third and fourth sideboard Red Blasts and something has to get cut... BAM! Dredge wins!

February's Catalonia Vintage results are in, and Dredge reigned supreme. An unstoppable army of the undead showed up, devoured brains, and took first place.

February's LCV Vintage Top 8 results:

1. Dredge
2. Grixis Control
3. Uba MUD
4. RUG Delver
5. Forgemaster MUD
6. Forgemaster MUD
7. U/W RIP
8. Gush

February's Top 8 is a pretty cool one that showcases some of the interesting dynamics currently at play in Vintage. It has some old favorites as well as some cool innovations.

Every time you count it out, every time you turn your back on it, every time you think it's finally safe...

"Oscar Merino with Dredge is coming to get you Barbara!"

Every single time Dredge seems to have been beaten back, "BAM!" It shows up out of nowhere and takes down an event. I have seen the trend over and over again. As Dredge shows up less and less at events, other decks begin shaving cards for the matchup, and eventually it reaches critical mass with a Zombie win.

Let's take a quick look at the winning Dredge list:

This is a mana Dredge deck that has a little more play to it than some of the other Dredge lists I've seen in the past. I like the fact that he has Leyline of the Void main, not only for the mirror but to generally slow down and make life miserable for fast combo decks (especially the mirror).

"And I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for you meddling kids!"

Unmask is great right now because combo decks appear to have been on the upswing for the past couple of months. Taking the opponent's best card to slow them down a turn or so is pretty sweet once the Bazaar engine is up and running!

Congratulations to Oscar Merino on a nice win!

Another notable attribute of this tournament is that Mishra's Workshop appears to have rebounded and is back to normal winning form. Three of this month's Top 8 decks were various builds of MUD, which is the number of Workshop decks I would predict to make Top 8 in any random metagame.

Notable about this list is the use of its namesake card, Uba Mask.

"A Bazaar card choice!"

When I was a youngster cutting my teeth on the SCG P9 circuit, I remember one of the most talked about players was Robert Vroman and his famous Uba Stax deck. One awesome synergy that Uba Mask has is with the card Bazaar of Baghdad, which basically allows a Workshop player to draw three cards per turn!

Obviously, Bazaar is already an awesome card on its own, but when combined with the Mask, things become downright nasty for one's opponent!

Another cool upside of Uba Mask is that it doesn't allow an opponent to put new cards into their hand, which makes instants pretty bad. For instance, if they reveal Mana Drain, chances are they are going to be pretty sad.

The last deck that I'd like to talk about from the LCV event is a new and exciting combo deck that the champion Dredge deck was pretty lucky to have dodged in the Top 8.

If anybody wants to comment that the field was soft to Dredge, I could certainly understand that on some level. For instance, the Grixis deck that lost to Dredge in the finals had a measly three Cages and a Pyroclasm out of the board. However, if you make the statement "the metagame had become soft to Dredge," you must amend it to be: "the metagame had become soft to Dredge, except for Jordi Pastor."

"Am I still allowed to refer to this combo as Helm-Line?"

I love the fact that U/W RIP has a great Dredge matchup game 1 on the back of its four (!!!) maindeck Rest in Peace. Obviously, activating a Helm of Obedience with a Rest in Peace in play will kill most opponents under most circumstances, and the rest of the deck is set up to survive until that time comes.

Jordi's deck also has a cast of colorful creatures and planeswalkers to attack and defend if necessary.

Most importantly, I have a question for Jordi: can we call the deck RIP-Line?

Anyway, I took a liking to Jordi's awesome U/W combo-control deck and retooled it a little bit:

I basically just cut his creature package of Aven Mindcensors and Vendilion Cliques for cards that traditionally perform well in a Turbo Tezzeret style deck: Time Vault, Voltaic Key, Blightsteel Colossus, Mana Vault, and a Seal of Cleansing to Enlighten Tutor for in a pinch. (Awkward that the deck cannot combo through a Null Rod, Stony Silence, or Pithing Needle.)

I like the deck a lot and will probably play some variation of it if I get a chance to play in a Vintage tournament in the near future. I am going to sleeve this up and see if I can find someone to battle me next week.

Where did all the combo decks go? I don't know, ask Mishra's Workshop...

There you have it, another interesting tournament from Catalonia; I hope you guys keep the awesome results coming! Many of us Stateside (especially those of us who are in Michigan and rarely get to play in large tournaments!) are enjoying following and learning from your dynamic metagame.

So if you want to play Vintage, don't forget your eight cards to beat Dredge and eight cards to beat Workshops... Wait a second! Hmm...

I have good news and bad news:

The bad news is that you don't have room in your sideboard for cards except Dredge and Workshop hate.

The good news is that everyone else is in the same position as you.

Oh Rakdos Charm, you are so close to everything I ever wanted...

Thanks to Guillem (PeAcH on TMD) and Roger Rivera for compiling and recording all of this great information.

Thanks for reading.

Cheers,
Brian DeMars