Money, Proxies, and the Must-Have List - A Case for Vintage

By Avi Flamholz
07/13/2004

One of the most common complaints about Type 1 is that price barrier to entry into the format is so high. Type 1 players often offer the excuse that the cost of entry to the format is a one-time cost, and is much lower than playing Standard for a protracted period of time. This argument, while it appears strong to the indoctrinated, is both fallacious (no, Knut, not that kind) and unnecessary.

While it is true that the cost of entry into Vintage, if amortized over a long period of time, is probably lower than the cost of playing Standard and Block for that same period, that does not mean that the player in question has the money or the desire to shell out three to five hundred dollars for single cards. Simple economic realities will often prevent players from getting into Vintage because of they're perception that they need to acquire these cards.

So, given that this hypothetical Standard player wants to play Type 1, how do we best address their monetary concerns?

As I write this article, there is an announcement on the front page of StarCityGames.com for an awesome Type 1 Tournament, likely to be the biggest of the year. What does the SCG tournament have to do with this article? The StarCityGames.com tournament will be unsanctioned and allows five proxies. More and more, the larger U.S. Vintage tournaments are unsanctioned and allow growing numbers of proxies (usually five to ten, sometimes unlimited). In fact, I would be hard pressed to find a sanctioned Type 1 tournament (A.K.A. proxy-free) in the last year or so that drew more than thirty people (other than major conventions like GenCon). The point is, if one approaches Vintage from the player's perspective rather than a collector's, it is entirely possible to play the format competitively without buying a single power card.

5-Proxy Vintage
Aside from the Power 9/10, there are three other cards that players most often proxy. These are Bazaar of Baghdad, Mishra's Workshop, and Mana Drain. No deck will play any of these cards without first playing some of the Power 9/10. Because of this, with five proxies the player with absolutely no power cards is basically limited to about four to five decks, since proxying a playset of Workshops, Drains, or Bazaars will prevent you from proxying any power cards. This does not mean that the options available are not good ones, nor does it mean that you are settling for a lesser deck.

The Decks: 5-Proxy Possibilities
U/R Fish:
Along with other Fish variants (U/G and U/R/G), U/R Fish is at once the budget player's best friend and an incredibly potent deck. Fish has posted great finishes in recent months, including, most notably, occupying two slots in the top 8 and both finals berths at the Central Coast Type 1 Championship. With 4 Force of Wills, 2-3 Null Rods, great synergy with Standstill, annoying tempo-oriented creatures, and a full set of Wastelands, it is no wonder that Fish and its variants perform so well.

U/G Madness:
Essentially, I consider U/G Madness to be a Fish variant. It has the core of Null Rod, Wastelands, and pitch counters, while using more efficient creatures to take out the opponent. Madness has much better ability to handle creatures bigger than 3/3 while U/R Fish's game against control is probably stronger than Madness' and Fish also sports a much more robust draw engine. While the decks are similar, you will find in testing that they are better suited for different metagames, and you should choose between them deliberately.

Landstill:
Landstill is one of the last pure-control decks in the format, so if you enjoy that play-style (and lots of long games), it is a great choice. Whether you play Landstill with White, or Red, or both, Landstill has the ability to lock down the game with pitch-counters and Standstill, while playing out man-lands as threats. Landstill, Fish, and U/G Madness all require about three to five proxies, depending on build.

Food Chain Goblins:
Really the only combo deck available to budget players in a 5 proxy tournament, Food Chain Goblins is deceptively powerful. FCG is at once an incredibly solid aggressive deck as well as a speedy combo deck. In either capacity, FCG is capable of kills as early as turn 2 or 3. With an excellent control matchup, as well as the tools to take on aggro and the speed to race the slower combo decks (Dragon), Food Chain Goblins is an excellent deck to play, even as a player with the pecuniary capacity to play more expensive ones, as evidenced by it's recent tournament successes. For a more in depth perspective on Food Chain Goblins, see Joshua Silvestri's FCG Primer.

Oshawa Stompy:
While this deck has not seen too much play in recent months, Oshawa Stompy definitely proved itself at the 4/24/04 Waterbury, with two builds in the top 8 and others not far below. Oshawa Stompy is one of the few pure aggro decks that is even remotely viable in Type 1, so if turning your men sideways is your style, this is likely a good choice for you. The only constraint in playing Oshawa Stompy with 5 proxies is that, to play it, you need to choose between proxying Black Lotus or Mox Emerald because the deck runs four Bazaars of Baghdad (Lotus is probably the better choice in my opinion).

Other Decks
It is also possible to play altered versions of other top tier decks on 5 proxies. For instance, if you are one of those people who are of the mind that post Fifth Dawn Gro-A-Tog (which gains Night's Whisper and possibly Serum Visions from 5D) does not need to run Mana Drain, then it would be possible for you to play a three-color build of Gro-A-Tog possibly forgoing some Moxen to make the 5 proxy limit.

10-Proxy Vintage
With 10 Proxies, it becomes possible to proxy those cards (Mana Drain, Bazaar, Workshop) that one could not play otherwise. Decks such as 4cControl, Hulk, TnT, Gro-A-Tog, Draw7 Combo, and Dragon Combo become viable options. Additionally, if you have a friend that can lend you some Mana Drains, Workshops, or a couple of power cards, you can add decks such as 7/10 Split, Slavery (Both Control and Workshop builds), TriniStax to that list. Obviously, if you are playing in an unlimited-proxy tournament, you can play whatever you want.

I can tell you from personal experience that Type 1 (at least in the United States) is an incredibly accessible format. If you play Standard or Block often, you can likely start playing in competitive Vintage tournaments with judicious trading and minimal investment.

I personally own zero power, no Mishra's Workshops, and not a one Bazaar of Baghdad, yet I have played decks such as Hulk, Keeper (now 4cControl), TnT, and Rector-Tendrils in tournaments and built Dragon, U/G Madness, and Workshop Slavery, for casual play and testing. To be completely honest, though I would not mind winning some power cards in a tournament, I have no plans to buy any in the near or not-so-near future. Obviously, the decks that one can play are slightly limited by the number of proxies allowed, but even at the five-proxy level one can play some incredibly strong decks without having to acquire many obscure or expensive cards. You could even cap the value of any non-proxy card in your deck at about twenty dollars and still play almost any deck in the format.

Staples? Yeah We've Got That
Before building any decks for your future Vintage escapades, it would be wise to acquire the format staples. Just like in any other format there are certain cards in Type 1 that you really should get before even touching the format. Now that you have acquired some Loti, Moxen, Bazaars, Ancestrals, and Workshops from Kinko's or your local inkjet printer, we can move on to the real Vintage staples.

Force of Will
Force of Will is to Vintage as Contract from Below is to 5 Color, as Exalted Angel was to Onslaught Block, as Skullclamp was to pre-June '04 Standard and Block [Perhaps not that popular. - Knut], and as Tinker was to post-Mirrodin Extended. Force of Will is the most ubiquitous card in the format. According to our resident Type 1 super-computer Phil Stanton, there are between eighteen and twenty Force of Wills in any given Vintage tournament top 8. That means that, on average, about five of the top 8 decks play 4 Force of Will. Needless to say that, even if your chosen deck does not play Force of Will, you should own a play set.

The good news is that Force of Will costs about the same as an Exalted Angel or Arcbound Ravager, so acquiring it should be no more of a monetary strain than acquiring staples for Standard or Block. What's more, those Angels and Ravagers are still viable in Vintage once they rotate out of standard, so hold on to them. If you trade with Type 1 players, you may even be able to squeeze some trade value out of them in after they've long disappeared from Type 2.

Brainstorm
Together with Force of Will, Brainstorm spans the archetypes. Combo, Aggro, Control, and all variants thereof have been known to play 4 Brainstorm and 4 Force of Will. These two cards are really the uber-staples of the format. According to Phil's data, in the average Vintage top 8 about three or four of the deck will run a play set of Brainstorms. If you don't own four Brainstorms for whatever reason, get them. It won't be hard. Getting extra play sets isn't a bad idea either.

Wasteland/Strip Mine
With the abundance of non-basic lands in Vintage it should come as no surprise that Wasteland and Strip Mine see a lot of play. Aside from hardcore Combo decks, Wasteland can see play in nearly any deck in format. From its place in Fish, some versions Food Chain Goblins, and 4cControl, Wasteland has made it's power known. As a Tempest uncommon, trading for a play set may be somewhat hard (though doable). Buying them (from StarCityGames.com, of course) is another viable option. Getting the single Strip Mine should not be too hard since it was printed in two different sets, one of which was a base set (4^th).

Other
There are certainly other cards that are heavily played in Vintage, however, none of them span the archetypes in the same way as the three above. For instance, while Dual Lands and Onslaught Fetchlands are omnipresent, you need different ones for different decks, and it is probably not worthwhile to acquire a play set of Savannahs, Badlands, or Windswept Heaths. It is probably best to make your deck choices before acquiring play sets of expensive lands and spells that are relatively deck-specific. However, for those of you who want the ability to build most Vintage decks with minimal trading, I will provide a list of other, less ubiquitous staples, each with the highest number of each you could possibly. I offer absolutely no guarantees of the list's completeness.

Land and Mana Sources
X Dual Lands - get as needed
X Onslaught Fetch Lands - get as needed
4 Faerie Conclave
4 Mishra's Factory
4 Dark Ritual
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
Tolarian Academy (Restricted)
Lotus Petal (Restricted)
Mana Crypt (Restricted)
Mana Vault (Restricted)
Sol Ring (Restricted)