Vintage at Cardmarket Series Barcelona, an Analysis

A modern version of BUG Fish claimed the trophy in a metagame filled with artifact and combo decks, but also speckled with a few surprises. Let's see how the latest releases and changes affected the Vintage metagame, and take a look at the Top 4 decklists!

Vintage tournaments, unfortunately, are experiencing a loss of attendants from year to year, at least in Europe. This is clearly due to the cost of the cards defining the format, the age of participants, and also because of the new-born Old School. The latter format appears to be more attractive for older players than Vintage because the card pool remains completely stable.

The Vintage main event at Cardmarket Series Barcelona, held at the end of September, didn't make an exception, with only 12 players fighting for the trophy. Still, it was an interesting tournament to see how the format had changed after the recent turmoil.

The Vintage Metagame in Late 2019

As I mentioned in a previous article, MUD in its various versions remains the hard core and the "must face" of the format, meaning that you can't build a deck not considering it. Also, you may recall a famous joke about Vintage players that ended on the punch line of one guy asking: "Huh? What's an attack phase?"

These two things are still true for me. However, as I described in other articles, the old paradigm of Vintage, the triangle between prison/combo/control archetypes with basically no creatures in play, has been totally subverted by the latest sets. As far as I can tell, the real and important change concerns speed. The impression is one of a slower format. When I played a Vintage tournament last year, I remember witnessing multiple turn-one and turn-two wins. Today, seeing the lists from Barcelona, decks seem slower, except maybe for one Academy deck with .


Force of Negation

I believe that the key reasons here are two: For one thing, after the euphoria over some new combo, players tend to gravitate back to less "crazy" decks. The second, so far unproven, theory concerns the influence of (and ): having to worry about six or seven cards that may result in an automatic loss for decks like Belcher or is not that comfortable. Whatever the reason, I must say I'm pleased with a slower format, mainly because this results in more skill-intensive plays, games, and tournaments.

New Cards in Old Decks

If you ever played Vintage on a regular basis, you know that every new expansion adds at maximum three to four playable cards to the format's effective card pool. Among them, some types have a higher chance to make the cut than others. Mana bases are affected rarely—it's difficult to beat dual lands, moxen, and —whereas many planeswalkers found a home in the hearts and decks of Vintage players too.

This certainly is the case for , a true bomb. Vintage often is about massive card drawing, so an effect that prevents your opponent from drawing cards, stays on the board, and is relatively hard to remove is a big deal. A similar case is , a true bargain for 3 mana. and are very strong also.

Among creatures from recent sets, is an interesting card as is the new , , and so is . Another strong and effective card is , a powerful tool against blue-based and combo decks in general. In a format where is a staple and where converted mana costs are low, is extremely powerful as well.

Last but not least, the previously mentioned and have had a predictable impact on a format where games are often decided within the first few turns.

Metagame Breakdown

Moving on to this specific tournament, here's a quick breakdown of the decks played at the Vintage main event of CM Series Barcelona 2019:

  • 2 Mud
  • 1 Eldrazi Aggro
  • 1
  • 1 Lands
  • 1 Combo
  • 1 Madness
  • 1 Belcher
  • 1 Dredge
  • 1 Jeskai Control
  • 1 Worldgorger Dragon
  • 1 BUG Fish

It's true that a 12-person tournament is not predictive, but 11 different decks must be a symptom of sanity, or maybe of a high "rogue factor." Meaning, players seem to think: if it's not a competitive format, I'll play what I like. And that's the Vintage and Old School spirit in a nutshell. In fact, except for MUD, these are all fun decks to play!

My personal frontrunners were Vengevine Madness and Lands. But let's respect the results and deal with the tournament's frontrunners. Here are the …

Top 4 Decks


Oscar Basart's MUD (Top 4)
Main DeckSideboard
  • 4
  • 3
  • 4
  • 1
  • 1
  • 4
  •  
  • 4
  • 4
  • 4
  • 3
  • 3
  • 3
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 4
  • 3
  • 3
  • 2
  •  
  •  
 

Oscar played an evolution of the classic deck, featuring some new cards besides the classic cornerstones of the archetype such as , , , , , , et cetera. As notable choices, his list included three and the combo of and combo alongside a structure built around , , and . The sideboard features and for combo decks. Overall, the deck is well balanced with lock elements and beatdown.

  • PROS: Consistent and reliable
  • CONS: Predictable

Marcos Jose Fernandez's Lands (Top 4)
Main DeckSideboard
  • 4
  • 3
  • 1 [The Tabernacle at Pendrell's Vale]
  • 1
  • 3
  • 4
  • 1
  • 4
  • 4
  • 1
  • 3
  • 1
  • 1
  • 2
  • 2
  • 4
  • 4
  • 4
  • 1
  • 3
  • 1
  • 2
  • 1
  • 2
  • 1
  • 1
  • 2
  • 1
  • 3
  • 3
  • 3
  • 3
  •  
  •  
 

I absolutely love this deck! As you may know, Lands is a successful archetype in Legacy, but I never saw it played in Vintage because of its bad matchup versus combo. Knowing it, Marcos played four , , , and along with two to fetch them. Also, the duo of plus gives the deck a fast combo-kill itself. Four combine with four to get maximum value out of the four copies of , to be sure to see it, and to enable many insane openings. The sideboard adds another three and against artifact and creature decks. I also like the three .

  • PROS: Gorgeous and funny
  • CONS: "Randomic"

Joan Mateo's Paradoxical Outcome (Top 2)
Main DeckSideboard
  • 1
  • 3
  • 2
  • 2
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 2
  •  
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 3
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 2
  • 1
  • 3
  • 2
  • 2
  • 1
  •  
  • 4
  • 4
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 2
  • 1
  • 3
  • 1
  • 3
  • 1
  • 1
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
 

Joan played a nice and solid version of Outcome combo, with some modifications to the classic shell, playing hosers like and control elements such as and . Quite classic choices also for the sideboard, with some graveyard hate and three for artifact decks.

  • PROS: Viable in every matchup and metagame
  • CONS: and

Miquel Alcoriza's BUG (Champion)
Main DeckSideboard
  • 2
  • 1
  • 1
  • 3
  • 3
  • 2
  • 2
  • 2
  • 2
  •  
  • 2
  • 2
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  •  
  • 2
  • 1
  • 4
  • 2
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 2
  • 2
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 3
  • 1
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 3
  • 1
  • 1
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
 
The deck is a well tuned version of BUG Fish, built around smart critters like , , , and . An efficient set of removal and counter spells as well as card drawers at cheap mana cost completes the aggro-control strategy. The sideboard follows the same lines, with counter measures against artifacts and enchantments (Force), graveyards (Extraction, Trap, Ashiok), and control/combo (Veil).
  • PROS: Balanced and well-rounded
  • CONS: No lucky wins

Conclusion

I think that after a wave of limitations mainly due to the dominance of artifact decks (Chalice, , , et cetera) but also of combo-control ( above all) Vintage now is a funny and healthy format that allows for quite balanced and interactive games. No longer does too much depend on the die roll and who starts the game. Of course it will always happen that you encounter the odd first-turn kill or an opponent starting on Workshop, , go. But such is considerably less frequent now than it was in the past—and I was there, believe me.

If you love the format as much as I do, and if you have a comment or question about this article or about Vintage in general, I will be happy to respond!

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily Cardmarket.