The goal is balance. The key to this is unrestriction, not further restriction.

Lodestone Golem is very good, but it’s not unbeatable. Play better cards against Workshop decks.

- Lodestone restriction
- Permission of ponder and/or brainstorm
- Permission of ToK (this will let the re-entering of Bomberman and Slaver, just new old friends)

Pizzero I completely disagree with you. I cannot understand like a combo man like you is thinking to ban Vault (combo will be only Drain Tendrils and Remora Trap decks? OH MY GOD!). The solution is easier to trash vintage format looking at Wasteland, Rod or Vault restriction. Concretely, the restriction would increase the number of sigle-”powa” cards. What is our achievement? A random format? No`, please

Regards,

Zero

Combo will, obviously, rise if the mentioned restriction ever take place. But you know how to combat Combo decks, right? Where’s combo now?

I agree that the article is influenced by what I play and my lack of success (although I don’t whine about it. I don’t win simply because I don’t play enough), but what truly made me write this article was what I could see at the tables.

All I’m saying is that Vintage needs a BIG change if we don’t want it to die. MUD decks are unfun to play against. First turn Golem is almost GG, the same way it was a first turn Trinisphere some years ago.

When a format becomes unfun, people tend to stop playing it. The printing of cards like Thorn of Amethyst or Lodestone Golem, added to Sphere of resistance, Trinisphere, Wasteland, Null Rod, etc… make the games truly boring and very hard to play. The same goes for restrictions/unrestrictions and re-erratas of certain cards. If you allow some cards with power level erratas to work as they were intended, then the format can also become boring and unfun (example: Time Vault).

Remember that the goal behind playing Vintage (and Magic) is to have fun. Personally, I don’t have fun with the current metagame.

Your wishes in Legacy (banning Tarmo) and Vintage (restricting Workshop, Null Rod, and Waste) come because of the decks you tend to play. Me, on the other hand loves to play those cards, and my wishes are that WotC BANN Time Vault.

Anyway, Noble fish can’t almost handle a Sphinx, since you need to maindeck swords against a CONTROL deck, a card that should be sided out against this archetype.

My 2 cents

These are the numbers provided by Roger Riera for the February tournament:

* Decks and average points by archetype:
20 Drain decks (39,2% of metagame, 5/8 at Top
— 5 Tezzeret Control: 11,6; F
— 3 TurboTezz: 16,7; C,T4
— 2 Remora Tendrils: 19; T4,T8
— 2 Almost Blue: 10,5
— 2 Remora Tezzeret: 9
— 1 Mono Blue Tezzeret: 9
— 1 Tezzeret Control transformer: 9
— 1 Intuitive: 7
— 1 Control Confidant: 6
— 1 Tezzeret Tendrils: 6
— 1 Drain Tendrils: 3
13 Null Rod decks (25,5% of metagame, 1/8 at Top
— 4 U/W/G Fish: 11,8; T8
— 3 U/W Fish: 8,3
— 3 Merfolks: 6,7
— 1 Oath: 9
— 1 Hexmage Depths: 4
— 1 B/G Control: 0
6 Workshop decks (11,8% of metagame, 1/8 at Top
— 2 Aggro MUD: 9
— 2 MUD: 9
— 1 U/R Stacks: 16; T8
— 1 Black Vised MUD: 12
6 other archetypes (11,8% of metagame)
— 3 Oath: 7,3
— 1 B/U/G Fish: 9
— 1 Wizards: 9
— 1 R/B/w Goblins: 6
4 Ritual decks (7,8% of metagame, 1/8 at Top
— 3 The Perfect Storm: 10,3; T8
— 1 ANT: 12
2 Ichorid decks (3,9% of metagame)
— 1 Manaless Ichorid: 8
— 1 Mana Ichorid: 3

Null Rod + Workshop VS Mana Drain are equal in numbers, the difference is that Mana Drain decks have lot more restricted cards than those other two archetypes.

This chart shows something interesting, the evolution of the archetypes from January (inside ring) and February (outer ring):

I’m actually waiting to see how it looks the March vs February chart.

I wouldn’t mind if Time Vault’s wording was changed again, but I definitely don’t want any more cards added to the Restricted List. That’s a big no-no.

I know control is the most flavoured vintage deck, since it features most of the restricted and broken cards in Magic, but half the top shows that there shouldn’t be restrictions to weak other archetypes. Null rod would be a great loss, as wasteland. The most powered card in that deck is the common one, qasali, since it beats, pumps other creatures and strips artifacts/enchantments as an instant for few mana. Too hard for me :p

And now Lodestone is like a qasali but bigger and maybe more annoying. A T1 Lodestone is often gg, so restriction can be a real possibility next update of BR List (not now, too early). Mud can be a top performer, but it is “easy” to counter with a good SB, as Ichorid. The problem is that Mud, as Ichorid, requires specific SB in order to be really effective, but there is still no trouble: 1 deck of 8 is not a great deal, even if it manages to win the tournament.

BTW, I’m with chapuzas, the land will only give 2 colorless mana for eldrazzi spells

Still, the printing or not of that land makes absolute no difference to the point of the article.

Eldrazi´s Temple
Land
Tap: Add one coloress to your mana pool.
Tap: Add two coloress to your mana pool. Use this mana only to cast coloress spells.

won’t see print…. While this:

Eldrazi´s Temple
Land
Tap: Add one coloress to your mana pool.
Tap: Add two coloress to your mana pool. Use this mana only to cast coloress ELDRAZI spells.

might see print, and sucks.