Decklists in Premium articles are free to be released to the public, I think you can even look them up in the SCG database. The actual content of the article however is viewable by premium users only.
I would be happy to play my match against Demetri X instead if he wants to. It gives us both a chance to play which is what this tournament is all about.
the ability to transfer a card from my hand to my graveyard for the low, low cost of R, is not a major selling point for pyroblast. I have NEVER in all my tournament experience seen a situation where a player would profit from voluntarily throwing away a pyroblast simply to pad the graveyard or storm count. I have however seen pyroblast misdirected to a land, multiple times.
Why does it matter that Pyroblast can be misdirected to a land? Misdirecting Pyroblast to Misdirection accomplishes the same task of countering the spell.
The only situation where REB is better then Pyroblast is if the opponent has a blue creature, say Old Man of the Sea in play. If the opponent casts Pyroblast on a non-permanent spell then you can misdirect Pyroblast to destroy Old Man of the Sea. With REB you can't do this because you have already chosen to target a non-permanent so cannot misdirect it to a permanent. This sort of situation is very rare, so I think being able to throw away a spell to activate Grim Lavamancer is more significant.
Now I'll admit right off the bat to being unfamiliar with the Type 1 meta, but in a Gush heavy metagame shouldn't Chains of Mephistopheles be pretty effective. At the SCGP9 in Indy, there wasn't a single copy of Chains in the entire field.
Is Chains not as effective as I think, or did the players underestimate how many Gushes they would see?
The problem with chains is it doesn't stop Gush deck's ability to draw cards very effectively. They can still discard and continue filtering, discarding useless spells. They don't play a totally Control role and don't always need card advantage to win, along with the card being symmetrical hurting you as well.
In the Eye of Choas is great because it does actually stop their draw engine. They either need a ton of mana or a bounce spell to stop it.
Side note about Vintage in general. Vintage does have a fairly steep entry cost, but with 10 proxies even this can be very affordable. Once you buy into the format the cards they will be playable and not lose value for many years. Ordering cards from new sets is also very cheap.
This thread is for the discussion of my latest article, Beating Gush in Vintage. We would be grateful if you would let us know what you think, but please keep your comments on topic.
This tournament is an excellent idea Black_Lotus and I thank you for starting it; but it seems like a conflict of interest for you to receive and have to look at decklists if you are playing in the tournament. Perhaps we could instead send decklists to another trustworthy member not participating in the tournament?
-1 Tolarian Academy (For the Lotus)
and -1 of any of the following: Planar Portal, City of Traitors, or Goblin Welder
The Moxes do not work well with Chalice of the Void, and having all the double or triple mana producers is what this deck is about. You don't want to drop a lot of cards, as you want to keep your Artifact count up in your hand. Adding Time Walk, Time Twister, and Ancestral Recall turns your mana base into City of Brass instead of Multiple Mana Lands (MM Lands) It slows the combo down, and makes it less consistant. I would not remove Chalice of the Void. Chalice for 0 and 2 against so many decks is really good, and both can happen on turn 1.
I have trouble understanding how a non budget version of this deck would not want power. Just because you run Chalice doesn't mean you should exclude power. Running Moxen makes your deck much faster, and you already run SSG to accomplish this but why not run moxen instead? SSG does give you R, but a land base including Mountains and Moxes gives you both speed and consistency.
Voltaic Construct also seems like win more one activation of Metal Worker is usually always enough to empty your hand, you don't need the infinite mana. If you do decide you need to the mana though Voltaic Key seems like a better option.
red elemental blast is strictly better than pyroblast. you should either play a mix of the two (to weaken cabal therapy, meddling mage, extirpate, etc) or only REB.
if you are trying to destroy a blue permanent, pyroblast can be misdirected to any permanent. REB however can only be misdirected to another Blue permanent. thus if there is only one blue permanent in play, REB cant be misdirected. of course if your trying to counter a blue spell, then either REB or pblast can be misdirected to the misdirection itself. this is only relevent for destroying blue permanents.
It should be noted Pyroblast is better if you play Grim Lavamancer, like the above list does, or if you run Storm cards. Some sort of split is probably best if you expect Meddling Mage.
I think this card has the most potential in GW fish, with Weathered Wayfarer, Life from Loam, Mindcensor and other usual Fish cards in that color. Running it with blue seems sub optimal because once it hits the board you can't protect it with FOW. GWB might also be an option giving you Therapy/Duress as disruption. Combined with other hate it could bring fish back to the format.
Under the Tools menu click on "Get Deck Security Code".
My code is cb02ace1.
Why does it matter that Pyroblast can be misdirected to a land? Misdirecting Pyroblast to Misdirection accomplishes the same task of countering the spell.
The only situation where REB is better then Pyroblast is if the opponent has a blue creature, say Old Man of the Sea in play. If the opponent casts Pyroblast on a non-permanent spell then you can misdirect Pyroblast to destroy Old Man of the Sea. With REB you can't do this because you have already chosen to target a non-permanent so cannot misdirect it to a permanent. This sort of situation is very rare, so I think being able to throw away a spell to activate Grim Lavamancer is more significant.
The problem with chains is it doesn't stop Gush deck's ability to draw cards very effectively. They can still discard and continue filtering, discarding useless spells. They don't play a totally Control role and don't always need card advantage to win, along with the card being symmetrical hurting you as well.
In the Eye of Choas is great because it does actually stop their draw engine. They either need a ton of mana or a bounce spell to stop it.
Side note about Vintage in general. Vintage does have a fairly steep entry cost, but with 10 proxies even this can be very affordable. Once you buy into the format the cards they will be playable and not lose value for many years. Ordering cards from new sets is also very cheap.
Thanks but thats really not necessary, I was just trying to help the tournament run a little bit smoother.
I have trouble understanding how a non budget version of this deck would not want power. Just because you run Chalice doesn't mean you should exclude power. Running Moxen makes your deck much faster, and you already run SSG to accomplish this but why not run moxen instead? SSG does give you R, but a land base including Mountains and Moxes gives you both speed and consistency.
Voltaic Construct also seems like win more one activation of Metal Worker is usually always enough to empty your hand, you don't need the infinite mana. If you do decide you need to the mana though Voltaic Key seems like a better option.
It should be noted Pyroblast is better if you play Grim Lavamancer, like the above list does, or if you run Storm cards. Some sort of split is probably best if you expect Meddling Mage.
It takes less slots and has less dead cards all the while accomplishing the same task.