When Wizards announced that Vintage Masters would be heading to Magic Online in June 2014 the response was generally positive. Everyone was excited that there was finally a date for the release of the Power 9 online. From August until the time of the announcement, Classic had been enjoying a sort of mini renaissance, having fired the Saturday Daily Events almost every week for close to three months. Since the announcement of Vintage Masters however, Classic managed to fired one out of the three Saturday DE’s that were available. Even worse is that nobody has any idea when DE’s will be available again thanks to MTGOmageddon. For now, sanctioned Classic events are limited to 2-Man Queues as Classic was left out of formats that received 8-Man Queues.
Now that Classic has an expiration date and sanctioned events are indefinitely canceled, does this mean that the Classic format is already dead? I don’t believe that the format is dead and neither should you.
How did we get here?
The Classic Quarter League has been successful in helping Classic have some semblance of a meta-game. For the 2013 season I introduced a new program to help jump-start the Daily Events by tying them into participation in the Invitational at the end of the year. The plan seemed to work as nearly every Saturday event fired since the beginning of August. With Daily Events firing and the Classic League ongoing it appeared that the format might have some life even with the then anticipation of Power coming online – which was expected before the end of 2013.
We now know that the Power is not coming before the end of 2013 as was originally promised. Does the announcement of Vintage Masters in June 2014 mean that the Classic format is now on life support? In a way, yes. Once Vintage Masters is released, Classic will serve no real purpose. There may be a transitory period where they co-exist so that people can still compete in Classic while they acquire the necessary cards to properly compete in Vintage. I don’t see such a transition (if it isn’t immediately eliminated) lasting much more than a couple weeks. Casual players that want to continue with the “Classic” experience but don’t want to embrace a format with the Power 9 will have to adopt Legacy as their casual format.
What issues remain for Classic?
The fundamental problems with Classic that have plagued the format for the last several years still remains. Card availability is still low. Tournaments are few and far between. Workshop, Oath, and Dredge are still a major part of the metagame. The announcement of Vintage Masters still does not change these facts. What has changed, however, is people’s perception of about the purpose of the Classic format. Classic always was a temporary bridge that allowed players to play with all the cards that were available on MTGO until all of the Vintage playable cards made their way online. There is no paper equivalent for people to follow and little incentive to play if Daily Events don’t fire. Now that Vintage Masters has been announced the question regarding whether the temporary bridge is still necessary or not is a valid question. As mentioned above, it’s obvious that after June 14, 2014, the Classic format will be obsolete. The temporary bridge will have no purpose and will likely be demolished as the new shiny bridge is finally finished. The cancellation of Daily Events for the foreseeable future doesn’t help things.
Future of competitive Classic
So I guess the logical thing for everybody who’s been supporting the Classic format for the last couple years is to put their cards on digital ice and take a break for the next 7-8 months? I don’t think that is the case, I plan on supporting the Classic format through the Classic Quarter league all the way through the release of Vintage Masters. Right now we are in the middle of Qualifier Tournament #2 leading up to the Invitational at the end of December. My plan is to run two more leagues that would culminate in a final Classic invitational a week or two before the release of Vintage Masters. Traditionally I’ve used the major set releases as the starting point for each league, however the release of Journey into Nyx would start too late to finish the league in time. So I’m probably going to have to improvise and start both tournaments before the release of the next two standard sets: Born of the Gods and Journey into Nyx.
The loss of Daily Events throws a wrinkle into things. We can no longer depend on Daily Events as a means to qualify for the Invitational like we have done recently. Even if Wizards adds 8-man queue’s to their offered events, the results of those 8-man tournaments are unlikely to get posted to MTGO.com. Even if they did, the results of only one 8-man might be posted, which would be impossible to track any queues that aren’t posted.
This is going to require some improvisation. In lieu of the Daily Events, I will be hosting a series of weekend events on gatherling.com which will mimic the structure of the canceled Daily Events. I’ve tentatively dubbed them: Classic Weekend Challenges. I have yet to work out the details, but I will make an announcement soon. Check ClassicQuarter.com for updates!
Changes to the Banned and Restricted List?
Classic has been the only format over the last 3 years that has not had a single change to its Banned and Restricted (B&R) list. Over that period of time, not only has there been 3 years worth of Standard sets thrown into the card pool, but also the addition of major out-of-print sets which have dramatically changed the landscape of the format. The last change to the Classic B&R list involved the addition of Vintage restricted cards that were released with Masters Edition IV: Time Vault, Fastbond, Mana Vault, and Wheel of Fortune.
Since ME4 was released, Urza’s Destiny, Mercadian Masques, Nemesis, and Prophecy were added to the card pool. These sets brought important cards to the Classic card pool such as Rishadan Port, Misdirection, Metalworker, Yawgmoth’s Bargain, Unmask and Academy Rector, among others. However, the card that has had the greatest impact is:
Tangle Wire instantly transformed Workshop decks from “powerful pillar of the Classic format” with the ability to do degenerate things, into the over-powered boogeyman we have today. Tangle Wire eventually transformed Affinity, a fringe Legacy deck, into one of the most resilient degenerate decks in the Classic format when paired with the unrestricted and uncounterable Black Lotus for artifacts (Mishra’s Workshop. It’s even crossed over into Vintage with great success!
Without Moxen to speed up mana production (and more importantly permanents to tap to Tangle Wire triggers), most decks have no chance against early threats and a timely Tangle Wire. In effect, it is essentially a two- or three-turn Time Walk that Workshop decks have access to 4-of.
I think it is time that we implement our own changes to the B&R list for Classic. I had plans to petition Wizards to consider official changes to the Classic B&R list, but with the recent challenges to the client itself, the MTGO team has far most important fish to fry than worrying about the Classic B&R list. I still plan to contact Wizards and make my case, but I don’t expect any changes until after the stability issues of the client are fixed and Daily Events return.
That said, my consideration for the B&R list was to restrict Tangle Wire, with no other changes. My rationale is based upon the fact that Workshop decks in the post-ME4 and pre-Mercadian Masques Block period were not nearly as broken as they are today. Yes, Metalworker was a significant addition to Workshop decks, but it at least allowed most decks the ability to interact with them. A Turn 1 Metalworker did not spell doom for most decks and removal such as Lightning Bolt and Swords to Plowshares were great answers. Even if the Workshop player was able to get a “Sphere” down on Turn 1, a Turn 2 Metalworker could still be dealt with by using one of the one-mana removal spells or countermagic, unless the Metalworker was accompanied by a Wasteland.
I’m sure that Workshop players won’t agree with only restricting Tangle Wire, but remember: I’ve had almost all of my success in Classic playing Workshop decks. I considered other cards as well, such as Brainstorm and Lodestone Golem, but there is no single card that I have played against and felt completely helpless than when someone plays Tangle Wire against me.
I will admit that Lodestone Golem is an interesting option for restriction. Nobody will likely ever cast a Tangle Wire on Turn 1, and even if they did, it’s not something that screams “counter me!” Golem, on the other hand, is a card that when cast on Turn 1 is almost always something that has to be countered. Letting the Workshop player get a Golem on the board before you can do anything is recipe for disaster, however, Workshop decks are able to cast Golem on Turn 1 a small percentage of the time. The only way it’s possible to play a Golem on Turn 1 is to have Mishra’s Workshop and 1 of the restricted artifact accelerators (Sol Ring, Mana Crypt, or Mana Vault]. It’s possible to also do it with a Sol Land (Ancient Tomb or City of Traitors) and a Mana Crypt or a land and 2 artifact accelerators. No matter how you slice it, it’s not as frequent as it may believed to be. I’m not a statistics expert, or even a novice, but my understanding is that a 3-card combo is likely to happen ~4% of the time for a 60-card deck on Turn 1. If anyone has the exact math, please share!
Last chance for brewing!
Any changes to the Classic B&R list would certainly open up the metagame. Depending on the actual changes, some existing decks may jump to the forefront, while others may be left obsolete. The exciting part would be the potential to open up new decks.
Part of what has contributed to the overall stagnation of Classic over the years is the lack of innovation. I don’t consider myself much of a deckbuilder, but the few times that I have tried something, I felt stifled by the metagame.
There have been some players that have created some truly innovative decks over the last couple of years and demonstrated that it is possible to create competitive Classic decks without resorting to the tried and true pillars. One of the more recent examples is the Lumberjacking deck cooked up by MTGO Academy’s own ChrisKool and PlanetWalls:
Lumberjacking by PlanetWalls
PlanetWalls was able to take this list to a 3-1 finish in the last Daily Event. (You can watch the videos on MTGO Academy’s Youtube channel.) I’ve played against this deck a couple of times and I can assure you that it is not just a pile of cards. Orcish Lumberjack might be the most surprisingly playable card in Classic, but it actually does some heavy lifting in ramping the deck into large monsters. There are also a healthy number of “free wins” on the back of Magus of the Moon.
So, the question is: Would changes to the Classic B&R list lead to more decks like Lumberjacking? Ultimately, it would be up to the players to innovate, but I do believe we could see some new decks show up, or at least, some new options that time has passed by (Tezzeret decks, Goblin Welder decks, and possibly Storm).
Either way, if there are no changes to the B&R list, these are the last few months to play with the Classic B&R list. Come June 2014 we’ll no longer have access to unrestricted Brainstorm, Library of Alexandria, Ponder, Lion’s Eye Diamond, Yawgmoth’s Bargain, and Gifts Ungiven. I suggest we all use this time to mess around and try different things!
I need your input!
Having said all that, I’ve created a survey to collect everyone’s input on the current state of the Classic B&R List. If you would like to help shape the last few months of Classic’s existence, please visit: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/QGJKCY6. Please also feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section below!
enderfall
Clan Magic Eternal
Follow me on Twitter @enderfall
can I vote ban oath?
*tumbleweed*
Mishra’s Workshop is a bit strong
I agree that Workshop itself might actually be the biggest culprit and I would probably restrict it. However, Tangle Wire is an interesting experiment. It would be interesting to see how they do with one copy.
Oath is certainly a powerful card, but there is a great answer than will basically shut them down on turn zero: Leyline of Sanctity. If we only have a Leyline against artifacts. Leyline of the Flux would be great! There are tools to fight through an Oath and since you can usually cast your spells against them, it’s not something I believe is a problem for the format.
Restricting or banning Misha’s Workshop itself is also a little drastic. You basically completely neuter 2 decks in the process and turn Classic into Legacy + Tinker + Oath + Full Vintage Dredge. I don’t think that is any better of a situation than what we are currently in. I’m advocating dialing down the power of Workshop by restricting Wire, thought many people on CQ forums are trying to make their case for Lodestone.
I’m going to leave the poll up for a couple more days before I analyze the results.
Pardon my ignorance, but wouldn’t it just be better to have Vintage come through, as Wizards is trying to do? I don’t play either, so I may be missing something here, but it seems that Classic is like Extended used to be; caught in the middle of more popular formats, and though it has it’s own merits (of course), it seems to really only be drawing players away from the other old formats without bringing new players in. Wouldn’t it be more prudent for Wizards to just cut it, and supply for Legacy and Vintage? And it seems like the same reasoning would apply to the players, as well, since the old formats all struggle from a lack of new blood and stagnancy. Like I said, though, I don’t know anything past Modern well enough for these to be more than questions, and I really am curious as to why Wizards and the players should support multiple old formats. Also, the deck is pretty sweet. I love the Lumberjack, he’s done work for me in casual games in the past, and who doesn’t love toolboxes?
@Don Thiebaut – Up until MTGOmageddon, I might have shared your opinion, but now there is serious doubt that we get Vintage in June 2014 due to the issues the MTGO client is experiencing. There is no scenario where VM is prioritized over fixing the client. It’s possible that no resource that was allocated to VM would be assigned to fixing the client, but I bet there is some cross-over. I still believe we will get VM in June 2014, but it’s not as much of a certainty as when the announcement was first made.
The other difference is that Classic is not like Extended. Extended was a format people were forced to play simply because it was a PTQ or MOCS season format. Almost universally, Extended was reviled by the community. Classic on the other hand has players that actually want to play the format, albeit a small group. The reason for making changes now is to open the format up and try and fix some stagnation that has existed for nearly 3 years.
It is also the last chance that we have to make changes to Classic, and while I’m not advocating change for the sake of change, it’s clear that there is one oppressive deck that if it was in any other format would have likely seen some sort of change by WotC a while back. WotC has basically ignored Classic since ME4 was released. We can’t get an 8-man queue despite it probably taking 5 minutes (or less) for someone to code into the system. WotC has been generous enough to provide prize support for some of our events, but overall, they don’t pay attention to us. I don’t blame them, we don’t get enough events to fire, but by the same token, they haven’t done much to help fix that problem either. This is the only problem (dialing down the power of the deck which is universally understood as the best) that we the players have any say in. We can petition for more prize support, or to increase card availability (which we have for both, largely to deaf ears), but those are long term solutions. Changing the B&R list is a short term solution, which might be the only option we have left at our disposal with the impending migration to Vintage.
Thanks, enderfall! I get that it must be frustrating feeling ignored, and think it’s pretty cool of you to be understanding of Wizards’ having bigger issues right now. I hope you’re petitioning works!