The 2019 North American Vintage Champs was recently held in Pittsburgh (PA, USA), hosted by Card Titan. You can find our full coverage writeup here, but we also wanted to break out a special page for the top performing Budget decks.
“Budget” decks as defined by the tournament organizer are “awarded to the highest placing decks without any of the following cards: Any Power 9, Bazaar of Baghdad, Mishra’s Workshop, or Library of Alexandria.” Card Titan has a history of awarding special prizes to the top performing budget decks in Vintage Champs, and this year’s payout delivered a nice bonus to the Top 4 placing budget decks after Swiss rounds. You can find a complete sortable list of all decks, including budget decks, on our full coverage page here, and below we have broken out the best performing Budget decks for your consideration, which each finished with 15 points or better (5-3 or better).
North American Vintage Champs 2019, Top Performing Budget Decks
Fastbond Depths GWR, by Patrick Humfleet – Budget 1st Place, 21 Points
Phoenix BRG, by Curtis Thompson – Budget 2nd Place, 18 Points
| Business (33) 4 Thoughtseize 4 Cabal Therapy 3 Lightning Bolt 1 Abrade 1 Assassin's Trophy 1 Demonic Tutor 4 Buried Alive 1 Gitaxian Probe 4 Faithless Looting 4 Young Pyromancer 4 Arclight Phoenix 2 Bedlam Reveler Mana Sources (27) 1 Lotus Petal 1 Mana Crypt 4 Dark Ritual 4 Rite of Flame 4 Land Grant 3 Bloodstained Mire 2 Wooded Foothills 2 Taiga 2 Badlands 1 Bayou 1 Mountain 1 Swamp 1 Forest | Sideboard (15) 1 Pithing Needle 1 Empty the Warrens 2 Assassin's Trophy 3 Collector Ouphe 4 Mindbreak Trap 4 Ravenous Trap |
Mono Red Moon, by Chris McGuire – Budget 3rd Place, 15 Points
| Business (33) 1 Chalice of the Void 4 Null Rod 1 Trinisphere 1 Pyroblast 2 Abrade 4 Fiery Confluence 1 Karn, the Great Creator 3 Chandra, Torch of Defiance 4 Blood Moon 4 Magus of the Moon 2 Scab-Clan Berserker 4 Goblin Rabblemaster 2 Legion Warboss Mana Sources (27) 4 Simian Spirit Guide 1 Chrome Mox 1 Lotus Petal 1 Mana Crypt 1 Sol Ring 4 Ancient Tomb 4 City of Traitors 11 Mountain | Sideboard (15) 1 Chandra, Awakened Inferno 4 Grafdigger’s Cage 2 Tormod’s Crypt 2 Meltdown 3 Pyroblast 3 Sulfur Elemental |
Hatebears GW, by Dane Malone – Budget 4th Place, 15 Points
Eldrazi Colorless (JacoDrazi), by Joshua Volker – Budget 5th Place, 15 Points
| Business (35) 1 Chalice of the Void 4 Null Rod 1 Thorn of Amethyst 1 Crucible of Worlds 2 Warping Wail 3 Dismember 2 Phyrexian Metamorph 4 Eldrazi Mimic 2 Matter Reshaper 4 Reality Smasher 4 Thought-Knot Seer 2 Endbringer 4 Endless One 1 Walking Ballista Mana Sources (25) 4 Ancient Tomb 4 Eldrazi Temple 3 Eye of Ugin 4 Cavern of Souls 2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth 1 Strip Mine 4 Wasteland 3 Ghost Quarter | Sideboard (15) 3 Grafdigger’s Cage 4 Leyline of Sanctity 2 Pithing Needle 3 Ravenous Trap 2 Spatial Contortion 1 Warping Wail |
Mono Red Moon, by Leon Chang – Budget 6th Place, 15 Points
| Business (33) 1 Chalice of the Void 4 Null Rod 1 Trinisphere 1 Abrade 4 Fiery Confluence 4 Chandra, Torch of Defiance 4 Blood Moon 4 Magus of the Moon 4 Scab-Clan Berserker 4 Goblin Rabblemaster 2 Legion Warboss Mana Sources (27) 4 Simian Spirit Guide 1 Chrome Mox 1 Lotus Petal 1 Mana Crypt 1 Sol Ring 4 Ancient Tomb 4 City of Traitors 11 Mountain | Sideboard (15) 4 Grafdigger’s Cage 4 Leyline of the Void 2 By Force 2 Meltdown 2 Pyroblast 1 Red Elemental Blast |
TurboDepths BG, by Casey Steiner – Budget 7th Place, 15 Points
| Business (32) 4 Duress 4 Thoughtseize 4 Abrupt Decay 4 Crop Rotation 1 Demonic Tutor 1 Life from the Loam 2 Elvish Reclaimer 4 Dark Confidant 4 Vampire Hexmage 4 Dark Depths Mana Sources (23) 4 Thespian's Stage 4 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth 1 Karakas 1 Bojuka Bog 1 Sejiri Steppe 1 Strip Mine 1 Wasteland 4 Verdant Catacombs 4 Bayou 1 Swamp 1 Forest | Sideboard (15) 4 Grafdigger's Cage 1 Ravenous Trap 2 Pithing Needle 2 Assassin's Trophy 4 Force of Vigor 2 Veil of Summer |
Mono Red Moon, by Nicholas Orichella – Budget 8th Place, 15 Points
| Business (33) 1 Chalice of the Void 4 Null Rod 1 Trinisphere 1 Abrade 3 Fiery Confluence 3 Chandra, Torch of Defiance 4 Blood Moon 4 Magus of the Moon 2 Scab-Clan Berserker 4 Goblin Rabblemaster 4 Legion Warboss 2 Anje's Ravager Mana Sources (27) 4 Simian Spirit Guide 1 Chrome Mox 1 Lotus Petal 1 Mana Crypt 1 Sol Ring 4 Ancient Tomb 4 City of Traitors 9 Mountain 2 Snow-Covered Mountain | Sideboard (15) 3 Grafdigger’s Cage 4 Leyline of the Void 1 Chandra, Awakened Inferno 2 Abrade 2 Meltdown 1 Pyroblast 2 Red Elemental Blast |
Eldrazi Colorless (JacoDrazi), by Jay Beardsley, Budget 9th Place, 15 Points
Eldrazi Colorless (JacoDrazi), by David Jimenez – Budget 10th Place, 15 Points
Burn, by Justin Burdett – Budget 11th Place, 15 Points
| Business (40) 4 Goblin Guide 4 Monastery Swiftspear 4 Eidolon of the Great Revel 4 Lightning Bolt 4 Chain Lightning 4 Lava Spike 4 Price of Progress 3 Rift Bolt 4 Exquisite Firecraft 4 Fireblast 1 Wheel of Fortune Mana Sources (20) 20 Mountain | Sideboard (15) 1 Alpine Moon 1 Dead // Gone 1 Grafdigger’s Cage 4 Leyline of the Void 2 Pulverize 2 Pyrostatic Pillar 4 Smash to Smithereens |
Mono Red Moon, by Andrew Frank – Budget 12th Place, 15 Points
| Business (33) 1 Chalice of the Void 4 Null Rod 1 Trinisphere 1 Abrade 3 Fiery Confluence 3 Chandra, Torch of Defiance 4 Blood Moon 4 Magus of the Moon 2 Scab-Clan Berserker 4 Goblin Rabblemaster 4 Legion Warboss 2 Anje's Ravager Mana Sources (27) 4 Simian Spirit Guide 1 Chrome Mox 1 Lotus Petal 1 Mana Crypt 1 Sol Ring 4 Ancient Tomb 4 City of Traitors 9 Mountain 2 Snow-Covered Mountain | Sideboard (15) 3 Grafdigger’s Cage 4 Leyline of the Void 1 Chandra, Awakened Inferno 2 Abrade 2 Meltdown 1 Pyroblast 2 Red Elemental Blast |
Lands/Depths variants, Mono Red Moon, and JacoDrazi seemed to be the most popular budget deck choices that performed well, all landing multiple players at 5-3 or better.
One deck that stands out from the rest is Dane Malone’s Green-White Hatebears, utilizing maximum copies of Once Upon a Time, Deafening Silence, Force of Vigor, and Collector Ouphe, along with numerous other traditional hatebears. What also makes this build interesting is the Elvish Reclaimers and Knight of the Reliquaries, as both big bodies on curve, as well as tutors to find his ulitity lands like Maze of Ith, Tabernacle, Bojuka Bog, and Strip Mine. Dane is a fully Powered player, but chose to play this because of how it attacked the specific Vintage Champs metagame, as well as his desire to experiment more with this archetype.
Another deck that stood out for its uniqueness is Curtis Thompson’s Black-Red-Green Arclight Phoenix build. Leveraging Buried Alive and Faithless Looting to dump Phoenixes into the graveyard, and many cheap spells to bring them back, this looks like a very fun port from Modern and Legacy builds, customized for Vintage.
You can find the rest of our extended coverage from North American Eternal Weekend 2019 here. For any comments or corrections please email eternal.central@gmail.com. Thanks for reading!