Serious Vintage Episode 25: How Bad Are We?

In episode 25, Geoff Moes (@ThallidTosser on Twitter), Nat Moes (@GrandpaBelcher), Josh Chapple (@joshchapple), and Andy “Brass Man” Probasco (@tmdbrassman) look at mistakes — mistakes we make, mistakes we see others make, and maybe how to correct them.


Here’s the timestamped table of contents for your listening ease and enjoyment:
0:00:29 Misplaying Vintage
0:22:27 The Most Savage Cheat Ever
0:48:00 Serious Green Cards
1:02:30 A Little Food and Drink
Total runtime 1:02:57

Misplaying Vintage

Geoff was the brainchild behind this section, recognizing in himself some of the more difficult lessons that need to be learned over the course of a Magic playing career. Our discussion is wide ranging, taking in such facets as proper deck construction, sideboarding, determining role (essentially “Who’s The Beatdown”), reading cards fully, managing time, and staying in game. There’s a lot in this discussion, more than would be worth unpacking here since it’s already presented in hour long audio form.

Vintage is a complex format and can swing wildly because the cards are so powerful. Many of our ideas are somewhat general to Magic, but we do look specifically at Vintage situations, where most of our experience lies. We see a lot of overlap with a lot of anecdotes; there’s like 50 years of Vintage experience here. We could have talked longer, but think of it as the beginning of a dialogue players should have with themselves (as cheesy as that sounds).

There’s also a surprising amount of talk about Dry Spell.

Serious Green Cards

A short section of mirth, we talk about our favorite green cards. Not one of them is Oath.

This section contains one of my favorite stories, about my first cube draft ever (as I discovered looking through my old blog) in 2007:
In my first draft, with The King and Guhstin on my team against Jeff, Twaun, and Budweg, I was starting to draft mostly black. I had picked up Demonic Tutor some removal cards like Nekrataal and topdecked a Hypnotic Specter. I had Dark Ritual and Cabal Coffers too. Then Darksteel Colossus came around and my goal became getting that into play with mana acceleration. Then Channel came around. Then Vampiric Tutor. Then Sylvan Tutor.

Suddenly my deck became combo-avec-jank. I had six cards to combo with: three tutors, Channel, the Iron Giant, and Recollect in case something went wrong. In a 40 card format, I liked my odds. The rest of my cards were pretty inconsequential, though I had some removal and some guys.

We shuffled up for the first game, me across from Budweg’s rightflank, Twaun. My opening hand has Forest, Llanowar Elf, Demonic Tutor, Channel, Swamp, Swamp, Lotus Petal. Undisrupted, that is a second turn Darksteel.

I showed my hand to my teammates, and Guhstin started freaking out! If this were to work, it would be the most amazing thing ever in Cube draft.

I played a Llanowar Elf and passed, trying to be casual. Twaun sent a Lightning Bolt at its head, trying to slow my development. I thought my clock had been pushed back to third turn, but Guhstin gesticulates wildly to show that it wasn’t. Finally I realized what he was talking about. I played another land and Lotus Petal, then Channeled into Demonic Tutor for Darksteel, sending myself to eight life.

Darksteel romped all over Twaun’s life total, then got a healthy 11 in on Budweg before it was Duplicanted. We still had enough juice to finish them off, though, and a Ravenous Baloth from me punched through for the victory.

Game two was pretty much the same story, though I didn’t have to tutor for Darksteel.

Geoff, of course, talked about Thallid and referenced this article citing it as one of the faster one-drop goldfish creatures in the game.

A Little Food and Drink

Still looking at St. Patrick’s day, here’s some beer.
Conway’s Irish Ale – I had one tonight and I stand by my recommendation. It’s crisp and refreshing. And it’s nicely inoffensive, especially in a world where so many brews are (in my opinion) overhopped.
Redbreast Irish Whiskey – Josh recommends whiskey, and why not? The accolades on the website are impressive (and did you watch the movie?). Maybe combine both, ho ho ho.

Concluding Remarks

Thanks for listening! We hope to do more regular podcasting in 2015. We look forward to any questions or comments here or on Twitter. You can also email us at seriousvintagepodcast@gmail.com.

Thanks also to everyone who supported our Teespring campaign. Our listener support raised more than $100 for our efforts, which we plan to put into new recording and streaming technology for the Serious Vintage broadcast empire. We’ve gotten lots of great feedback from our listeners over the years, so please know that we wouldn’t be here without you.