Serious Vintage Episode 2: On Concession, Burning Wish Testing, Serious Eats, and Gin

Welcome to the second Serious Vintage Podcast! Episode 2 features #TEAMSERIOUS members Nat Moes (@GrandpaBelcher on Twitter), Geoff Moes (@ThallidTosser on Twitter), and Josh Chapple (@joshchapple on Twitter), discussing the politics of concession, a look at some of the lists developed in the wake of Burning Wish’s unrestriction in Vintage, and Serious food and drink talk.

Podcast (seriousvintage): Download (Duration: 48:29 — 88.8MB)

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Here’s the timestamped table of contents for your listening ease and enjoyment:
00:33 – Team Serious Open Recap
13:53 – The Politics of Concession
26:37 – The Many Faces of Burning Wish
39:58 – Serious Eating – Water Street Bar and Grille
44:00 – Serious Drinking- Let’s Talk Gin
Total runtime: 48:29

You can find the lists we talk about in the podcast here.

Forgemaster Staves, by Nat Moes

This list split first at the Team Serious Open on September 22 at the Hero Zone in Sandusky, Ohio, and was first at a 17-person Monday evening tournament at Fog of Dusk in Columbus. It plays aggressively for a first or second turn Metalworker, Forgemaster, Staff combination, and plays lock pieces only to slow the opponent down.

The only change I would make to this deck is to test Cavern of Souls in place of Buried Ruin. Naming “Construct” makes Metalworkers, Forgemasters, and some other things like Triskelion uncounterable. I’ve enjoyed Buried Ruins and have used it to good effect, but Caverns might be outright better.

One correction, though: I went 3-1-0 in the swiss in Sandusky. In the podcast I said I had gone 3-0-1. Duane Haddix got me with a less combo-centric Forgemaster list.

RUG Delver, by Sam Krohlow

Sam’s list, which also split first in Sandusky, was properly metagamed for the expected turnout in Sandusky as he had plenty of hate for Workshops, including two maindeck Annul. Other than that it’s a fairly standard Vintage RUG Delver list and would play similarly to RUG Delver lists you might find in other formats: play a dude and attack for several turns with counter backup, rinse, repeat. Sam wrote a report detailing this process here.

This is the Confidant-based Burning Wish list I’m currently working with.

Burning Confidant Tendrils, by Nat Moes

The last changes I made to this list (after testing against Blue and MUD) was to simplify the manabase and add more Hurkyl’s Recalls against Workshops. The blue matchup already seemed solid, thanks to the Confidants and discard spells. Cabal Therapy was ridiculously good at stripping both counters and threats from my opponent’s hand.

Others, who shall remain nameless to avoid unnecessary ego inflation, have suggested playing Ad Nauseam in place of the Confidants. This would certainly be a way to go. That card is a bomb, and you keep your expensive spells, like Tendrils, in your sideboard.

That said, Stephen Menendian’s list is undeniably more powerful from a card-by-card comparison. The Griselbrand Oath component is no longer a secret, but that was a huge step forward in the Dark Ritual, Burning Wish combo construction. I wish I’d thought of it. We can’t share Menendian’s full list with you in this article (nice try), but you can purchase it and its brand new addenda right here on Eternal Central. It’s worth the read if you’re interested in the development of combo decks and learning more.

Serious Eating and Drinking

Finally, here are the food and drink recommendations from the podcast:
Water Street Bar and Grille
Watershed Distillery
Leopold Bros.
Hendrick’s Gin

We’ll be back in a couple of weeks with more Serious Vintage. In the meantime, you can follow us Twitter at the links above! Thanks again for listening and reading. We’ll look forward to your comments telling us all the obvious things we missed!

You can also subscribe to the podcast in iTunes here!