Sadly I didn't even find him in the results for Vintage, and was 363rd in Legacy. And the 1st in Vintage was a Breach deck. Showing you can playtest with great results but not have the same luck in competitive play.
That first match felt like one of the recent No Bans Historic events on Arena, where Oko, Uro, Natural Order, Atraxa, and Swords were legal but there are no Forces. I played some Bant mirrors where both players had an army of elks bashing into each other and the win condition was decking. Eventually I started putting White Sun's Twilight into my deck as a mirror breaker, because everyone had like 50 life from Uro and food tokens but no one was ready for poison counters.
The substitution of bayou for underground sea and putting 2 thoughtseize in the side board was significant for this deck to make #1. Strip mine was a great innovation too. It is just crazy how the small tweaks can have a huge impact, as much as the luck of the draw sometimes.
At the end of R4, you asked about the double block. It makes sense because if the opponent gets to take an extra turn, since if they single block both then they are left with enough creatures that oath can be shut off with 2 orchards, but killing all 3 gives them an oath trigger on their turn, but if you take an extra turn, then none of their blocks matter anyway, since they are deterministically dead.
Regarding your comments on playstyle at 21:00, this is one of the big lessons that I've learned from watching a whole lot of you, Justin, Bryant and Phil. Each of you has a different playstyle, and will approach a given situation slightly differently. It's part of what makes Justin great at Vintage, you great at Legacy control, Phil great at Legacy stompy, and Bryant great at combo. Just knowing when to jam, and when to hold is huge, and those personal heuristics can really payoff when you're in your comfort zone.
Thinking about how to clear Oko, deciding you needed two Okos to animate your two non-summoning sick artifacts, and making it happen, was absolutely exquisite. Blissful to watch.
I very much agree with your take about the objective line versus the line and play style best for you! Spot on with the artistry thats associated with this game
I only kinda agree, but it's a moot point. It's not realistic to actually change your playstyle (especially in a limited amount of time), so you're better off doing what you can, improving your own playstyle, instead of crippling your game with growing pains trying to force yourself to play outside of your style. But it would still be better to do the best thing, that just isn't going to happen.
Non non non, the artistry of magic is as you said, the best part of magic. 51% that you master and are comfortable with is definitely better than 52% overall.
This is probably unlikely and may not be worth the mention but I think you did have some potential outs at the end of R2 G2. Unless I missed something I think you were still live to draw 2x FoV, 2x Boseiju, 1x Time Walk, 1x Flash off of the Top flip if you commit to fetching. I guess it was only 6/44 but there may have been some play if you ripped one of the top and OP didn't have an answer. Regardless, absolutely fantastic content as always. Making Vintage look sick as hell!
“52% is better than 51%” in that there is an objectively correct answer to every question in the game. “There’s an artistry to magic” in that no one human being is capable of knowing the objectively correct answer to each of the sheer number of questions presented in every game of magic, and so an intuitive feel for the game has value
I love your point on what works best for you. A few years ago when Amulet titan was the best deck in the format, a lot of my local meta swapped over to it and most complained when their winrates dropped. We had to have a team meeting to try to explain that just because a stack of cards are the best deck, objectively, if it doesn't grok it's useless. I played mill for years because something clicked and i understood the underlying thread to playing it, but i cant play murktide to save my life. Its just different comforts and affinities, and the key to strength is picking what you can excel in.
19:04 another cleanish line would've been swing in for the 7 only on the previous turn (dont elk the citadel) and activate bolas's citadel's flavor text the following turn. you'd just cast the 2 oaths and get there with that. all roads lead to rome in this spot though
I'm definitely fully on board the math side of that argument. If the worse line wins for you more often than the best line it just means that you're making lots of follow-up errors within the best line. Theoretically it's possible that part of your game is so weak that making known misplays to avoid it is a profitable strategy. But even in that questionably-existent case, getting reps in your weaker areas is going to be better in the long term.
1:15 Probably cutting the citadel has merits because of archon of emeria, and they are a fast beatdown deck anyway (you can end with few life points soon). Oath is not an efficient citadel deck, so I think you can safely cut it for better targets
At the end of round two would there have been any consideration for Boseijuing your opponents Tundra? It would force them to either give up their vampiric tutor target, or just be sinkhole which would have left them with no blue mana to tinker with.
1:18:07 -- you couldn't have done it the other way. your untapped mana is a spell, so you can only kill the archon on their turn at best so if you want a land in play it has to be tapped
14:28 You establish it's worth trading with Elk-traxa cause she was still a legendary which opens up your other atraxas, but for the same reason would it not be better to trade with the elk-food? Make them lose stuff if they re-atraxa
See I know you're right about mill, but also. Nothing quite has the same feeling as casting "into the story", drawing 4 cards, and milling my opponent for an absurd amount of cards off of tutelages. It's not good. I know it's not good. but my god is it funny watching someone mill like 24 cards
The best thing *is* the best thing, but, you're not a chess engine, so playing the sharpest possible line means you're dramatically more likely to make a mistake that loses the game. If you lose a percentage or two, but eliminate the chance of making a mistake, that's sometimes a good idea.
Oko is such a good card for midrange/control, and it just makes games more interesting. I really can't understand why its still banned in modern and legacy.
Oko is not a fun or interesting card in the least bit. It takes over the game by itself. It's insane early, it's a great late game draw, and can be slotted into literally any deck that can come close to casting it. It saw play in modern burn before it got banned
Additionally, I can't imagine casting an uncounterable turn two Oko off of delighted halfling in modern or legacy. You're truly delusional if you think Oko is okay in any 60 card format outside of vintage
