Hi.

I will be writing a more in-depth article explaining the changes during the Latest Developments column next week(6/13). I look forward to your response to our reasons.

Thanks,

Mike Turian

hi,
i just wanted to tell you my personal vision of the latest vintage b&r.
Just a little introduction to say that i am an italian player and i've played in european vintage events, such as the bazaar of moxen, where i arrived 6th playing 9spheres red aggro.
I also played flash deck and various gush decks in a lot of italian vintage events, with good results, not talking for pride, just to make you know that I am not a casual player and i know the format.

However, as you probably know, here in Italy and also in Europe we have a very strong community that looks forward for the new changes, fearing a little bit what might happen with the latests br.
In fact, we just had a little shock, let's take a look:

1) Gush: i've played a lot gush decks and won events with them. I agree that four gush is too much for the vintage, since we have too many ways to tutor both fastbond and closers such as tendrils of agony, psychatog and so on. Also the presence of 4 brainstorm and 4 ponder make this kind of decks really overpowered, so i've nothing to say about this restrict, rest in peace gush.

2) Flash: flash hulk was indeed a fast deck, too fast maybe, so even here i agree with you guys, it needed to die, although there were many ways too hate the combo (leyline of the void, extirpate, trickbind and so on...), but in the end flash hulk was too fast and it was making the game a little bit boring sometimes.

3) Merchant scroll: i've been a little bit surprised seeing this one in the br list, since you've never restricted a tutor that searches for a specific card, just demonic tutor effects in general, right?
however, we all know that in vintage this card was taking too much space in the decks, tutoring for ancestral, force of will or other blue "bombs" as gifts ungiven and fact or fiction, also giving the access to yawgmoth's will with the merchant-mystical-yawgmoth's way, which was a play that gush decks could do easily. Also, scroll tutors for gush making the gush-fastbond combo virtually unstoppable. So, even here I agree with your decisions.

Well, now i'll start disagreeing.

4) Brainstorm: when i saw this card in the br list i thought you were joking. Seriously, a lot of vintage players, in Europe, Italy, everywhere, couldn't believe that the spell that they played (and loved) for so many years, never fearing a restrict, was about to disappear from the format. I mean, it's ok to kill flash deck and gush decks, as I said before, but do we really need to play with a single brainstorm?
Yeah, bs is more than a cantrip, you can have 3 new cards shuffling back some useless things, including tinker targets for instance, speeding up the game and so on. But... it's one of the classical good plays of the format.

Dredge\ichorid decks have bazaar, workshop decks have a land that gives them 3 mana and 9 spheres, long has dark ritual and a lot of acceleration... is it SO wrong to leave to control decks and combo decks a good drawer for 1 mana?
With gush decks still around maybe i would agree with you, but since you killed them, for me there's no need.
I don't see the point in that. I'd like more explanations.

5) Ponder: and here the discussion is pretty much similar to brainstorm. You wanted to cut up the 2 best blue cantrips and you did it, but was that right?
Also, ponder, strong as you wish, remains a sorcery spell, which makes it different from brainstorm, that could also answer to duress-like effects.
It's best use was, as i said before, in gush decks, but they are dead. Is it so dangerous to leave access for control\combo decks to a secondary cantrip, once brainstorm disappears?

This is just my opinion. In fact I am not so much disappointed with these br, I won't be able to play gush decks, but there are many good decks as painter's\grindstone or 9sphere decks or storm decks and aggro control which are worth to be played, i just wanted to tell you what I think, adding just one question:

There will be any chance to see brainstorm or ponder re-unrestricted in 6 months?

Thank you for your time, Lucio Lodato.

ps: i beg your pardon for my bad english and grammar mistakes, if any!

Dredge\ichorid decks have bazaar, workshop decks have a land that gives them 3 mana and 9 spheres, long has dark ritual and a lot of acceleration...

Ma soprattutto..

Che forse non vi siete resi conto che per far morire Gifts come mazzo, o quanto meno amputargli le gambe, la carta da limitare non era Gifts Ungiven.. Ma..

Merchant Scroll!

sai che bello se ti risponde: "We're working on it. Please give us some extra time and we'll make sure that no wrong cards will be left in the format".

Se rispondono così riterrò lucio's will responsabile delle nuove restrizioni, poi sono cazzi suoi se mi levano le worke ed i riti

Com'era da aspettarsi, dicono che merchant, branza e ponder compromettevano la salute del formato perchè troppo forti nei combo a base blu, peccato che limitando gush e flash avevano già risolto il problema...
Merchant, lo hanno ammesso, era una eccezione non giustificata alla regola della limitazione dei tutori...

L'unica cosa che mi lascia ancora un po' così è che probabilmente non hanno preso molto in considerazione l'evoluzione che prenderà il meta...

Branza tra l'altro la stavano tenendo d'occhio da tempo...