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There's a known trend in Vintage for most of the 2010's, in which Oath decks took up a small share of the metagame most of the time, but were usually more prolific in major tournaments. It became an expected factor in Vintage tournament analysis and discussion, as savvy players came to...

Image looks a bit weird here. Been a while since I did it this way, so I forgot what settings I used. Anyway... Throg: 29/29 Dorgath: 16/25 Carrow: 17/17 Tyresius: 20/20 Kelgar: 18/19 Tomas: 13/21 Revaethan: 18/18 Jekaena: 14/14 Wight 1: 14/14 Wight 2: 11/14 Wight 3: 14/14 Wight 4: 14/14 Crypt...

Next round... -The Power Phase is 6. Throg becomes overwhelmed by the surge of magical energy and drops to his knees.

The two wights by the altar turn away from Kelgar and move to attack the last remaining crypt keeper. The first to arrive misses, but the one Kelgar just smacked around manages to tear into the crypt keeper. As it moves to defend itself, the crypt keeper is beset by the wight behind it, which...

I mean, I assume that Sphere of Annihilation probably was a bit of a top-down design, but it's kind of clever and the card works. It seems cool to have that delayed effect, so by the time the Sphere would go off, the person who cast it might run the risk that it's no longer optimal. And we need...

Same ones as before, right? The Haqqanis and their friends are still around. Some of them, anyway.

So I've known about this for a long time and I've kind of been dreading it. I kinda-sorta agree with your assessment, but my gripe with this isn't really that I think it's greedy, although I agree with you about alienating players. I discovered Magic: the Gathering in 1997 and have been hooked...

There have been several other Oath payloads. I won't attempt to cover them all: some of the ones I have discovered appear to only show up in Vintage tournament results a couple of times, and that wouldn't capture all the other fringe options I never even found records of. So, I'll try to capture...

The Burning Tendrils Oath deck fell by the wayside in 2015, and that's too bad. But Oath decks remained a major archetype in the Vintage metagame. Griselbrand was and is the most popular Oath payload ever since, with Emrakul, the Aeons Torn and Blightsteel Colossus both maintaining some presence...

In 2012, Burning Tendrils represented a striking fusion between tech that was old and had been gone from Vintage and tech that was brand-new. Early Vintage storm combo lists known as "Burning Desire" and "Death Storm" put Yawgmoth's Will in the sideboard and used Burning Wish or Death Wish...

It occurs to me that the 2014 Vintage Championship decklist from the link in that thread Spiderman posted could be kind of instructive. It's a particularly control-heavy version of the archetype, even going so far as to run Mana Drain. Now, it could still be a pretty fast deck. This was Vintage...

Griselbrand probably warrants its own Magic Memories thread, and I know that I spent some time in the Yawgmoth's Bargain thread reminiscing about Griselbrand. There's a lot of overlap in functionality between the two cards, but Griselbrand is a creature, so it's easier to cheat onto the...

Blightsteel Colossus isn't quite as popular as an Oath payload as Emrakul is, but comes with one major advantage: you can Tinker it in. For this reason, it's often seen alongside Emrakul as a kind of backup. Even if you never get Oath of Druids + Forbidden Orchard online, you can Tinker away a...

Of the three big Oath payloads that emerged in the early 2010's, Emrakul was the first one on the scene. I just mentioned that cast trigger, which is a pretty big deal. And of course, cheating Emrakul out with Oath of Druids means you don't get the cast trigger. This card is much deadlier if you...

Yeah, once I get back to building EDH decks, this is going to be one of the first commanders I focus on. The naysayers are nuts.

The thing about goblins since last year is that the Goblin Recruiter + Conspicuous Snoop engine is so powerful that almost nothing else of a tribal nature can compete with it. All the tools are already there, and it's possible that no new goblins will break into the optimal list. A new goblin...

Peasant: One new card. Um, it makes squirrels. Cool? Peasant Tribal remains virtually unplayable. Pegasus: One new card. I don’t like it. Pirate: Three new cards. The monkey is so potent that it makes the cut in any red-heavy Pirate Tribal deck. The other two are questionable. Plant: One new...

Before the cards in Modern Horizons 2 were revealed, there was a looming question. The first Modern Horizons was the first experiment at releasing cards directly into the Modern format, circumventing Standard power level concerns. And in hindsight, we now know that the first set in this series...

The release date for Modern Horizons 2 is fast approaching. I should be able to get my Tribal Update Report ready by then. If you haven't noticed, the set is pretty crazy. Amidst all the craziness, one thing I noticed was that EDH players who are also Enchantress enthusiasts finally got the...

-Dorgath's Great Axe restores 1 Wound. -Dorgath's Lifestone of Ashraz heals 1 Wound (15/25). -Throg breaks wind and casts Cause Animosity, insisting to the wights that it was the crypt keepers who broke wind, then telling the crypt keepers that it was actually the wights. His magic succeeds on...