So Many Insane Plays – The Mirrodin Besieged Vintage Set Review and Updated Complete Vintage Checklist By Stephen Menendian Copyright 2011 Quiet Speculation LLC I. Introduction Welcome loyal reader! In this article I continue my long tradition of reviewing new sets for Vintage format (the greatest format!) applications. As always, I will also provide a checklist of cards from Mirrodin Besieged that you will want to acquire to complete your collection and enable you to play any deck in the format. This checklist will give you a heads up over the competition and allow you to make better trades. I will tell you which cards you should pick up now, which cards you should wait to pick up (because I expect them to fall in price), and which cards will be the sleepers you can make a killing on. In addition, I continue my tradition of updating the “Complete Vintage Checklist,” a checklist of cards that features every single playable in the Vintage format for dealers, traders and players alike. While continuing those traditions, this set review marks a major change in my approach. In the past, I have selected for review only those cards that I perceived to be either clearly Vintage playable, borderline Vintage playable, or were otherwise mentioned or discussed by others in the Vintage context. In this article, I review every single card in the set. I do so for a number of reasons. First of all, while my previous approach has proven successful, there have been a few times where I have overlooked, underestimated or failed to mention cards that later became Vintage staples or otherwise saw Vintage play. The two critical examples of this in the last five years are Empty the Warrens and Jace, the Mind Sculptor. I dismissed the former and did not mention the latter. By reviewing every single card, I avoided such omissions, even if my conclusions turn out to be wrong. Second, by forcing myself to analyze every card for Vintage playability, I reduced the chance that I inadvertently dismiss a card based on existing standards of playability. Direct comparisons to existing cards are inadequate because small differences can make a big difference. It is rare that a card is strictly inferior to another, and minor advantages can make a big difference in the Vintage context. Third, and perhaps most importantly, by reviewing every single card, I am compelled to explicitly confront and describe the boundaries of Vintage playability, to explore the range and mixture of functions that matter in Vintage, and to more directly compare new cards with pre-existing cards in terms of utility and efficiency. This process of trying to draw a line between playability and unplayability and of more explicitly identifying functions that matter in this format, and trying to measure them, is valuable in itself for a number of other reasons. For example, it should help you better understand the limits of Vintage playability, and to see what kinds of changes actually make a difference. In short, this article will be more analytical and broad in its sweep. When evaluating whether a card is playable or not, I will as a consequence also consider what changes would make it so. There will be more comparisons to existing cards, and a broader view of the format as a whole. This should make for a deeper and more insightful read. This will be the most analytical, and longest, set review I’ve ever produced. This would not be possible had I been bound by the deadlines of a weekly column. My goal is to make this the best Vintage set review you’ve ever read, and certainly the best set review of Mirrodin Besieged. Mirrodin Besieged is a thinking man’s set. It’s a set of many Pithing Needles. By that analogy I mean that Mirrodin Besieged is a set with many playables, but whose application and usage is highly contextual and skill-dependent. Pithing Needle is a card card whose utility is often a sum of its individual applications, rather than a single, obvious application. This set offers many cards in that mold. It’s also a set of complicated cards. Knowledge Pool is symbolic in this regard. Knowledge Pool is arguably the most complicated single card ever created, even more than the infamous Chains of Mephistopheles. It involves more specific zone transfers than any card since Mind’s Desire, and it has one of the arguably most confusing triggers ever printed. The type of review I offer here befits the nature of this set. Please email me at [email protected] if you have any questions or comments. I’d love to hear from you. II. Scars of Mirrodin Recap In my Scars of Mirrodin set review, I identified the following cards as Vintage playable and likely to see Vintage play. 4 Contagion Clasp 4 Galvanic blast 4 Leonin Arbiter 4 Mox Opal 4 Nihil Spellbomb 4 Precursor Golem 4 Ratchet Bomb 4 Steel Hellkite 4 Sylvok Replica 4 Vedalken Certarch Contagion Clasp has shown up in multiple Vintage Top 8s – it has proven itself Vintage playable. If Goblin Welder picks up in popularity, expect to see this card in even more Top 8s. Galvanic Blast has not, as of yet, appeared in any reported Vintage Top 8. That does not mean that it is not Vintage playable; it just means it has yet to show up as such. As I said in my set review, this is Vintage playable, but that doesn’t mean it will see play. I am confident that it eventually will, however, if mono red Workshop decks ever see more than marginal play again. Currently, the dominance of mono-brown Workshop decks is keeping this card from seeing play. Leonin Arbiter has appeared in multiple Vintage Top 8s, and has most frequently shown up in G/W/x beats decks. It has proven itself Vintage playable. Mox Opal has appeared in many Vintage Top 8s, and has proven itself Vintage playable. If multi-color Workshop decks begin to see more play, expect to see this card’s value rise. Nihil Spellbomb has appeared in many Vintage Top 8s, and has also proven itself to be Vintage playable. It’s appeared in 45 reported Vintage top 8 decklists, making it the second most played card from the set thus far. I stated that this card would be great in Vintage in my set review, but it somehow failed to make the final checklist, an error which I corrected. Precursor Golem has appeared in multiple Vintage top 8s, and most recently has become a go-to answer for the Workshop mirror because of the permanent advantage it generates. Ratchet Bomb has been enormously popular, appearing in 28 different decks in reported Vintage Top 8s. It is clearly Vintage playable. Steel Hellkite has been even more popular, appearing in 60 different reported decks in Vintage Top 8s. It is a Vintage staple. Steel Hellkite has, thus far, proven the most successful card in the set. Sylvok Replica is appearing in Vintage Top 8s where Workshop decks are using green. It has proven itself Vintage playable, and will become more popular if multi-color Workshop decks see play again. Vedalken Certarch has, as of yet, made no Vintage top 8 appearances. But, as I explained in the last set review, this card is Vintage playable, and has a lot of potential, but is much less obvious. This card is only playable in Workshop decks that run blue. Like Galvanic Blast, this card is held back by the current dominance of mono-brown Workshop decks. If, and when, Workshop decks begin to emerge once again that run multiple colors, expect to see this guy begin to appear. For example, if Lodestone Golem is restricted some day, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it were, this card would become very playable. If you can acquire foil Certarchs, hold onto them. You might be able to make a good profit a year from now. Certarch also gains value with Mirrodin Besieged and the threat of Blightsteel Colossus. In addition, there was a list of cards I identified as playable, but wasn’t sure would actually see play: 4 Arc Trail 4 Darksteel Juggernaut 3 Myr Battlesphere 4 Riddlesmith 4 Rusted Relic 4 Tunnel Ignus 4 Kuldotha Forgemaster 4 Wurmcoil Engine Arc Trail has not yet appeared in any reported Vintage Top 8s. Darksteel Juggernaut has appeared in a reported Vintage Top 8. Myr Battlesphere has appeared in 15 reported Top 8s, and has become an excellent Vintage Tinker target. Riddlesmith has been advocated by Andy Probasco, but it has yet to appear in a reported Vintage Top 8. Rusted Relic has not yet appeared in a Vintage Top 8. Neither has Tunnel Ignus. Kuldotha Forgemaster has appeared in multiple Vintage Top 8s. And Wurmcoil Engine has appeared in 30 different Vintage Top 8s. All of the cards I identified as Vintage playable have so far appeared in reported Vintage Top 8s except for Galvanic Blast, Vedalken Certarch, Arc Trail, Rusted Relic, and Tunnel Ignus. If those cards, I maintain that each is Vintage playable, and I continue to expect that Galvanic Blast and Vedalken Certarch will eventually see Vintage action. Steel Hellkite has proven itself to be the most successful card from Scars thus far. My prediction regarding Steel Hellkite appears to have come true: “Decks with Hellkite are going to be a force in the new Vintage, and is a contender for the best 6 cc artifact creature of all time!” Hellkite is indeed a force in this format, and is a clear contender for top 6cc artifact creature.