Hi all, and welcome to the new article on MDV, Alternate Vortex. My name is Yusuke and this featured article is all about Vanguard, a style of play introduced years back, and reintroduced into MTGO earlier this year.

What?

You say you don’t recognize Vanguard?

I don’t blame you, it’s not very widespread except for those on MTGO.

Unlike Two Headed Giant, or Emperor, this does not require multiplayer games or many different set of rules. It does, however, have three basic rule changes. But first, you begin by selecting an “avatar”. Avatars for Vanguard are characters that were originally a character from one of the magic storylines. [Now the 'avatars' available on MTGO aren't necessarily major characters from a magic storyline.] Then, these 3 rule changes apply:

• You start with a different hand size and maximum hand size . This is specified on the Vanguard card in the lower left hand corner as "Starting & Max Hand Size" and followed by a modifier (...+2, +1, 0, -1, -2...).  If it has -1, then you start a game with six cards instead of seven, you during you end step, you have to discard down to 6 cards.
• You start with a different starting life total. This is, again, specified on the Vanguard card as "Starting Life" followed by a modified (...+2, +1, 0, -1, -2...).  If it has +6, then you start the game with 26 life instead of 20.  
• Abilities on the Vanguard card change how you play. Some are static abilities, while others are activated.

Simple, right?

Maybe. 

Sometimes it can get very hectic keeping track of what all of the avatars do in a multiplayer game. Think of it like having ten global enchantments in play.  While it's not that bad, it can still cause a few headaches.  And, of course, some of the avatar abilities can either win you the game or make you lose miserably.  Either way, they add some spice and flavor to your game if you stuck in a rut with your playing group.

Moving along...

Let’s get started. The avatar for this week is “Greven-il-Vec”. Let’s take a look:

[Many thanks to http://www.c-s.nl/ for the cleaner, better card image.  ~Streetz~]

Vanguard (Avatar) Card: Greven il-Vec
Starting and Max Hand Size: -1
Starting Life: +2
Ability: Whenever any of your creatures damages any creature, bury the damaged creature.

[Quick side note from the webmaster.. check out the flavor text.  Since it isn't totally visible in the above card image, I've typed it below.  It's a little background into Greven as a character in the storyline of Magic:]

As a ruthless leader for Volrath, Greven il-Vec serves his lord by commanding the flying ship Predator. Greven has attained his powerful tank through a series of underhanded schemes and assassinations, the majority of which were blessed by Volrath himself.

Well, ok. You take a hit to the cards. That’s not so bad. You get two extra life. Eh, not to shabby. Well, let’s read this, eh, kill anything a creature damages… wait, this ability isn't restrictive in any fashion? What was R&D thinking??

Millions of ideas pop into my mind, but two of them shine through as game winners: Goblin Sharpshooter and Ronin Cliffrider. Mono-red Plague Wind, anyone?

You might think that Death Pits of Rath would be a supplement, and that you would be on your way and never even think about Vanguard again. Wrong. There is one major difference. The damage must be dealt by your creatures. No Aether Flash combos here. Again, why is this better? Why would you use this over a regular deck? Because Vanguard proposes 1 main advantage: It can’t be dealt with like creatures or enchantments. A Death Pit can easily be killed by a Naturalize, Wear Away, or any other enchantment destruction card. Greven can not be dealt with so easily. You always have the vanguard card 'in play' and thus you always have an advantage (depending on the cards ability).

And so it is for ALL Vanguard avatars. Nothing can stop you from using their ability to the fullest.  Nothing affects them while in play.  Nothing can destroy them or limit their ability (like a Null Rod effect for instance).

Some other cards that come to mind include any form of 'Tim'.  For those of you un-cultured to magic terminology 'Tim' is 'Prodigal Sorcerer'.  You know, one of the original magic cards that can tap to deal 1 damage to target creature or player.  Since then there are many different Tims.  In fact, any card that can Tap to deal a point of damage is considered a 'Tim' card.  Rootwater Hunter, Vulshok Sorcerer, Frostwielder, Razorfin Hunter, Jeska, Warrior Adept and so on.

On a little side note, you don't ever want to include Cinder Giant in your deck (when using Greven) unless you want to nuke all of your creatures too.  Likewise, you don't want to include cards like Ashen Firebeast, Bloodfire Dwarf, Fire Ants, Gangrenous Zombies, Infected Vermin, and Thrashing Wumpus.  All of these cards to damage to all creatures in play (sometimes all non-flying creatures in play).  There may be others.

And so comes the deck list.

I present to you, “Tim’s Ultimate Wrath”:

The decks main focus is to ping the creatures you see on the board. A first turn Mass Hysteria is nice, but is even better when you can second turn Desperate Ritual to Goblin Sharpshooter (or Ritual to Seething Song to Ronin Cliffrider). Do not be afraid to ping their smaller creatures early on, but if Mass Hysteria is on the board without the Sharpshooter, keep your guys untapped. Kumano is always there to ping with extra mana left over. A nice side effect is that when Frostwielder and Kumano ping, you remove their creatures!

Included in the deck are tons of pingers including Prodigal Sorcerer, Rootwater Hunter, Vulshok Sorcerer, Frostwielder, Kumano, Razorfin Hunter and Jeska.  Wow, that's most of the deck there.  As mentioned above, note that Ronin Cliffrider is the key card to success in this deck with Greven in play.  Whenever he attacks, you may deal 1 damage to each creature defending player controls.  This means (with Greven) destroy each creature your opponent controls. 

Feel free to modify this deck to fit your personal needs.  Other cards that might work well with this avatar include: Acidic Sliver ,Anaba Shaman ,Ancient Hydra ,Apprentice Sorcerer ,Arc-Slogger ,Bloodfire Kavu , Brothers of Fire ,Capricious Sorcerer ,Centaur Archer ,Chainflinger ,Cuombajj Witches, Dwarven Scorcher, Embermage Goblin, Fire Bowman, Fire Slinger, Frostling, Goblin Dynamo, Goblin Sharpshooter, Granger Guildmage, Icatian Javilineers, Kris Mage, Krovikan Horror, Mage il-Vec, Masticore, Mawcor, Mogg Fanatic, Pirate Ship, Plague Spitter, Samite Archer, Shadow Guildmage, Shivan Hellkite, Spitting Hydra, Stinging Barrier, Subterranean Spirit, Suq-ata Firewalker, Thorn Thallid, Thornwind Faeries, Ticking Gnomes, Triskelion and Vampiric Dragon (just to name a few).

Okay, so the deck's not that great. But still, it’s nice.  And it works wonders with Greven il-Vec, the Vanguard card (avatar character).

Now, with all that said, I present to you a poll. Please select the Vanguard card which you would like me to focus on in the next 'Alternate Vortex'.  I will not tell you what they do. What fun would that be?  Mind you I am assuming most of you have never heard of Vanguard cards. 

I hope you participate in the above poll, for the results will determine more than just the next article. Do I smell a reader challenge?

That's all for now.

If you have any questions or comments regarding this article, or Vanguard cards in general, please tell me about it in the forums.  The forum link is below.  And thank you for taking the time to read this.  I hope you enjoyed this brief insight into an alternate form of playing magic with Vanguard Cards. 

See you all next time!

~Yusuke~

Editors Note: I have added a few things to Yusuke's article.

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