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As you may have gathered; I’m quite a fan of vanguard, just can’t get enough of it! I regularly track down opponents now both online and in the real world to play games against. What captivates me about the Vanguard format is the endless possibilities it present me in both game play style and deck building. It offers me endless hours of fun; but I feel people under appreciate Vanguard because of one fundamental and flawed belief; that Vanguard is a standalone format. People, wake up and smell the wrath of god! Vanguard isn't a standalone format; it’s a format enhancer! The rules for Vanguard could be applied to practically any other format for magic; Peasant, Tribal, 2HG, Highlander even prismatic can be played with Vanguard rules! And this is where I explain the purpose of this new article thread to you; every two weeks I will take two random Vanguard cards or Avatars; meaning I cover the original cards and the new, online versions; as well as a random Magic format and create a deck for each, just for you. Why do I want to do this? Because I believe that Vanguard could lead to some interesting possibilities and I would love to see a Vanguard draft occur one day! Could you imagine it? You each get a random Vanguard card then build a deck in the usual draft style for that card. Suddenly, your not searching for the blocks known combo pieces, as they don’t work with your Vanguard card; no, your looking for that semi pointless card ‘One with Nothing’ because you’ve just pulled a Lyzolda vanguard! So what pairing will start us off this week? Well, prior to writing up this article I used the old ‘paper and hat’ method to come up with the following pairing:
That’s right folks; we’re using Rumbling Slum to create a Vanguard Peasant deck! For those of you who are unfamiliar with the rules surrounding Peasant, I shall quote the article from Wizards home site:
Just before release, Neuromancer informed me of these following updates to Peasants rules: If a card is listed with two different rarities in two different editions, use the most common rating for calculating rarity. For example, Wyluli Wolf is Rare in Fifth Edition, but Common in Arabian Nights. For Peasant Master tourneys, Wyluli Wolf is Common. Exceptions
Peasant Magic Official Banned List The following cards are banned for purposes of peasant magic due to irrational expense and some amount of rule breakage. These cards are not permitted at tournaments using the "official" Peasant Magic rules as determined by the Peasant Council, but may be permitted in other peasant tournaments at the discretion of the head peasant (re: top judge). See tournament notifications for details on specific tourney rules.
This allows for an interesting deck as I can play with ‘Uncards’ and may use cards that are otherwise banned in other formats. But can I use my Azami, Lady of the Scrolls? No, of course not; she’s a rare! Decks need to be strongly considered before I commit to any given card; especially if that card is an Uncommon! The Concept So in which direction do we want this deck to go? Well, there is a fairly obvious link between our Vanguard card and its affiliated mechanic ‘Bloodthirst’ as we automatically fulfill the requirement unless our opponent can prevent the damage. And as many people will realize; most of the common or uncommon Gruul creatures point in the direction of a beatdown deck!
With a 2/2 first drop that cannot be blocked by anything with less power than it; nothing short of a white wonder such as Savannah Lion is going to stop that early strike, and with Crown of Flame’s and Ancestral Masks coming into play in the late game, he becomes the decks beatstick; a novelty in my mind, a first drop beatstick. Fire Sprites and Orochi Leafcaller for the mana fixing, allows us to drive a Goliath beetle with a Crown of Flames cross the field for huge damage, of as mentioned before our one drop. Agility makes it just that little bit harder to block and kill those Pit-skulks; as you will need to be bigger than it by one power per Agility enchanting him, then topped up with Crown’s of Flame and the mask yet again; he’s going through 95% of the time, trust me. Well, after completing this deck I went back to my hat of Vanguard avatars and cards but kept the Rumbling Slum out; it could get silly otherwise. And what card did I pull forth? Well it was none other than…..
Now that, I must say; is an interesting Vanguard to pull in Peasant. The ease at which creatures will hit the graveyard in Peasant is obvious, as few ‘Remove’ cards can be used anymore; they are mostly uncommon or rare! The Concept We want to drop creatures into the graveyard, so we need to create creatures or at least have a huge number hitting play to go to the graveyard. Well the obvious choice is to go for tokens right? But what token producing engine could we create for mainly or in best case scenario; entirely from commons? Well people, I did my homework and didn’t have to look too far: Time Spiral gave me the answer!
But we also wanted our tokens to leave the field of play as well so we needed means to ‘use’ them; how about life gain from the Elvish Farmer? No? Then surely I can tempt you with creature removal in the form of Deathspore Thallid? Or maybe you’d like to help yourself get even more tokens; well then just make use of your Primal Growth’s; you use a token and get two lands into play, which can help in getting those few swamps you need for the deck. Commune allows you to get that key Fungus; the Sporesower out of your deck. For a common card, commune is such a powerful card; it saw huge amount of play when it was still in standard and I can assure you; it will see a fair amount of usage in any organized Peasant tournament or play group. The bloom is an oldie, but a goody! It allows you to get that little extra push you will need to get tokens out against weenies and control decks. Topped off with the Sporesower, I don’t see how you can’t achieve at least a token each turn though I was regularly throwing out two or three each turn in my few tester games with this deck. In fact, it played so well I have added it to my personal collection of Peasant decks. And finally, those wonderful fists; who can argue with the ability to turn your Savage into a 5/2 trampler with two tokens for use with any of the decks mechanics; including the Savage’s own regenerate ability: That’s right, nobody! Well people, there goes the first installment of Vanguard: Across the Formats; I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. Remember, I hope to make this a twice monthly thing; Streetz will be the deciding factor in this matter. This is Luthervamplord, Signing off. You can discuss this article in the MDV forums here. Articles
Spotlights from 2006 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Strip
Mine is officially an uncommon card, even though it had a version that was rated
as common. This is a change from the general rule to limit strip mines in
tourneys because of power. This rule is in effect at GenCon and Origins during
the 2003 tourney season.
Swing
of the Bloodiest Fist. 
The
funny thing is, when building this deck I had trouble finding an uncommon I
wanted to include; so I play tested it without any! It worked reasonably but I
found I sometimes needed to make a big drop which could only come from mana
storage; enter fungal reaches! It allows me to make a huge drop of creatures and
enchantments in the late game for the win! 
The
Fungus Grows. 
Once
I noticed that most Fungus creatures are common’s; the deck pretty much built
itself. Obviously the aim of the game is to get Saprolings and lots of them;
which every creature in this deck does!