While Flashback is a build-around mechanic in most recent sets, here it’s just on good cards (other than Roar of the Wurm, which is tied to GU Madness). Just note that Flanking doesn’t apply to other creatures with Flanking (though that will rarely matter, especially since the common with Flanking can’t block) and you’re good. I’m surprised there wasn’t more Flanking in this set as it’s a good combat mechanic, but instead it’s only on three cards. Īnother “here are three generically good cards” mechanic, these cards are powerful even if you only get them for a limited time. The RW deck is a Cycling deck so you would expect a lot of Cycling in those colors, but it’s used liberally throughout the set to smooth it over, including all five Onslaught cycling lands and the non-Dimir Scourge landcyclers.ĭethrone would be an interesting combat mechanic even outside of a multiplayer context, but it’s only on three rares/mythics here.Įcho is in a weird place here, as it’s just on two commons and five rares and doesn’t really serve any other purpose-the rares are good, as is Simian Grunts.
As always, we’ll start with the mechanics (and there are a lot), then go over the archetypes. Finally, unlike every other Masters set, this one was introducing new cards: obviously the Power Nine isn’t going to affect Limited too much, but the Conspiracy cards (and other assorted new-to-MTGO cards that fill in some gaps like Predatory Nightstalker ) add an interesting dimension to the set. Next, the set’s range limitation was everything not legal in Modern (everything pre-Mirrodin that hadn’t been reprinted, a couple supplemental sets, and a couple of cards banned in the format), and it’s a lot harder to make a good set out of older cards (simply because there is a lot of junk), so Vintage Masters makes a lot of rarity downgrades to compensate (notably 27 rares to uncommon).
The set was an MTGO-exclusive set which meant it was free of a lot of restrictions a set normally has: the Reserve List was fair game, it doesn’t have to follow the normal restrictions of a sheet (the set has 105 rares and 30 mythics, both twice as many as a normal large/Masters set), and it includes a fifth ultra-rare rarity. Vintage Masters is one of the strangest sets WotC has ever released, mostly because it has so many different goals.
While I wish there was a bit more notice, I’m fine with this from a content perspective: I like Masters sets more than normal sets, a “first pass” of a set is much easier than a second pass (which is what Lorwyn would have been), and I wasn’t too far along with my Lorwyn article. Well, this is interesting: WotC pulled the Lorwyn Flashback Favorites and replaced it with a Vintage Masters Flashback with the unique hook of original-border Power.
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