Magic: The Gathering – What Is The Vintage Format?

Magic: the Gathering has been around for over thirty years, and there are close to 30,000 unique cards available to play with. But both new and returning players might discover that their older cards or pieces from the preconstructed Commander deck they bought aren’t permitted in Standard events, which only allow the most recent few sets. Players hoping to use a wider variety of cards will often be directed to the Vintage format.

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The Vintage format, formerly known as Type I, has the deepest pool of available cards, stretching all the way back to 1993’s Alpha edition, and you can use almost any card ever printed. This allows Vintage decks to be some of the most versatile decks you can build.

Vintage Basics

Like the majority of other constructed formats, Vintage games are played as one-on-one games between two players. Each player uses a deck consisting of a minimum of 60 cards, with the option to include a 15-card sideboard. Aside from basic lands, cards with special rules, and cards on the Vintage Restricted List, players may use up to four copies of any card in their decks.

Some cards are considered too powerful for players to have multiple copies in their deck. Therefore, the Restricted List was put together to limit players to a single copy of these cards.

Vintage Restricted List

Ancestral Recall

Imperial Seal

Mox Emerald

Thorn of Amethyst

Balance

Karn, the Great Creator

Mox Jet

Time Vault

Black Lotus

Library of Alexandria

Mox Pearl

Time Walk

Brainstorm

Lion's Eye Diamond

Mox Ruby

Timetwister

Chalice of the Void

Lodestone Golem

Mox Sapphire

Tinker

Channel

Lotus Petal

Mystic Forge

Tolarian Academy

Demonic Consultation

Mana Crypt

Mystical Tutor

Treasure Cruise

Demonic Tutor

Mana Vault

Narset, Parter of Veils

Trinisphere

Dig Through Time

Memory Jar

Necropotence

Vampiric Tutor

Flash

Mental Misstep

Ponder

Wheel of Fortune

Gitaxian Probe

Merchant Scroll

Sol Ring

Windfall

Golgari Grave-Troll

Mind's Desire

Strip Mine

Yawgmoth's Will

Gush

Monastery Mentor

While Vintage and Legacy formats have access to a very similar card pool, Vintage decks are often played at a much higher power level. This is because the main difference between the formats is that Vintage decks have access to some of the most powerful cards ever printed, such as the Power Nine, which are banned in Legacy.

What Cards Are Legal?

As an eternal format, all cards are legal in Vintage decks, with some exceptions: cards with a gold or silver border, cards with an acorn security mark, and cards that appear on the Banned List are all prohibited.

Gold-bordered cards are cards from the World Championship Decks series, printed from 1997-2004. Each of these decks is a duplicate of one of the top-ranked decks from the World Championship of the year that they were printed, with a special back and a stamped autograph of the player who built the deck. Since these cards do not have a standard back, they aren’t allowed, even if the deck is sleeved.

Silver-bordered cards are usually from one of the “Un-sets,” which were designed to be silly and entertaining, not for actual competitive play. As fun as it is to prevent damage by doing the hokey pokey or taking off your pants, these actions are not intended to occur in a tournament setting.

The fifth Un-set printed all cards with black borders, but marked a little over half the cards with a distinct acorn-shaped security stamp. The acorn stamp signifies that the card is not legal for play in any official format, but cards from that set without the stamp are legal in Vintage and other eternal formats.

Outside of these exceptions, a handful of cards appear on the Banned List. Cards on the Banned List cannot be used in Vintage decks. Banned cards fall into five general categories: cards that are limited to a specific format, cards that reference ante, cards with racist text or imagery, cards requiring feats of dexterity, and Shahrazad.

Vintage Banned List

Adriana's Valor

Immediate Action

Unexpected Potential

Timmerian Fiends

Advantageous Proclamation

Incendiary Dissent

Weight Advantage

Invoke Prejudice

Assemble the Rank and File

Iterative Analysis

Worldknit

Cleanse

Backup Plan

Muzzio's Preparations

Amulet of Quoz

Stone-Throwing Devils

Brago's Favor

Natural Unity

Bronze Tablet

Pradesh Gypsies

Double Stroke

Power Play

Contract from Below

Jihad

Echoing Boon

Secret Summoning

Darkpact

Imprison

Emissary's Ploy

Secrets of Paradise

Demonic Attorney

Crusade

Hired Heist

Sentinel Dispatch

Jeweled Bird

Chaos Orb

Hold the Perimeter

Sovereign's Realm

Rebirth

Falling Star

Hymn of the Wilds

Summoner's Bond

Tempest Efreet

Shahrazad

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Why Is Vintage Different?

The biggest difference between Vintage and other formats is the huge card pool. It shares most of the card pool with the Legacy format, but the distinct difference between Legacy and Vintage is that the Vintage Restricted List is banned in Legacy.

Since these cards are available in this format, Vintage is played at a much higher power level than Legacy, and games tend to be much shorter.

The availability of high-powered mana-producing artifacts such as Black Lotus, Mana Vault, Sol Ring, and the original five Moxes and low-cost search and draw cards such as Demonic Consultation, Mystic Tutor, and Ancestral Recall result in fast-paced games that may not even last two turns.

Key Decks In Vintage

Combo

Combo decks are designed with a very specific strategy, and a variety of tools to make that strategy work. There are a variety of combo decks, but an example template revolves around Goblin Charbelcher.

A Charbelcher deck typically runs 0-2 lands and relies on fast mana cards such as Black Lotus and Mana Crypt to play Goblin Charbelcher on the first turn and use it to reveal their entire deck for lethal damage. These types of decks tend to either win quickly or fail to get off the ground, and are often weak to disruptive effects.

Shops

Shops decks take advantage of the absurd mana production of Mishra's Workshop to play almost exclusively artifacts. These decks come in two flavors: Prison and Aggro.

Both decks aim to lock opponents down using cards like Trinisphere and Sphere of Resistance, but Prison shop decks try to win using creatures that double as lock components, such as Lodestone Golem, while Aggro shop decks include more aggressive attackers such as Arcbound Ravager.

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Mono-White Initiative

Mono-White Initiative decks are powerful, consistent, and resilient enough to keep playing even after early-game interruptions. They take advantage of the Initiative mechanic to gain both card and board advantage, and use that advantage to play lock pieces similar to Shops decks or powerful creatures early enough to cause problems for their opponents.

Dimir Bowmasters

Dimir Bowmasters plays similarly to the Beanstalk Control decks in Legacy, but the availability of fast mana sources on the Restricted List means that they can function without the Up the Beanstalk cards that give the legacy staple its name. As quickly as players tend to draw in Vintage games, an early Orcish Bowmasters is an enormous threat, punishing opponents for drawing cards with both damage and a growing army of orcs.

Dredge

Black has always had spells to put creatures into play from the graveyard, and Dredge decks take full advantage of that mechanic. By dumping a large portion of their library into the graveyard, Dredge decks create fertile ground to reanimate large threats early using cards such as Dread Return, or create an army of zombies with Bridge from Below.

Dredge decks are consistent enough and powerful enough to be favorites in a lot of matchups, and they're the reason that extremely powerful creatures such as Emrakul, the Aeons Torn can't be moved into a graveyard.

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