{"id":20,"date":"2012-11-10T11:14:52","date_gmt":"2012-11-10T16:14:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevewagenheim.com\/mtgblog\/?p=20"},"modified":"2012-11-10T11:52:15","modified_gmt":"2012-11-10T16:52:15","slug":"magic-the-gathering-tips-vintage-legacy-or-modern","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stevewagenheim.com\/mtgblog\/2012\/11\/magic-the-gathering-tips-vintage-legacy-or-modern\/","title":{"rendered":"Magic The Gathering Tips &#8211; Vintage, Legacy Or Modern?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In this article, I&#8217;m going to briefly go over the differences between Vintage, Legacy and Modern so you can make an informed decision as to whether or not you want to play any of these formats instead of either Standard Constructed or Limited, which I went over in my last article. Each format has its good and bad. So what it comes down to is what ultimately appeals to you the most.<\/p>\n<p>Let me start off by saying that I am what I call a displaced Vintage player. I love the format more than anything but don&#8217;t have the chance to play it very much. That&#8217;s one of the bad things, but we&#8217;ll get to that in more detail when we cover Vintage. The point is, I am telling you this so you will know right up front that my opinions are biased towards Vintage. However, I think I can still be objective about this and if nothing else, point out certain facts about Vintage, as well as the other formats, that are undeniable.<\/p>\n<p>Having gotten that disclaimer out of the way, let&#8217;s begin, starting with Vintage.<\/p>\n<p>Vintage is the oldest of the formats. It&#8217;s been around since formats actually came into existence sometime in the early 90s. Actually, back then it was Type I and Type II. Type I was what is now Vintage.<\/p>\n<p>So what makes Vintage unique? Well, for starters, it is the only format where you can use any of the cards that were printed in the history of the game with only a relative few exceptions such as anti cards and dexterity cards. Also, there are some cards that are restricted to ONE in a deck because they are so powerful. But for the most part, anything goes in Vintage.<\/p>\n<p>Because of this, Vintage is a very powerful format. In fact, the power level of the cards played in Vintage make it so that games can end very quickly, in one or two turns. This isn&#8217;t always the case, however, and shouldn&#8217;t be taken as the norm. Just understand that games CAN end in a flash.<\/p>\n<p>Because some of the cards are so powerful, and no longer in print, they are also VERY expensive. I am talking about hundreds of dollars for ONE card. Because of this, Vintage is very hard to get into for people on a limited budget. Because of THAT, there aren&#8217;t as many people playing Vintage as the other formats. So, if you are considering playing Vintage, prepare to spend lots of money and also lots of time traveling trying to find a game.<\/p>\n<p>Yeah &#8230; Vintage isn&#8217;t for everybody.<\/p>\n<p>But there is an upside &#8230; a big one.<\/p>\n<p>Vintage CAN be the most exciting roller coaster ride of all the formats. Just when it looks like you&#8217;re ready to get your butt kicked, one draw can turn the whole game around and then just as quickly, can turn the game right around again and have you clawing for your life.<\/p>\n<p>You can&#8217;t really appreciate how exciting Vintage is until you&#8217;ve played it.<\/p>\n<p>But yeah &#8230; it&#8217;s not for everybody.<\/p>\n<p>Legacy is very similar to Vintage. You can use just about any card ever created with a few exceptions. Anything on the Vintage banned and restricted list is banned in Legacy. Also, there are a few additional cards banned in Legacy as well. But for the most part, anything goes.<\/p>\n<div style=\"float: right;margin: 3px;\"><script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\ngoogle_ad_client = \"pub-4025562143158908\";\ngoogle_alternate_color = \"FFFFFF\";\ngoogle_ad_width = 125;\ngoogle_ad_height = 125;\ngoogle_ad_format = \"125x125_as\";\ngoogle_ad_type = \"text\";\ngoogle_ad_channel =\"\";\ngoogle_color_border = \"\";\ngoogle_color_link = \"\";\ngoogle_color_bg = \"\";\ngoogle_color_text = \"\";\ngoogle_color_url = \"\";\ngoogle_ui_features = \"rc:0\";\n\/\/--><\/script>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"\n  src=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\">\n<\/script><\/div><p>The one HUGE advantage that Legacy has over Vintage is that all the super powerful cards that are played in Vintage are banned in Legacy. This makes the format a LOT cheaper to play. Don&#8217;t get me wrong. It&#8217;s still not cheap, but you can put a good Legacy deck together for $500 to $1,000 where a good Vintage deck can easily cost you $3,000 to $5,000.<\/p>\n<p>Because of this, more people can afford to play Legacy so there ARE more people playing it. Unfortunately, because some Legacy staples, such as the original dual lands, will never be reprinted, there aren&#8217;t as many people playing Legacy as Modern and Standard, but it is much easier to find a game than in Vintage.<\/p>\n<p>Is the format AS fun as Vintage? Depends on the person. The games can also end quite fast but can also go on for quite some time. There are many decks to choose from, as in Vintage so the variety is there. Lots of cards gives you lots of decks.<\/p>\n<p>So if money is an issue but you can swing $500 for a deck, Legacy might be for you. Mind you, $500 won&#8217;t get you the BEST deck, but it will get you a playable one. For a very competitive deck, you&#8217;re probably talking in the area of $1,000.<\/p>\n<p>Please understand that these are average prices. For example, you can build a good burn deck for about $200 while Maverick will cost you about $1,700.<\/p>\n<p>The bulk of the cost for most Legacy decks is in the dual lands, Wasteland and Force of Will, more or less. Sure, there are other expensive cards, such as Tarmogoyf and Dark Confident, but the dual lands is what kills most of these decks in cost. If WotC would reprint them (not going to happen) we wouldn&#8217;t have these prices.<\/p>\n<p>Legacy is a great format and a lot cheaper than Vintage because of the banned power cards. So you might want to consider this format as an option if you&#8217;re looking for some wild action. Games are a lot easier to find than Vintage and just as fun, depending on who you ask of course.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, there is Modern. Modern is WotC&#8217;s answer to Vintage and Legacy being too expensive to play. Yes, Modern decks can run you a a few bucks as well, but a really competitive tier 1 Modern deck can still be bought for under $1,000 and you really can&#8217;t say that about Vintage or Legacy with very few exceptions.<\/p>\n<p>Modern, like Vintage and Legacy, is a non rotating format meaning that once a card is in Modern, it&#8217;s never taken out unless it&#8217;s banned. Modern does have a banned list but it is very small.<\/p>\n<p>However, unlike Vintage and Legacy which can use any cards from the beginning of time onward, Modern only uses cards from 8th Edition on. So the card pool is smaller. This means you don&#8217;t see as many decks as you do in Vintage and Legacy. However, there are still PLENTY of options in this format.<\/p>\n<p>Modern, for the most part, is a little slower than Vintage and Legacy. It is almost impossible for a game to end before turn 4 or 5. \u00a0So the games, for the most part, last longer. A lot of players like this.<\/p>\n<p>Also, there aren&#8217;t as many overpowered combos in Modern as there are in Vintage and Legacy so the games seem more fair to most people.<\/p>\n<p>But the best part of Modern is that because it&#8217;s affordable, relatively speaking, more people can play it. The cards are pretty much available with only a couple of exceptions and those are being rectified next year with the release of Modern Masters.<\/p>\n<p>In short, if you don&#8217;t like the limited deck pool of Standard (usually there are only 3 or 4 viable decks) then Modern might be for you. There&#8217;s lots of decks, it&#8217;s fun, and it won&#8217;t break your piggy bank.<\/p>\n<p>There you have it. That&#8217;s pretty much the general run down on Vintage, Legacy and Modern. Hopefully, this will be enough information to help you to make an informed decision as to which format you want to play.<\/p>\n<p>To YOUR Magic Playing Happiness,<\/p>\n<p>Steven &#8220;Land Boy&#8221; Wagenheim<\/p>\n<p>Get my FREE report\u00a0<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.stevewagenheim.com\/mtg\/mtg1\/index.html\">\u201c7 Steps To Magic Success\u201d<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and become a better Magic player<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In this article, I&#8217;m going to briefly go over the differences between Vintage, Legacy and Modern so you can make an informed decision as to whether or not you want to play any of these formats instead of either Standard &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/stevewagenheim.com\/mtgblog\/2012\/11\/magic-the-gathering-tips-vintage-legacy-or-modern\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[4,10,11,6,9],"class_list":["post-20","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-magic-the-gathering-general","category-magic-the-gathering-tips","tag-magic-the-gathering","tag-magic-the-gathering-legacy","tag-magic-the-gathering-modern","tag-magic-the-gathering-tips-2","tag-magic-the-gathering-vintage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stevewagenheim.com\/mtgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stevewagenheim.com\/mtgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stevewagenheim.com\/mtgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stevewagenheim.com\/mtgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stevewagenheim.com\/mtgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/stevewagenheim.com\/mtgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22,"href":"http:\/\/stevewagenheim.com\/mtgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20\/revisions\/22"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stevewagenheim.com\/mtgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stevewagenheim.com\/mtgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stevewagenheim.com\/mtgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}