Vintage 101: Bending the Elements
Howdy folks! It's time yet again for another edition of Vintage 101! I'm your host, Joe Dyer, and this week we're going to bending all four elements with a look at Avatar: The Last Airbender for Vintage! In addition to that we've got a brief touch on this past week's Banned and Restricted Announcement, as well as some Challenges from this past week.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
Yip Yip! Avatar: The Last Airbender for Vintage
We've got a new Standard set coming soon in the form of Avatar: The Last Airbender! Let's get on a Sky Bison and see what cards could be played in Vintage! There's not really a lot here frankly, and this is no real particular order. If there are any cards you think I missed, please let me know in the comments!
Wan Shi Tong, Librarian
This one is kind of neat. Being able to flash him in is sweet, and it seems like a strong card. Now granted, Orcish Bowmasters is a thing, but I could see this seeing play somewhere.
Mai, Scornful Striker
Kambal, Consul of Allocation definitely used to see play in Vintage a long time ago, so the effect is solid, but this one is interesting because it's a two mana card as opposed to a three mana card, so it can be played in Lurrus.
Redirect Lightning
There's tons of things this card can hit and redirect which is really cool. A single red mana and 5 life is a strong way to push something else a different way if you need it.
Price of Freedom
This sort of reminds me of Cleansing Wildfire, but it also hits artifacts, so that in of itself could be super relevant. Probably not heavily playable though.
Smellerbee, Rebel Fighter
Another Haste enabler for a Dread Return style Dredge pile. This isn't really where Dredge is at right now so I don't think it will see any play.
Sokka, Bold Boomeranger
I only think this one could be fun because it's a rummage effect, and it gets bigger when you cast artifacts AND its two mana for Lurrus shenanigans. That alone might be cool in like Breach decks, where you want something like Laelia, the Blade Reforged that gets huge but actually fits into the Lurrus shell. I like it.
Ba Sing Se
I'm not sure if there's a deck that actually wants this effect, but maybe something like Lurrus DRS where you can likely have 2G to do this with easily. The cool thing about Earthbending is if the lands get destroyed or exiled while it's a creature (or dies in some other fashion) then it comes right back tapped. So like... Wasteland and Strip Mine? Yeah, that's a thing to think about. I don't know if it would see play but it would be really cool.
Banned and Restricted Announcement November 10th, 2025 - No Changes to Vintage
We had a recent Banned and Restricted Announcement this past Monday in which there were no changes to Vintage! Let's see what they had to say about the format.
This seems pretty right in line with the Vintage format we've seen going on. Things look pretty good from a high level overview and Vintage seems to be pretty stable and in a good place. I'm okay with this update and not having any changes, but I also would like to maybe see some unrestrictions too.
Vintage Challenge 32 11/6/2025
The first Challenge event of the week was the Thursday event. This event had 45 players in it thanks to the MTGO Vintage Discord.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Lurrus PO was the most played deck of the event and it had a pretty middle of the road win rate here. Lurrus Breach was super good here, as was Raker Shops.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Raker Shops | 1st | musasabi |
| Esper Lurrus | 2nd | Kenzaburo |
| Sphere Shops | 3rd | Montolio |
| Dimir Lurrus | 4th | Schiaveto |
| Lurrus Breach | 5th | wiky |
| Lurrus PO | 6th | Michelino |
| Lurrus PO | 7th | _Mago_ |
| Lurrus Breach | 8th | CrazyDiamond513 |
Lot of Lurrus in this Top 8. At the end of the event it was Raker Shops that won.
This is a pretty solid list. It's crazy how close this deck is to Mystic Forge Combo in Legacy, with just a lot more juice.
In Second Place we had Esper Lurrus.
Pretty straightforward honestly. The Lavinia is a nice inclusion here. I always like that card. Stony Silence in the main deck is kind of wild too but I get it.
Vintage Challenge 32 11/7/2025
The second Challenge event of the week was the Friday event. This event had 41 players in it thanks to the MTGO Vintage Discord.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Initiative was the most played deck and it had a really good win rate overall. Jewel Shops also had a pretty good win rate here. Dredge had a very bad win rate.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Initiative | 1st | _4L3 |
| Lurrus Breach | 2nd | wiky |
| Initiative | 3rd | LasVegasChaos |
| Red Prison | 4th | WadeB |
| Countervine | 5th | karatedom |
| Esper Lurrus | 6th | Zenith777 |
| Lurrus Breach | 7th | cicciogire |
| Initiative | 8th | IpseVenenaBibas |
Fair bit of Initiative here, and in fact it won the event.
I still don't super agree with Void Mirror in large numbers in this deck. Maybe one copy, I don't know. I still really like March of Otherworldly Light in this deck, but no copies to see here..
In Second Place we had Lurrus Breach.
This is a pretty solid list. It's kind of cool that Mana Drain sees play again in Vintage, as its a really powerful card, and getting to Drain into Gifts or Stock Up is really absurd.
Vintage Challenge 32 11/8/2025
The third Challenge event of the week was the Saturday event. This event had 52 players in it thanks to the MTGO Vintage Discord.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Initiative was the most played deck again and it had a positive win rate. Raker Shops, Lurrus Breach, and Dimir Lurrus all looked great here. Sphere Shops did poorly.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Lurrus Breach | 1st | desolutionist |
| Raker Shops | 2nd | musasabi |
| Lurrus PO | 3rd | shir kahn |
| Intiiative | 4th | ElCucuy |
| Dimir Lurrus | 5th | O_danielakos |
| Raker Shops | 6th | magiclaszlo |
| Raker Shops | 7th | SinKarma |
| Dimir Lurrus | 8th | HJ_Kaiser |
Big split between Raker and Lurrus decks. At the end of the event it was Lurrus Breach that won.
Overencumbered in the sideboard is WILD. I have to maybe imagine this is for Sphere Shops opponents, right? Can't attack with your board if you can't spend seven mana? Seems legit.
In Second Place we had Raker Shops.
Very straightforward list. Not much to really say about it because it looks super stock.
Vintage Challenge 32 11/9/2025
The final Challenge event of the week was the Sunday event. This event had 39 players in it thanks to the MTGO Vintage Discord.
You can find all of the decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Initiative was the most played deck again but its win rate was really bad. Raker Shops, Dredge, and Lurrus Breach were great here.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Raker Shops | 1st | _Joseba_ |
| Lurrus Breach | 2nd | discoverN |
| Dredge | 3rd | juan89888 |
| Raker Shops | 4th | crK |
| Raker Shops | 5th | _Batutinha_ |
| Oath | 6th | _epinephrine |
| Doomsday | 7th | SingPanMan |
| Esper Lurrus | 8th | Kenzaburo |
Pretty solid Top 8 here. At the end of the event it was Raker Shops that won.
Basically, the same list that did well all the rest of the events this past week.
In Second Place we had Lurrus Breach.
Ooh. I like the sideboard copy of Forth Eorlingas!. Seems like a sick way to grab a win when no one is expecting it.
Around the Web
- Kindamtg has a Dark Depths pile. Check it out here.
- Justin Gennari has some stuff for us:
- Revenantkioku has some thoughts about Psychic Frog. Check it out here.
The Spice Corner
Wrapping Up
That's all the time we have this week folks! Thanks for your continued support of the column, and join me next week as we continue our journey into Vintage!
As always you can reach me at my Link Tree! In addition, you can always reach me on the MTGGoldfish Discord Server and the Vintage Streamers Discord.
Until next time!
