The Best Deck I Have Ever Drafted! Vintage Cube Draft #73

A Vintage Cube draft on MTGO!
I'll be uploading new videos every day at 12PM Pacific time during the vintage cube :)

[@MaxMckayful]

"People always comment like oh no, you could have taken this card and drafted this deck it's like yeah but I didn't" - Caleb G. Savage. In seriousness though, I really appreciate the concept that you can try to win while also having fun. For me, it it's hard not to fall into the trap of pressuring myself into perfect gameplay to the point of it being a massive burden. And games aren't just competition, they're entertainment. One of the reasons I love this channel is watching the "fun matters" archtypes, and it's a good reminder that games can exist just to be fun.

[@MaxMckayful]

Also, Caleb always does a great job highlighting when he's not going for "best play" and instead doing "fun play". And, in defense of chat/comments, it is kinda human nature to point out the "oh, what might have been" lane even while understanding why that wasn't pursued. Humans love pointing out the obvious, we're weird like that.

[@CalebGannon]

Thanks MaxMckayful! :) I'm glad to hear that I'm helping you have a bit more fun with your games :) also I tend to find the fun line actually wins more anyway lol but maybe thats just luck

[@stephenlofton5403]

The thing about that is that most people aren’t like “oh no you should have done this instead” but rather more like “hey I saw this here’s what I would have done” to try to engage discussion/debate. At least for me anyway lol

[@benjaminlipman4436]

You've been murdering people with memory jar non stop since this iteration of the cube started. And going sphinx, draw seven, draw an additional 14 was absolutely filthy.

[@CalebGannon]

Yeah memory jar + brain freeze is a serious combo lol, you barely need any storm to go off like that and it can beat eldrazi/blightsteel

[@Rorschachqp]

It is like the incomplete Death Star and you're like Emperor Palpatine. *Caleb durdles around with the deck with a couple islands, eggs and a mountain* "Now witness the firepower of this fully ARMED and OPERATIONAL battle station!" Banefires you for 24. The only other thing the deck needs is a Channel. I call this deck "CPI" or "Commence Primary Ignition"

[@CalebGannon]

haha I wish I could heart this comment twice ^__^

[@jebooiii6462]

44:54 Welcome to vintague cube, where a 0 mana draw 2 is not that good :p

[@mrknarf4438]

Technically it's a zero mana use two cards to draw three, so just a +1. Compared to Brainstorm+fetch, it's better since the cards go to the gy and it costs one less mana, but it's worse since you "discard" first and draw second, over the course of three turns. Not that insane.

[@rastrisfrustreslosgomez544]

Draw 3 actually

[@casucasueq4479]

lotus+jace = ghetto ancestral.

[@jebooiii6462]

@@mrknarf4438 Yeah of course, I mean the play was meh. But I just loved what Caleb said there :p

[@hans202008]

I love how each cube deck you draft is the best deck you have ever drafted. :) really enjoying the video's Caleb, thank you!

[@CalebGannon]

Yeah I've been having a really hard time not titling all my videos best deck ever because they're all so exciting haha :)

[@christianhass5375]

Best MTGO channel period 💚

[@CalebGannon]

[@stuckupcurlyguy]

So true

[@theo6426]

lol how do all your vintage cube drafts become “massive mana ramp time spiral hi tides lions eye diamond”

[@CalebGannon]

because nobody seems to take those cards for some reason lol.

[@carlosspencer5369]

Every time I thought a play was correct you proved me wrong, you are insanely good and see lines of play that are so subtle it blows my mind like your opponent attacking into Sphinx with V Clique anticipating the mana doublers next turn. That draft was absolutely nuts, I would kill to wheel probe and ponder. Awesome video dude, you rule.

[@CalebGannon]

Thanks so much Carlos! X)

[@aslanpatience8278]

"A good storm deck is better than a good white weenie deck but white weenie will beat the storm almost every time" These quotes are awesome I love it

[@OdePery]

I just love watching you play insane storm decks :D

[@TBlastar]

I feel like I've been watching the same draft for the past couple of videos I'm not complaining, having a blast! Keep it up Caleb!

[@CalebGannon]

Yeah, people keep passing frantic search memory jar and I'll keep taking it haha :)

[@jarphanther6607]

Remeber when gannon prioritised signets

[@CalebGannon]

I still do! but I think I valued them a bit too highly haha

[@VAunderlineI]

Quote from Caleb: „A zero mana, draw two“ is not particularly good. That is probably even better than ancestral recall 😂 hahaha ...Nice deck and well navigated, I really appreciate your content

[@davidwillis7991]

It's better than ancestral if it's immediate and repeatable. It's much worse that ancestral in practise. Also turn 1 black lotus can cast dozens of cards that dominate the game. everyone is relieved if all it enables is Jace Beleren

[@jacefairis1289]

I love how you took a potshot with the brainfreeze, and then when they had a Blightsteel you just death star cannon'd them instead

[@Funkytrip73]

First game, you could have simply got rid of the SM with Fire instead of gamblin with Ice. You saw his hand...he wouldnt have been able to turn on the fast clock with the SoF&I. I'm sure you would have won that game.

[@richardlawrence4213]

Thank you for showing us how it's done. 👍

[@CalebGannon]

no problemo :)

[@brendanmorales4504]

I'm confused: you say you cut Ancient Tomb because you want more Islands, but Ancient Tomb taps for 2 mana ALL the time, whereas an Island would only tap for two mana SOME of the time. Do you really need the extra blue that bad?

[@arobot7426]

Yes, because there are lots of instances where either the two life matters or colorless mana can't cast your high tide or something. But ancient tomb isnt bad or anything, i just think that's probably his reasoning

[@suckmeoffitis]

boarding it in is an option, theres not a lot of cost to it in postboard games

[@CalebGannon]

Basically what Aro Bot said, its about consistency. We're not going to go off without a mana doubler, so ancient tomb and an island will generally add the same amount of mana. If you're going to tap a land for mana, frantic search, turnabout then time spiral with an ancient tomb you've just done 8 damage to yourself so the cost is very real for a marginal gain (basically it helps us cast mana flare for 1 less land).

[@brendanmorales4504]

So it's not really about "fast" mana; rather, "big combo" mana. With that in mind, Ancient Tomb doesn't really do anything for you that an Island wouldn't. Makes sense!

[@casucasueq4479]

Enjoyed this one. Passed on drafting the tendrils and went blue red freeze/bane.

[@jonathanlevy8569]

Fascinating... You didnt even cut blue really?! So, I think there were some obvious moments in the draft when a clutch card came right on time (hightide, brainstorm, saphire) or when a key direction was picked on your storm intuition (frantic search, mana flare) but for me, this deck became a deathstar juggernaut because you somehow wheeled 1 gitaxian probe, 2 ponder, 3 treasure cruise, and negate!!!! And you were like meh. Cards. Click.

[@ironocy496]

You've earned my subscription friend! Love the content.

[@umbrunoqualquer]

God I love your content so much! If I could ask one thing from you, is that you feature either Commander gameplay (1v1 or multiplayer) given the format is basically Vintage Singleton.

[@CalebGannon]

Thanks :) and I definitely want to but the mtgo interface is kinda.... horrible. I'll send out a poll to see if people would be interested.

[@negus8810]

wow this draft was amazing

[@CalebGannon]

Thanks ^__^

[@kiersmith1115]

6:46 Kaya transforms into Silverblade Paladin

[@aethertech]

Not playing around mana tithe at 32:15 hurt me. Even though I know Banefire can't be countered.

[@yawgmoth6568]

Thought this draft was pretty perfect up until Chrome Mox. I really question taking that over probe. Probe builds storm cheap, is blue for Force of Will, lets you see if the cost is clear, and doesn't cost mana to cast. It is literally nuts in this deck. Chrome Mox 2 for 1's you in a deck where you need your resources. It's bad here imo. Luckily probe wheeled though. Baral I think is a bit overrated and I would've given Time Warp consideration but it's not as bad as passing Probe imo. Also unfortunate you took Misty over Miscalc then got a way better fetch (Delta) that would've helped you cast demonic tutor AND your red stuff. This wasn't a bad pick per se because you didn't know Delta was coming. Definitely ended up a sick draft and the few pick mistakes (mistakes imo but everything is arguable) didn't punish you since the stuff wheeled. Only thing you really missed was Palinchron for the easy storm win whenever you have High Tide + 6 islands (and ofc something like Yawgmoth's Will would've been sweet too).

[@shammerHammer]

Walt how old is this draft? Scrying after a mull seems so long ago :D

[@luciusbennet2120]

Geez that's some high-tier degeneracy going on here. NOICE

[@CatPartyNYC]

What's the art in the thumbnail to this video?

[@pjm3005]

thug life emeffer!

[@lotusfrucht111]

What card is that video thumbnail?

[@nickkersey6744]

You passed gitaxian probe in a storm deck 😂

[@kokonuts5749]

19:20 Not that it matters here, but Storm Count at 8 actually mills 27 since it gets copied for each spell cast before it but there's still the original card. Just something to consider. Super sweet deck! ;)

[@CalebGannon]

Ah right, haha math is hard sometimes :)

[@gragrim]

Such a sweet deck!

[@MaTtUR50]

LSV would like to know your location

[@stephenlofton5403]

I don’t understand passing Tendrils for Mana Flare. I get if you’re going off and generating huge mana Banefire is legit but isn’t tendrils more consistent ? Also there is a stifle in the cube I believe the dissolve variant does it at 1UU.

[@SmaugUKA]

The deck he was Drafting was closer to a TYS Storm deck as opposed to a traditional Tendrils based Storm deck. Not to mention Caleb was UR when Tendrils came around with very little B fixing. Flare was better suited for this specific deck, and that's coming from someone who absolutely loves Tendrils Storm. (My main deck in real life) I wouldn't blame you for picking Tendrils there, but in hindsight you saw how important Flare was overall during those Matches.

[@andresabastante9539]

2BB is hard to cast. It's even harder when black is not even justifiable in the first place. The best tutor in the game got cut for the same reason... and it's a much better card overall and way easier to splash.

[@CalebGannon]

^ basically what they said. Tendrils is great but so hard to cast. And you saw how easy it was to generate enough mana for banefire, which being uncountable could actually just be better (tendrils can be hit by disallow as you mentioned)

[@elbenardo2715]

Nice

[@JimButter10]

How often you play these drafts? because iíf feels like most of them are insane.

[@CalebGannon]

I'm not sure what you're asking?

[@JimButter10]

@@CalebGannon well, i mean that if i see you draft, you very often have quite good deck. And while most of mtg youtubers would play 4 or 5 drafts to chose one and upload it, you also have a normal job. So it must mean you are pretty good at drafting? i tried to praise you basically but i guess my choice of words end up being lil bit dadaistic.

[@CalebGannon]

Ah I gotcha :) yeah I upload all my drafts, my vintage cube win rate is something like 70-80% usually :p

[@alanyuan8565]

Technically the opponent did have an “eldeazi” in the form of emarkul the promised end

[@Elninyo99]

whats the cover art u are using for this video?

[@CalebGannon]

MTGO only promo for time spiral :)

[@johanneseverse5108]

What is the thumbnail?

[@CalebGannon]

time spiral

[@johanneseverse5108]

Ah, I never knew it had an alternate art!

[@mrknarf4438]

Being a paper player, I hadn't recognized it as well. Apparently it's an alternate art many cards got as promos for mtgo. I just can't understand why they didn't use those arts for all cube cards, instead of just some. Here you can have a look at those promos (and some are truly amazing, such as McKinnon's best pieces): scryfall.com/sets/prm

[@CalebGannon]

I've been trying to find more obscure alternate arts so it doesn't spoil the draft outcome :p Also thanks for that link! I might use some of these arts in the future

[@mrknarf4438]

@@CalebGannon No problem man. You could also use art from other games/fantasy sources just to mess with people's heads :p Or use official Mtg art that hasn't been used for cards, but for stories, articles and such instead. Keep it up!

[@xW0LFYx]

based

[@blakeelawsonn]

I’ll be the judge

[@blakeelawsonn]

I’m a sucker for storm and twin so this was pretty amazing. One of the best storm decks I’ve seen. There was one time like last Christmas though you drafted this white/black stax/tax kind of deck and it was brutal. I think it was draft 9 maybe. Or possibly 33. Shit was wild.

[@CalebGannon]

Oh that might be the one where I went t1 strip mine to cast mana vault, play crucible of worlds. That was so gross lol

[@abe10alpha]

Caleb Gannon And you passed up on thoughtseize accidentally. Was hilarious. That was the best deck ever!

[@CalebGannon]

unfortunately that deck can't get free wins anymore because there is no black braids :( smokestack is just so much worse lol

[@Brandonnn3]

The best deck you ever drafted lost to t2 stoneforge. Yeah, I really miss cawblade in standard. NOTTTTTTTTTT

[@kevinelston404]

Nvm

[@jacobewing4534]

Ayyy first.