For quite some time, graveyard decks have been a pillar of the Vintage format. While Dredge is currently the most popular graveyard strategy, Vengevine shells aren’t too far behind. Interestingly, even though Vintage offers a vast card pool and these archetypes have been well-established for years, there’s still room for players to innovate. In a format where Black Lotus is legal, it’s shocking to see a recent Spider Man uncommon be somewhat viable at all.
A few days ago, Magic Online user IAmActuallyLvL1 5-0’d a Vintage League incorporating a playset of Hobgoblin, Mantled Marauder. This list has a lot of interesting stuff going on and takes a more aggressive approach than most other graveyard Vintage builds.
Applying Pressure
At first glance, the inclusion of Marauding Mako and Hobgoblin in this list may seem jarring. After all, both cards start out puny. However, thanks to the power of Bazaar of Baghdad, both of these threats become absolute monsters.
A single activation of Bazaar makes Hobgoblin into a seven-power threat that can attack right away past ground blockers. Meanwhile, Marauding Mako gets three +1/+1 counters each time you tap Bazaar. With a playset of Bazaar alongside the all-powerful Serum Powder, you should have no problem mulliganing aggressively to find the broken land. As good as the red threats are at maximizing Bazaar, though, they do require some deckbuilding restrictions to utilize.
The biggest hurdle you need to overcome is simply being able to cast these red cards consistently. While most graveyard decks in Vintage play very few lands (if any) outside of Bazaar, Wasteland, and Strip Mine, this variant is forced to also play a handful of red-producing lands to get these cards into play consistently.
From there, four copies of Simian Spirit Guide, along with Mox Ruby and Black Lotus, help you jam these cards ahead of schedule. Still, you run the risk of drawing a handful of these red cards alongside Bazaar, but with no way to get them into play.
Additionally, adding in Hobgoblin, Mako, and extra mana sources to this archetype requires you to cut down on free interaction. You no longer have enough blue cards to maximize Force of Will and Force of Negation, which do a good job keeping the broken artifact decks in check. That being said, these extra slots do keep your gameplan of applying pressure much more consistent.
Additional Threats
Once you have Bazaar rolled up, there are plenty of other ways to take advantage of the free discard outlet besides Hobgoblin and Mako. A single Bazaar activation digs for Hollow One and cuts its cost down to zero mana. This deck features playsets of both Basking Rootwalla and Blazing Rootwalla as well, which can easily be cast via Madness when discarded.
With 12 free threats in the mix, Vengevine becomes a reliable beater and one of your best cards to discard. Meanwhile, discarding Squee, Goblin Nabob helps make up for Bazaar’s resource disadvantage downside, since the Goblin will come right back to your hand during your next turn.
These threats are all traditional elements of CounterVine Vintage shells. As unorthodox as the Hobgoblin and Mako package is, there are some matchup-specific advantages to going down this route.
Tradeoffs
Ultimately, where this list gets a decent edge is in matchups ruled by combat. Against Mono-White Initiative, for example, having access to efficient threats to fight over The Initiative is a big deal. Hobgoblin is especially strong here since it has Haste and evasion. Additionally, Force of Will and Force of Negation, which you give up, are pretty weak against Initiative, due to the presence of Cavern of Souls and very few noncreature spells.
Similarly, in the Vengevine mirror, Hobgoblin threatens to break ground board stalls wide open. Marauding Mako can quickly outsize opposing copies of Hollow One and Vengevine, making it the ultimate blocker that can turn the corner on a whim. Between Hollow One, Hobgoblin, Mako, and Anje’s Ravager, you even have a lot of proactive plays that sidestep Leyline of the Void, which your opponent will likely have in the sideboard.
The problem is that when you play against combo decks, the loss of free counter magic comes back to bite you. From Oath of Druids to Doomsday, there are numerous cards that can singlehandedly win your opponent the game before you’re able to mount a big enough offense to close things out.
Given how many game-breaking plays are available in a format as powerful as Vintage, playing a list like this is definitely quite risky. You need to be prepared to mulligan aggressively and accept some polarizing matchups. Regardless, it’s rare to see any Standard-legal uncommon creature put up results in Vintage, and Hobgoblin from MTG Spider Man delivered.
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