Welcome back to Very Limited, GatheringMagic.com’s exclusive Limited column. Vintage Masters events start today on Magic Online. It’s a new format, and it looks exceptionally complicated. We’ll be focusing on one archetype though. G/U Madness is poised to be the favorite Draft archetype of Vintage Masters. We’ll be discussing the general strategy of the G/U Madness archetype and hammering out our pick orders for the G/U Madness deck.

We want to ensure that we have the necessary madness outlets to make our deck function. This is Vintage Masters, so we’ll be forced to take a lot of cards because of sheer value. Obviously powerful cards, such as Ancestral Recall, Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Time Walk, Black Lotus, and many others are worthy of being taken above all other things.

Generally speaking, the G/U Madness deck wants to establish a leading board presence and press the advantage with countermagic, disruption, and combat tricks while the opponent flounders for answers. This is Limited, though, so it’s rarely going to pan out that way. Vintage Masters isn’t Cube, and we’ll be forced to play some lackluster cards in our deck. G/U Madness will probably play out like G/U stuff in a lot of its games.

Let’s check out our pick orders for G/U in Vintage Masters! It’s obviously worthwhile to take something we can trade for a bunch of tickets over a common or uncommon that might be great for our G/U Madness deck.

Sol Ring – Sol Ring puts us two turns ahead forever and actually generates intangible card advantage. Normally, we require two cards to produce 2 mana every turn. With Sol Ring, it’s only one card, and it’s completely busted.

Black Lotus – Turn-one Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Go.

Jace, the Mind Sculptor – I’m tempted to have this even higher. Again, this is a real Limited format with a lot of enjoyable, long, and/or interesting games. JTMS breaks those games wide open. In fact, it’s really hard to lose when we cast this and the opponent has one or zero creatures on the battlefield.

Time Walk – Relentless Assault, draw a card, untap all our lands—that seems like a fine deal at 2 mana.

Future Sight – This is a card we’ll see later than we should. Those who haven’t played with Future Sight may not be familiar with the absurdity that comes with being able to play the top card of our deck. Rest assured, this is a bomb.

Control Magic – Sometimes, the opponent has a really good creature. The card is, at worst, a two-for-one. Some players may like taking cards such as Skullclamp or Survival of the Fittest over Control Magic, but I like having a card that’s good no matter how far ahead or behind I might be.

Survival of the Fittest – The card works nicely with madness and helps us find the best possible creature to play on a given turn. The ceiling on this card is very high, so we’re starting it all the way up here. I could see this falling a bit on the pick order list after a few Drafts though.

Serendib Efreet and Erhnam Djinn – Many players don’t recognize the power of Serendib Efreet and Erhnam Djinn. The huge power and toughness at low cost and small color requirement make these two very easy first picks in a lot of spots.

Yavimaya Elder – Ancestral Recall looks good on legs.

Blastoderm – Blastoderm can easily take over games when our deck is reasonably aggressive. I especially like it in decks with a lot of evasion that will be forcing chump-blocks.

Upheaval – As a green deck, we’ll probably have access to a good amount of mana ramp. Casting Upheaval, floating a bunch of mana, and using it to play a threat onto an empty board is a very nice way to end things.

Deranged Hermit – Squirrels!

Waterfront Bouncer – This is a madness outlet that turns every one of our cards into an Unsummon. Seems to be a pretty good deal for 2 mana.

Wild Mongrel – It’s hard to contend with Wild Mongrel. It’s among the very best madness outlets; it allows us to discard excess lands to win fights as games go long, and it can even change colors to mess with a lot of the white cards in the set.

Sylvan Library – Consistency is important.

Masticore – I do solemnly swear to dump all of my mana into this every turn forever until my opponent is dead.

Silvos, Rogue Elemental – The Rogue Elemental ends games quickly—8 power worth of trample and regeneration are awfully big game. Eat your heart out, Force of Nature.

Krovikan Sorcerer – I really would’ve loved some Merfolk Looter action in this set, wherein a card like that would be absolutely absurd. Still, this is a nice replacement that has the added bonus of being super-crafty if we happen to be playing some black cards.

Let’s check out our remaining pick order list. We’ll start with the best and gradually make our way toward the less-than-optimal.

• Aquamoeba
• Roar of the Wurm
• Genesis
• Arrogant Wurm
• Basking Rootwalla
• Brindle Shoat
• Gaea's Embrace
• Morphling
• Stroke of Genius
• Mana Drain

• Mana Crypt
• Mox Sapphire
• Mox Emerald
• Simian Grunts
• Penumbra Wurm
• Symbiotic Wurm
• Sudden Strength
• Deep Analysis
• Man-o'-war
• Counterspell

• Edric, Spymaster of Trest
• Fact or Fiction
• Memory Jar
• Ring of Gix
• Krosan Tusker
• Gush
• Circular Logic
• Mox Jet
• Mox Pearl
• Mox Ruby

• Repel
• Fyndhorn Elves
• Nevinyrral's Disk
• Provoke
• Grizzly Fate
• Owl Familiar
• Killer Whale
• Tradewind Rider
• Thalakos Drifters
• Giant Mantis

• Krosan Vorine
• Nature's Lore
• Berserk
• Palinchron
• Sea Drake
• Skywing Aven
• Brainstorm
• Force of Will
• Dreampod Druid
• Ephemeron

• Hermit Druid
• Gigapede
• Scrivener
• Rescind
• Aether Mutation
• Temporal Fissure
• Cloud Djinn
• Elvish Aberration
• Ophidian

• Obsessive Search
• Desert Twister
• Cursed Scroll
• Mana Vault
• Chimeric Idol
• Su-Chi
• Jungle Wurm
• Power Sink
• Keeneye Aven

• Cloud of Faeries
• Armor of Thorns
• Frantic Search
• Choking Tethers
• Bazaar of Baghdad
• Predator, Flagship
• Academy Elite
• Thopter Squadron
• Triangle of War
• Fastbond

G/U is probably going to be among the most popular archetypes early on in the format. It’s nice being blue because it gives us a chance to open up some real power and put it to good use. The G/U deck should do very well against other midrange or control strategies, against which its top-end plan should trump other decks. However, the deck lacks inexpensive creatures and may find itself being run over by some of the R/W decks.

In the coming weeks, we’ll continue exploring the Vintage Masters format. Vintage Masters launches today on Magic Online. Come draft with me!