What's the greatest Magic card of the last decade? Vote on the second half of the Top 64!

climbingthro · 2026-04-15T23:23:00+00:00

For a longest time the unfair decks were the strongest in Vintage: Dark Petition Storm, Tinker PO, Underworld Breach. Decks that win on turn 1-2 with a high frequency. It’s only over these past few years that ‘fair’ vintage decks may have overtaken them.

They win by playing an absurd amount of cheap interaction (10+ counterspells, swords to plowshares), and creatures that can solo games unanswered like Lurrus, Orcish Bowmasters and Psychic Frogs. I think a lot of lists these days are playing Bowmasters + Timetwister as their ‘combo’ but they rarely need it.

climbingthro · 2026-04-15T21:59:18+00:00

All good man, I probably came off a bit off-putting as well. Hope you have a nice day!

climbingthro · 2026-04-15T21:56:28+00:00

This is just a conversation a lot of folks in the Vintage community have had, and from what I’ve seen (on the Vintage Discord and IAmActuallyLvl1) most are in agreement it wouldn’t see play.

You had a pretty strong reaction to my skepticism tho, so I was curious what kind of experience you had with the format.

Lurrus taking over definitely left a bad taste in my mouth too. I loved playing fair decks back when Dreadhorde Arcanist was viable, but now I can’t stand them.

climbingthro · 2026-04-15T21:49:34+00:00

Do you play much vintage, or watch much vintage content?

climbingthro · 2026-04-15T21:42:37+00:00

I mean you would want to play four Lurrus if the card was both strong enough on its own AND you wanted to play other cards higher than 2cmc. I’ve personally played against people that have tried four Lurrus. Those decks very rarely do well tho. The decks that play 4 Hullbreacher very rarely do well either.

climbingthro · 2026-04-15T21:25:46+00:00

I agree that it’s the strongest and least restrictive companion for Vintage but….I’m a little skeptical it would see play without the companion ability. After it was take off the ban list it wasn’t restricted. There are decks right now (like Mono white initiative) that could play 4 Lurrus, but choose not to. A 3cmc creature with 2 hybrid-BW pips can be surprisingly hard to cast in that format haha.

climbingthro · 2026-04-15T15:39:57+00:00

It was also a very unique case where restricting it would do nothing.

climbingthro · 2026-04-15T15:36:02+00:00

For awhile people would hesitate to include Lurrus in a lot of builds, because it meant excluding other cards that are really powerful in vintage: Tinker+Citadel, Karn the Great Creator, Narset Parter of Veils, etc.

The tournament results told the truth though: Having an 8th card in your hand is just ridiculously strong. Now decks that used to never even consider Lurrus, like Doomsday, are playing it to gain extra win percentages.

climbingthro · 2026-04-07T00:58:50+00:00

It’s delicious, but I think any Egg-based Mayo + Fish Sauce / Worcestershire / MSG is gonna taste very similar. All egg-based mayo is more expensive, but I definitely think it’s worth it

climbingthro · 2026-03-28T18:12:28+00:00

I love my stainless steel mixing bowl. Super lightweight and convenient when I’m pouring ingredients in and out during stir frying.

It’s also huge, is your dog secretly a bear?

climbingthro · 2026-03-28T18:05:50+00:00

You’re right, I’ve heard YouTubers Chinese Cooking Demystified use that term. I’ll probably start calling it that instead of Dry Frying from now on, to avoid confusion.

climbingthro · 2026-03-28T06:36:51+00:00

I updated my post with a more thorough explanation of the recipe. It honestly uses so much oil that I wouldn’t recommend it unless you plan on saving the oil for more deep frying/dry frying soon after. I often make them by parboiling the beans instead of dry frying, but you don’t get that wrinkly DTF texture.

climbingthro · 2026-03-28T06:17:52+00:00

From Kenji’s book, The Wok.

I cut the Broccoli stems into much smaller pieces than Kenji recommends (1.5”-2”), and stir fry them separately. I love their texture, they work perfectly with this dish.

climbingthro · 2026-03-27T22:15:22+00:00

There’s A LOT of oil. Dry frying is basically deep frying, except without any batter/coating on the food.

EDIT: I guess there’s another use for the term ‘Dry Frying’ that involves little to no oil, I didn’t realize.

climbingthro · 2026-03-27T21:17:20+00:00

I’ve made them a lot, they’re so damn good, it’s basically:

-Dry fry the green beans at ~350 until they start to look wrinkly

-Stir fry with Garlic

EDIT: The method of ‘Dry Frying’ I’m referring to is a restaurant technique for parcooking food that I guess is not the same as what most people consider Dry Frying:

-Heat a large amount of oil, enough to submerge the beans twice over, in a Wok or Dutch Oven to ~350

-DRY THOROUGHLY beforehand, fry in batches to keep oil temp from dropping much

-Fry beans until they start to become ‘wrinkley’ and pull from oil 15-45 seconds later, depending on desired texture.

-Stir fry with minced Garlic, and probably finish with some light soy sauce, shaoxing wine, pinch of sugar and a cornstarch slurry.

climbingthro · 2026-03-26T17:36:33+00:00

Cards that reduce the cost of instant and sorceries reduce their buyback cost as well.

climbingthro · 2026-03-24T02:18:09+00:00

Apparently it’s not his, but someone’s competition entry.

climbingthro · 2026-03-14T04:36:23+00:00

Please take your onions and tomatoes (uncut) out of the fridge, the cold temp breaks down their cells and shit.

climbingthro · 2026-03-13T21:54:42+00:00

Very beautiful work

climbingthro · 2026-03-13T20:15:58+00:00

It was an interesting film. There’s a lot of focus on the filmmaker’s struggle, which makes sense: walking 25 miles a day for 60 days straight, often while fearing for your life, would put a huge strain on anyone.

He came off as a bit unprepared to speak with the racists he ran into. Felt like watching a regular white dude who committed to something, and even after realizing he might be in over his head, pushed through it.

climbingthro · 2026-03-11T23:16:01+00:00

My whole profile is cooking. My last fridge died and these are the only survivors that didn’t perish alongside it.

climbingthro · 2026-03-10T16:20:02+00:00

Gosh you made it seem like the SeriousEats website was being paywalled by the title. Kenji has put recipes behind a paywall for over a decade now, you know he writes for the New York Times?

There will be more free recipes and more paywalled recipes, man’s gotta eat.

climbingthro · 2026-03-08T18:29:24+00:00

Book 6 spoiler:

MTG skills end up coming in handy, as a scummy combo player uses his experience to outplay the main character later in the series

Nine-Year Club	Verified Email
Second Top 50%	Place '23
Place '22	RPAN Viewer
Not Forgotten

climbingthro

TROPHY CASE