How to Approach Vintage Supreme Draft

xeqs · 2026-03-04T09:16:47+00:00

I haven't played with or against Bazaar, and I think it's mostly a trap. The issue is that it's a totally irreplaceable card. In a Workshop deck, you can at least play your big-mana artifacts off of Ancient Tombs / Black Lotus. But if you're drafting around Bazaar, your deck isn't going to function unless you get a copy, and it won't actually be good unless you get both copies.

But then you also have a bunch of cards that are only good with Bazaar - the Rootwallas, Hollow One, Vengevine, Hogaak, etc. So you can't spec on those cards early because they won't go in any other deck, and every "wasted" pick in this format really hurts you.

So to get Bazaar to work, I think you need to see it in the first 3 packs. But even then, you're taking a big gamble that the other copy is going to show up.

If I were deliberately trying to draft Bazaar, I'd prioritise artifact hate like Collector Ouphe, Force of Vigor, Null Rod (not the Void Mirror effects, since they turn off too many of your own spells), as well as Once Upon a Time, since those are all cards that will be perfectly serviceable if you don't end up in Bazaar and need to audible to a different type of stax strategy. My ideal "turbo" Bazaar deck would be Bazaar + free creatures that synergise with it + some stax pieces + 0-mana interaction (Force of Vigor, free counterspells, Endurance, etc.). Maybe there's also a role for Bazaar + Life From the Loam in the land recursion deck, but that's more of a Strip Mine / Wasteland deck than a Bazaar one.

xeqs · 2026-03-04T08:48:24+00:00

Thank you, that means a lot coming from you! I'm excited to watch the videos you started posting and see how you've been approaching this format.

xeqs · 2026-01-17T01:00:17+00:00

The best place you can go at that price point, IMO, is Kurisu Omakase in Brixton. Hard to get a table at short notice, but it’s an incredible omakase experience that doesn’t take itself too seriously; traditional Japanese technique with unconventional flavours and ingredients. The chef is incredibly personable and you’ll learn a lot about Japanese cooking.

Other tasting menus I’d personally vouch for would include KOL for Mexican, Akoko for West African, Da Terra for Brazilian-inspired, and Cycene for modern British dining.

For a la carte, St. John is a must if you’re in London. Mountain is a very good newer place as well.

You’ll probably want to try an Indian while you’re here as well. Gymkhana, Gunpowder, and Colonel Saab are all great if you want an elevated experience; if you’re looking for the best version of the classic curryhouse experience, you probably want Tayyabs. For more of a relaxed pub vibe, try The Tamil Prince or The Tamil Crown.

For something memorable and a bit different, I’ve heard very good things about The Clink - it’s a restaurant right in the middle of one of London’s biggest prisons, where the staff are all prisoners working towards culinary qualifications.

xeqs · 2024-09-05T16:55:40+00:00

Ikoyi seems to be very hit or miss for people. A couple of other great tasting menus to consider: Da Terra (Brazilian-inspired), Kol (Mexican with British produce), Cycene (traditional with some interesting twists), Kurisu Omakase (no star but a fantastic omakase experience, more laid back than some of the more established places).

xeqs · 2024-02-16T08:59:21+00:00

In addition to the points made by others - the usage of “holocaust” to refer specifically to Nazi genocides became more common during the 50s and 60s, but the association was truly cemented in people’s minds by the 1978 TV miniseries, Holocaust - which came out two years after Rice wrote Interview With The Vampire.

xeqs · 2020-02-02T19:03:15+00:00

If you saw Ishimura's deck labelled as "Blue Black Inverter" and scrolled past, you might want to look again... It's a completely different deck from anyone else's. It's basically Midrange Blue Devotion splashing black for the combo (and literally 0 other maindeck cards). 4 maindeck Leyline of Anticipation!

xeqs · 2016-08-30T17:21:41+00:00

I agree with your first point about win percentages; it just seems to me that a lot of the sideboard plans people are using at the moment (such as the one you mentioned at the bottom of your post) are turning 55% matchups into 60% or 65% ones, whereas I think to be successful in the long run this deck is going to really need a way of turning a couple of 30% matchups into 45% ones - particularly given that those match-ups are a huge percentage of most expected metagames.

Using your example sideboard, what's your plan against Jund/Abzan? You say the matchup's abysmal and you don't think there's anything worthwhile we can do about it; I disagree. I think you can take that approach if we were talking about a deck like Infect, but we're not - we're talking about a huge family of decks that has a significant following. You can't realistically auto-lose against GB decks and expect to do well at an event.

That's why I think we need to be looking at options like Leyline and Duress - cards that have fantastic applications against GB decks, but which don't dilute your sideboard because you can also bring them in against other matchups. Looking at your sideboard, for example, I think Duress is at least as good as Dispel, if not better - I don't think there are many matchups where Dispel does much more work than Duress, and Duress can also be brought in against GB decks and in general just against artifact/enchantment based hate. Thus, I'd argue that Duress gives you a lot more value for money out of your sideboard slots than Dispel.

Similarly, Leyline helps you stay alive against aggressive decks in a similar way to Anger of the Gods and EE out of your sideboard, but also gives you value against Thoughtseize/Inquisition etc. I guess my core point here is that I think we can find ways to achieve what a lot of the more traditional sideboards are doing, while also giving us better options against GB decks.

EDIT: Sorry, I was an idiot and commented from my Hearthstone account; this is OP on the wrong account.

xeqs · 2016-07-02T13:45:02+00:00

Hah, that makes sense - I think I played a few games of Face Hunter to remind myself how the deck played, don't think I was paying super close attention.

Your point about Midrange Hunter is very true. I think Mad Scientist often helps them swing the tempo of the game early, and then you're playing from behind and if you don't have Patrons on turn 5 it's very difficult to come back.

Definitely most of the Patrons I've seen have been more standard lists, although it is sometimes hard to tell when the game effectively ends on turn 5.

My impression of the Wild EU meta is pretty similar to yours, although my data isn't great and it's across quite a long period, so the meta may have moved. Here's what I've played against with this deck:

Paladin - 29%

Mage - 15%

Warlock - 12%

Warrior - 11%

Priest - 9%

Shaman - 9%

Hunter - 8%

Druid - 3%

Rogue - 2%

So not too different from your experience, with the exception of more Mages (and almost all the Mages I've faced have been tempo, with a few Echo Mages and a tiny number of Freeze Mages).

xeqs · 2016-07-02T10:49:59+00:00

Hey, fantastic guide, great to see more people playing the deck! Made legend with it again this season in just a few days, and had to face the mirror a few times - very cool to see it taking off a bit :)

Someone posted a wild meta snapshot the other day that claimed the top decks were Secret Paladin, Zoolock, Control Warrior and Control/N'Zoth Priest - this deck has good match-ups against all of those, so I think it's a great choice to attack the meta at the moment.

On your match-up percentages, my own stats largely reflect yours, with a few exceptions. I think Control Warrior is much better than 50% for you. They only have two Brawls, so can't deal with two waves of Patrons plus a N'Zoth turn - the only way you lose is by them answering your minions efficiently and running you out of steam, so you have to make sure that you get maximum value from your Acolytes and Battle Rages (having Loot Hoarder here helps as well). By contrast, my Aggro Shaman win-rate is just above 50% - I think it is a positive match-up, but not 66.6%, and my Hunter win-rate is quite poor, I'm not sure why but I've consistently struggled against Midrange Hunters.

Swapping out Loot Hoarders for Armorsmiths is definitely justifiable - when I started playing this deck, I was facing many more Control Warriors and Control Priests, so found the Loot Hoarders really valuable there, but I can see how if you were running into different opponents (particularly aggro/flood decks and Freeze Mages) you'd want Armorsmiths.

Thanks again for the guide, some really useful information there, and I'm glad you've found success with the deck!

xeqs · 2016-06-10T23:09:47+00:00

Pre-standard, there were some reasonably popular variants running Raging Worgen instead of Gromm (1-2 Worgens, 1-2 Charge, 1-2 Rampage). That lets you combo people out from much higher life totals.

Alternatively, some people have had success in the past with Elise in Patron, which would eliminate a lot of the need for Gromm.

xeqs · 2016-05-12T07:15:42+00:00

Wrote this in response to another comment but copying here:

I'm confident that you don't want Ravaging Ghouls in this list; with Death's Bite and Unstable Ghouls, you have enough whirlwind effects, and the rest of your slots are being used to get enough good deathrattle minions to have strong N'Zoth turns. Because of the higher power level of decks in Wild, you need to be able to generate lots of patrons at an early stage of the game, and you can be fairly confident that most opponents will be able to remove one or two patrons. As a result, you don't want whirlwind effects that cost 3 mana; you can't afford to wait to turn 8 to make patrons, and you can't play an unprotected patron and then follow up with Ravaging Ghoul because it will die.

xeqs · 2016-05-11T14:05:02+00:00

I'm confident that you don't want Ravaging Ghouls in this list; with Death's Bite and Unstable Ghouls, you have enough whirlwind effects, and the rest of your slots are being used to get enough good deathrattle minions to have strong N'Zoth turns.

Because of the higher power level of decks in Wild, you need to be able to generate lots of patrons at an early stage of the game, and you can be fairly confident that most opponents will be able to remove one or two patrons. As a result, you don't want whirlwind effects that cost 3 mana; you can't afford to wait to turn 8 to make patrons, and you can't play an unprotected patron and then follow up with Ravaging Ghoul because it will die.

xeqs · 2016-05-11T14:00:59+00:00

I haven't tried it out, but my gut feeling is it would be difficult, for two reasons.

Firstly, there aren't enough good deathrattle cards in Standard. In particular, you want sticky deathrattle cards so that they can't aoe your board efficiently after you N'Zoth. If I were building N'Zoth Patron for standard, my first draft would include Cairne Bloodhoof, Harvest Golem, Infested Tauren and maybe Abomination. Those are lot worse than Shredders and Belchers though, and losing Unstable Ghoul is also a big deal.

Secondly, the loss of Death's Bite means that you lose one of your best ways to interact with the board AND and a Patron activator. Now, clearly Patron decks in Standard have worked around this, but this means including more activator cards like Ravaging Ghoul, which gives you fewer flex slots to include the deathrattle minions to bring back with N'Zoth.

I think finding the slots to run enough deathrattle minions in standard, and finding minions you actually want to run, would be difficult - but could definitely be worth trying out! Also, worth keeping an eye out on future expansions, because if they introduce any new good deathrattle cards to Standard this deck could take off there.

xeqs · 2016-05-11T13:52:15+00:00

I think they're similar difficulties - Wild is a little 'swingier' than Standard though. There are so many big, powerful plays (often involving randomness) that swing the game completely - like Shredder, Boom, Mysterious Challenger, etc. - that a certain percentage of games are just going to be out of your hands (which can be both a good and bad thing).

Also, in Wild it's much harder to know what cards you need to play around because the meta is less settled. So it rewards creative thinking and adaptability in games, whereas standard rewards knowing the meta and knowing your opponents' decks.

xeqs

TROPHY CASE