Establishing a Value Vintage Community

Being a grassroots format, it’s most important to make sure that the regulars at your game store are familiar with the Value Vintage rules and common archetypes available. The VV Discord has loads of resources available for new players. Everything from example decks to brewing advice, to FAQs, lists of staples, and more. It’s the best place to send your players for information without a doubt. If you prefer a more hands-on approach, this Visual Asset Pack includes our logo, posters, and upcoming event templates for you to print and share.

If you want to hit the ground running and get cards into players’ hands, building a “battle box” of sorts for players to borrow and jam games with is a quick and easy way to get them hooked. Because these decks would be purely introductory, you won’t have to worry too much about keeping them in budget so long as the changes aren’t egregious. You don’t even have to make them real cards – just some high quality proxies will do. A fairly representative list of example decks can be found here. 

For a quick and easy way to teach players about the format, Tolarian Community College posted a wonderful introductory video. If you’re using this video to teach the format’s rules though, make sure the players know to build their decks on Moxfield using TCGPlayer pricing and that basic lands do not count towards their deck’s price. 

Deck Registration

The easiest and most common way to congregate decklist submissions for your Value Vintage event is through a simple Google Form like this one. All you need is the player’s name, their list, and a screenshot of their deck with the price if you so desire. Giving players the option to lock in a decklist with a screenshot gives them a sense of security against price spikes before an event with a more intense prize structure. Accepting registrants a week or so in advance is a solid window for everyone to get their lists in and under budget.

If you’re skeptical as to the validity of a screenshot vs. the registered deck there’s a couple steps you can take:

• Deck-check the player to make sure their paper deck, Moxfield list, and screenshot all match.
• Look at the deck’s edit history for anything fishy.
• Duplicate the list and update to cheapest to see if you get similar results.

Most of the time this isn’t going to be an issue. More people are honest than not. But it is still good to have a plan in order to keep the scumbags away.

For regular weekly events it is almost never necessary to go through all the hassle of setting up a submission window, as things will generally be lower stakes. Having someone who is willing to make sure everyone just submits their decklist to the form to be checked day-of if needed is more than enough. 

After the Event

Once the dust has settled, send your event’s decklists and and standings over to @a_balanced_breakfast. in the VV discord, and he’ll get your event’s results posted in the tournament results channel so everyone can take a gander at all the cool stuff your players are doing. It will also encourage your players to take part in their regional chat to coordinate driving more players to your future events.