You could say the cat is (still) out of the Vintage bag.
Vintage and Legacy have their highest-level tournaments at three Eternal Weekend events around the world. This year, they will be held in Pittsburgh, PA, USA (October 9-12); Lucca, Italy (November 27-30); and Yokohama, Japan (December 13-14). Additionally, September saw two massive Vintage events hosted on Magic Online (MTGO). Plus, MagicCon Atlanta featured a tabletop Vintage Cup tournament (I packed Dimir Doomsday in case I missed Day 2 of Pro Tour Edge of Eternities).
The Best Vintage Decks in Magic: The Gathering (October 2025)
Market Price: $2,999.99
Market Price: $172.65
Market Price: $993.06
It’s always a special time of year for me. I’m a huge fan of Vintage, and getting to see Magic: The Gathering’s oldest and most legendary cards in action is a ton of fun. These formats are home to iconic cards, interesting decks, and an enormous range of gameplay experiences. They’re challenging and engaging, as you tend to have a ton of choices in every game. Attention to detail is often rewarded, while careless mistakes can be promptly punished. ARTICLE SPOTLIGHTEverything You Need to Know About Vintage – Deep DiveOne of MTGO’s cheapest formats is also its most powerful! Learn everything about the high-octane Vintage format in Reid’s latest Deep Dive!Reid Duke3/24/2022
While building a Vintage collection from scratch can be prohibitively expensive, the format is accessible to a broader range of players via MTGO. Tabletop Vintage events may choose to allow proxies or to offer additional prize support for unpowered decks. For a more timeless introduction to the format, check out my format guide above.
Let’s Talk About Lurrus of the Dream-Den
Lurrus of the Dream-Den
Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths, Rare
In a format that’s supposed to be about Black Lotus, Time Walk, and Ancestral Recall, it’s unusual to discuss banning cards for “power level” reasons. One exception in recent years has been Lurrus of the Dream-Den. Due to the unique nature of the Companion card type, the normal Vintage policy of “restricting” powerful cards to one copy doesn’t affect Lurrus.
Of the more than 600 successful Vintage decks I looked at for these Power Rankings, 38% of them use Lurrus of the Dream-Den as a companion. There are many other powerful strategies available in Vintage. Decks powered by Mishra’s Workshop made up 19% and do not use Lurrus. Similarly, decks powered by Bazaar of Baghdad made up 7% and do not use Lurrus. You’ll see several other unique strategies on the Rankings that are not eligible for the companion.
Market Price: $18.89
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Market Price: $29.05
All of that said, the advantage of playing with Lurrus has become clear to competitive players. You effectively get access to a free eighth card in every game, and Lurrus can dominate games alongside mana engines like Black Lotus, threats like Psychic Frog, or even hate cards like Nihil Spellbomb. Pairing down resources with permission spells and Wastelands can pave the way for Lurrus to win the game incidentally when the dust settles.
My advice is that if you can restructure your deck to include Lurrus, you should strongly consider doing so. For example, I now play Lurrus in Dimir Doomsday; it means missing out on Street Wraith and Necropotence, but I find the tradeoff worthwhile. Likewise, you can choose to include Lurrus in Underworld Breach decks, Paradoxical Outcome decks, and Sultai Midrange by shifting around just a few card choices.
#12 Tinker
Market Price: $184.19
Market Price: $13.82
I think Tinker makes a reasonable claim to being the best card in Vintage ever since the printing of Bolas’s Citadel, which frequently leads to a one-card, immediate win. Regardless of how you actually rank them, it’s fair to put Tinker and Tolarian Academy right up there with Ancestral Recall, Time Walk, and Black Lotus as the most broken cards in Magic: The Gathering. A deck that can use them all to their full potential is quite appealing.
The problem, of course, is that Tinker-ing for Bolas’s Citadel precludes you from using Lurrus as a companion. I see this as a reason why a strategy that was once dominant in Vintage has slid down to #12 in the Power Rankings.
#11 Paradoxical Outcome
Market Price: $39.62
Market Price: $3,379.99
The best part is that all of the cards that drive Paradoxical Outcome are the cards you want to be playing with anyway! So, although this is a combo deck in play style, it can also take the role of a midrange or control deck and win long games. Some decks, like the one featured, actually incorporate both Paradoxical Outcome and Underworld Breach for multiple combo angles.
Paradoxical Outcome is an example of a deck that may or may not utilize Lurrus of the Dream-Den, and I believe that doing so will serve you better in a competitive environment.
#10 Sultai Midrange
Sultai Midrange may or may not play Lurrus, but Leovold, Emissary of Trest and Oko, Thief of Crowns are two huge appeals of the color combination and currently make the non-Lurrus version the more popular choice. However, this is another case where I recommend that my fellow Sultai mages strongly consider a Lurrus version.
If you have a healthy Modern/Legacy collection (but no Black Lotus), then Sultai is one of the decks you might more realistically be able to piece together and be competitive.
#9 Doomsday
Market Price: $19.14
In some games, you cast Doomsday, pass, and win the following turn. Even better, if you resolve Doomsday with the ability to draw a card, you can typically win all in one turn. It can look like:
- Doomsday, cycle Street Wraith (draw into Gush), Gush (draw into Black Lotus and Thassa’s Oracle), cast Lotus, cast Oracle with two cards in your library, and win the game.
As mentioned, I’ve personally been experimenting with Lurrus of the Dream-Den in my Doomsday deck. However, the traditional version with Street Wraith and Necropotence is still more common.
#8 Bazaar Decks – Dredge & Squeevine
Market Price: $1,757.73
You can consider three primary versions of Bazaar decks. In order of relative popularity in 2025, with the first being the classic Dredge, seen above. The second, I’m calling Squeevine — a manaless Vengevine, Hollow One Madness-style deck that plays tons of free permission spells like Force of Will and Mindbreak Trap. The third is a Vengevine, Hollow One deck that does have mana, and uses Gaea’s Cradle and Boseiju, Who Endures to power out Collector Ouphe and other forms of disruption.
Bazaar decks always tend to be better represented at the paper Eternal Weekends than they do on MTGO, so I’m keeping an eye on both Dredge and Squeevine to overperform expectations.
#7 Underworld Breach
Market Price: $11.04
Market Price: $44.70
Underworld Breach may or may not include Lurrus, but the Lurrus version is both more popular and more successful at the time of publication. Lurrus Breach won the recent MTGO Vintage Super Qualifier. And I have to say, I absolutely love the decklist! Four copies of Mana Drain is a blast from the past, and it’s really exciting to see that card show up in 2025.
#6 Colorless Workshops
Market Price: $2,386.98
Colorless Workshop decks come in a variety of forms, but you can consider two primary approaches. The first will be more aggressive, using hard-hitting threats like Patchwork Automaton, Nettlecyst, or sometimes even Arcbound Ravager. The second will be more of a prison deck, seeking to lock the opponent out of the game with Strip Mine and Crucible of Worlds. Both versions will be heavily disruptive with the set of Wasteland and Spheres of Resistance — the featured decklist touches both angles of attack nicely
This archetype is powerful and iconic, and it’s made a notable comeback onto the competitive Vintage scene in 2025.
#5 Oath of Druids
Market Price: $12.88
Market Price: $12.26
These days, we can do a bit better with Atraxa, Grand Unifier. You can get Atraxa onto the battlefield via the classic Oath of Druids plus Forbidden Orchard combo, or simply by casting Flash or Show and Tell. Since 2023, Oath has become a top-tier strategy in Vintage once again. I expect to see it well-represented and performing admirably at Eternal Weekend over the next few months.
#4 Esper Lurrus
When you start the game with Lurrus, if you can manage not to lose quickly, then you’re winning. By prolonging the game and exchanging resources, Lurrus will quickly become the most crucial card on either side of the battlefield. In the #4 position, we have Esper Lurrus. White is primarily for Swords to Plowshares, which remains the premier removal spell in Magic: The Gathering, plus Lavinia, Azorius Renegade, which provides devastating, one-sided disruption across a wide range of matchups.
#3 Blue Workshops
Market Price: $80.26
The goal is to cast Coveted Jewel and start copying it over and over again with Phyrexian Metamorph. With some key blue cards and many of its mana sources only producing colorless, this deck has a few moving pieces that you need to properly line up. However, you’re rewarded by tapping into Force of Will and all of the restricted blue spells, and achieving a power level that’s through the roof.
#2 White Initiative
While White Plume Adventurer is banned in Legacy for power level reasons, it’s still a fair game to play four in Vintage. This is an aggressive and disruptive white creature deck that slows down the opponent with Chancellor of the Annex and Archon of Emeria and gets them dead quickly by venturing into the Undercity.
#1 Dimir Lurrus
Market Price: $28.16
Market Price: $63.24
If Lurrus is one of the best cards in Vintage, then structuring your deck to access Lurrus every game — while also getting full playsets of amazing cards like Wasteland, Psychic Frog, and Orcish Bowmasters — must be a good plan. This deck is heavily disruptive and has a fair, creature game plan driven by the powerful Psychic Frog. I’m not sure that there’s any archetype in Vintage that’s excited to get paired against an experience pilot playing Dimir Lurrus.