Vintage Doomsday, Undercity Sewers, and YOU
- Eric
- 0
- on Feb 26, 2024
Undercity Sewers
Land — Island Swamp
Undercity Sewers enters the battlefield tapped.
When Undercity Sewers enters the battlefield, surveil 1.
This card and the cycle it belongs to do not seem to belong in Vintage. Speed is the game's name, and a tapped land is a huge opportunity cost. Yet. The decks built around Lórien Revealed have the silly nickname of 9Cast. This comes from the nine "Spell Lands" in the deck: Strip Mine, Wasteland, and Urza's Saga While none of these come into play tapped, they do have their downsides. Urza's Saga is vulnerable to Enchantment Hate and eventually goes away. The other two are one-shot. Strong, but use them and lose them. Undercity Sewers is a Spell Land.
"But Eric", you say. "We've had Temple of Deceit for over a decade." (Fuck.) And while Scry is different from Surveil – sometimes you don't want the card or to put it in the graveyard – this new cycle is fetchable, and that changes everything.
Here are my first instincts after several games with two copies in my main.
Don’t Build a Pile around Undercity Sewers
If you have it in your hand, it can be sweet. If you have extra fetches out, it can help zero out your deck. Building around fetching for it, though, was too slow.
Consider It a Spell When Mulling
I cut Watery Grave and a Cantrip Slot cut for two copies. This made it a 15-land deck, and Doomsday runs 14 nearly 100% of the time. It was fine in an opener with a Fetch or Underground Sea, but the times it was my only land in hand felt loose. Were it Sleight of Hand instead, the hand would be shipped back. Black Lotus or Mox Jet and Dark Ritual hands were more curious keeps, but having the flexibility of putting Lotus on top again with Preordain in hand was nice. (Draw step → Preordain → Surveil leaves 2 in the Library.)
Gush, Daze, and Flusterstorm are Undercity Sewers's Best Friends
My most common turn-one play throughout the day was Fetchland, pass. Holding up Flusterstorm with the ability to Endstep Surveil did wonders. Binning an unnecessary Fetch Land or Dark Ritual led to many potent top decks. Knowing that my next card was Black Lotus removed the need to Vampiric Tutor. Gush in hand with Sewers in play and an available Landdrop digs 3 cards into the pile. This mattered.
Daze and Seweres felt best when I had other lands in hand.
Dig Through Time Feels More Live
Doomsday is a compact combo, and playing Dig Through Time often means the game has gone long. I found myself playing more Dark Ritual, Dig Through Time, Doomsday lines because the Surveil filled my graveyard.
Will there be times Undercity Sewers entering tapped loses me a game? I don't doubt it. The two-life from playing Watery Grave has cost me games. Both players Draw-Going has lost me games when I didn't hit a land drop. Going to fifteen lands with two "Spell Lands" so far feels good. We will see how I feel one hundred matches from now.
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Best of luck to everyone playing this weekend!
Remember: Always Be Casting Doomsday.
And thanks! I love you.