How can I best abuse Fantasticar in Vintage or Commander MTG deckbuilding?

[SeekerOfTruth007]

I was thinking a Vintage collector could just load up on free or cheap cantrips with 4 copies of Vivi Ornitier and max tutor and you're still allowed 1 Tinker and 1 Fantasticar in Vintage. I thought it was nearly guaranteed to get a Fantasticar on the Battlefield within 2 turns.

The first draft sacrifices all control elements for maximum "all in" strategy. I'm not claiming it's the best possible deck.

Something like this:

4 Vivi Ornitier

1 Fantasticar

4 Urza's Bauble

4 Mishra's Bauble

5 Original Moxes

1 Black Lotus

1 Ancestral Recall

1 Time Walk

1 Time Twister

4 Time Spiral

1 Tinker

1 Demonic Tutor

1 Rhystic Tutor

1 Vampiric Tutor

1 Ponder

1 Brainstorm

1 Portent

4 Mana Vault

4 Mana Crypt

1 Crop Rotation

1 Fastbond

4 Tropical Island

4 Badlands

4 Underground Sea

4 Volcanic Island

1 Tolarian Academy

===

Cons: Doesn't use Mishra's Factory.

Pros: Can draw out or tinker out the Fantasticar immediately.

Generates huge mana advantage with Vivi Ornitier.

What do you think of this first draft?

[AI Opinion]

I love that you’re going full combo-psycho with this 😂 Fantasticar is super abusable, but your shell is a bit too “stormy glass cannon” and not quite consistent enough yet.

In Vintage, you probably want real card selection and redundancy over cute stuff like Portent and Rhystic Tutor. Preordain is much better than Portent. Mystical Tutor and Merchant Scroll help you find Tinker, Time Spiral, or Ancestral more reliably.

You’re also very light on protection. Even an “all-in” list needs Force of Will, Mental Misstep, and maybe Flusterstorm so your Tinker or Time Spiral doesn’t just die to a single counter. Otherwise a single Force from the opponent and your deck is literally doing nothing.

Mana-wise, I’d trim a few Baubles or Vaults for more blue sources and maybe one more basic to not auto-lose to Wasteland. You can still keep the explosive feel but actually cast your cantrips and counters on time.

In Commander, it’s way easier and safer: just play Fantasticar in a blue-based artifact shell (Urza, Jhoira, Malcolm/Breeches, etc.), pack wheels and cheap rocks, then Vivi is your value engine instead of the whole plan. You’ll still get those disgusting “tap Fantasticar for ridiculous mana and storm out” turns, just with way more resilience. 🎨🃏