Regarding my personal playtests, I realised that Jace is often too expensive. The idea that Jace's role is to filter out dead cards is wrong in my opinion. First, 4 mana are too expensive for that role; second, playing combo means that you should be faster than having the time to abuse of Jace's ability; third, the tokens you make with Orchard are often annoying for your Jace.

I saw too often unplayable hands with too many dead cards. Tendrils of Agony, Show and Tell, Mox Ruby, Land, a counter, Jace, Dark Ritual. That's an example which translate what I feel sometimes when opening a hand. My point is that this hand would be way better with a See Beyond instead of the Jace. Manipulators like See Beyond help in a very interesting way the regularity of the deck.

And what is awesome about it is that first you draw, then you choose! Sometimes you thought you would put Griselbrand back in the library, but you draw a Show and Tell! The opposite is true as well.

I agree. I was nicely surprised how good See Beyond can be. I tested 4 of them instead of the Jaces and Ponder and it worked out quite good. A starting hand with a Griselbrand, a Tendrils, one mox and one land but 2 See Beyond becomes fair. What do you think guys?

Josh, I tested Delver of Secrets as a three of (minus 1 Jace, 1 Null Rod, 1 REB) and it's really good to put the pressure really fast. What do you think about it?

Mainly because they cost only one (Qasali was not a good idea). But on second thoughts, Tombstalker seems really great, I didn't think about him. Against MUD, you can reduce the cost if there is a Sphere/Golem and Tormod's Crypt doesn't work if he tries to do it in response. I'll definitely test him.

I'm currently looking for a way to deal with graveyard hate by not using the graveyard anymore. Something that would oblige the opponent to still care about your graveyard - because you could be dangerous - but in the same time be able to put pressure with your hand.

Have ever tried a sideboard like this with some Nature's Claim maindeck?

4 Savannah Lions
4 Elite Vanguard or maybe Goblin Guide
3 Isamaru, Hound of Konda
4 Qasali Pridemage (with something like 10 lands that give you 5 colors)

I realised that a lot of the games I played post board, 2 or 3 tokens if often enough to overrun the opponent.

What do you think?

Nice article, thank you.


What would be the main differences in the maindeck and sideboard to fight those kind of decks? What was the particularity of the TPS in 2004?

Do you think it would be a solution to play Dark Confidant for example?

I tried too to do some monoblack with Sadistic Sacrament and the combo. I found the build really good except against... Fish and MUD. Do you have the same problems? What could we run against those two matchups? Darkblast? Hopefully, Vampire Hexmage has first strike, but I don't know if that's enough ! And then against MUD?

Maybe this card would be beter than Mogg Fanatic...

Bile Urchin (B)
Creature - Spirit
Sacrifice Bile Urchin: Target player loses 1 life.
1/1

Is naming Mogg Fanatic right with Pithing Needle? Is this case, Bile Urchin could surprise your opponent if he didn't see your kill. Another advantage: you can hardcast it.

That's a pity...

You misunderstood me. Tropical Storm IS a TPS with Gush. You have to play it like TPS. And then if you have Fastbond in your hand or two Gush and a tutor, you may play it like a Gush deck. That's the strength of Fastbond.

There is something you don't understand in my deck. This is not a Gush Bond deck with Rituals, it's a TPS with Fastbond. Your plan is too kill you opponent, not to have fun with Fastbond.

Without Merchant Scroll (my build doesn't play them), you can only use the Gush engine most of the time after a Necro or a Twister (with Fastbond in play). When your tutor up for Fastbond, you really aren't sure to make 20 damages (if you have only one Gush in your hand). If you don't play Rituals, you take off cards that allow you to win with broken starting hands. With them, you deck is more aggressive and put pressure.

No, no and no. If you have two rituals in hand, Bargain is a must. If you have one ritual, Necropotence is a must. If you have one Gush and Dark Ritual, Necropotence is a must. Why? Because with Necro you can draw into Fastbond kill and make it far better than with only one Gush. If you have two Gush, you really aren't sure to combo out (depends).

Fastbond just allow your deck to make Necro and Twister better, that's all. I think it's a bad idea to base your deck around it. More than one Merchant Scroll is most of the time a bad choice in the deck.

Additionaly, your deck is really bomb light. Bargain is a enormous bomb.


Lol. Pyroblast and Red Elemental Blast is the same card. In storm deck, you play Pyroblast. That's a good card, but I'm already playing green and 4 colors is too much for me. Fire/Ice? Please. I never wanted to have it in my hand! ETW is a nice card but I really prefer to Tendrils my opponent, really. That's a personal choice.

I would like to share my list here to have some feedbacks. I'm a very old TPS player, that's why I had some difficulties to add green and Gush. My starting list was this:


// NAME : [T1] TPS
// CREATOR : Negator (magic-ville.com)
// FORMAT : Vintage
        1 Swamp
        2 Flooded Strand
        2 Island
        4 Polluted Delta
        4 Underground Sea
        1 Black Lotus
        1 Lotus Petal
        1 Mana Crypt
        1 Mana Vault
        1 Mox Jet
        1 Mox Sapphire
        1 Sol Ring
        1 Necropotence
        1 Yawgmoth's Bargain
        1 Ancestral Recall
        1 Chain of Vapor
        1 Hurkyl's Recall
        1 Mystical Tutor
        1 Necrologia (is better than you think)
        1 Vampiric Tutor
        2 Cabal Ritual
        2 Gush
        4 Brainstorm
        4 Dark Ritual
        4 Force of Will
        1 Demonic Tutor
        1 Imperial Seal
        1 Merchant Scroll
        1 Personal Tutor
        1 Time Walk
        1 Timetwister
        1 Yawgmoth's Will
        2 Tendrils of Agony
        3 Ponder
        4 Duress

I made the following changes:
-1 Personal Tutor
-1 Merchant Scroll
-1 Cabal Ritual
-1 Necrologia
-1 Underground Sea
-1 Swamp

+1 Flooded Strand
+1 Fastbond
+1 Ponder
+1 Tropical Island
+2 Gush

I kept the Bargain in because this card is just to good to be cut. No Tinker, no Memory Jar, no 11/11, no Emerald. I think Cabal Ritual is a lot better than Emerald, Tinker is weaker without it and I never liked Memory Jar. Additionaly, Cabal Ritual makes Bargain faster. Lotus Petal is still good with Will. What do you think about that list?[/u]

I agree with you hvndr3d y34r h3x for Chain of Vapor. This card is randomly good!

Hi!

This decks seems to be really cool. I thought about Phyrexian Dreadnought and stifle. Isn't it possible to make room for them?

2 Phyrexian
3 Stifle

It will improve the goblin matchup and speed up the clock.

It should be really funny to kill your opponent with à 12/12 in a fish deck!

Well BigMac, if you are not playing Time Spiral and Gifts Ungiven, what are you playing in you TPS build?  :lol:

I know you are playing Wheel of Fortune but I will be interested to see a deck list, could you post one?


Ok, but Cunning Wish don't have more targets... Well Brain Freeze ok but I think TPS can work without it.

Cunning Wish can search:

Gifts Ungiven, Echoing Truth, Rebuild, Chain of Vapor, Misdirection, Brain Freeze and... Hurkyl's Recall.

Merchant Scroll can search:

Gifts Ungiven, Chain of Vapor, Rebuild, Force of Will, Mystical Tutor and... Ancestral Recall.

I agree Merchant Scroll isn't that great, but I think Cunning Wish too IMO. What do you generaly fetch with Cunning Wish? Gifts Ungiven? 

Ok I understand. Another thing is Cunning Wish. I played it during at least during 6-7 months and realised that Merchant Scroll was just better. I almost never kill with Brainfreeze because I'm playing with 2 Tendrils of Agony. I don't understand why you want to play 3 kill condition maindeck. Anyway, you can't Gifts for a kill and you still fear Jester Caps. I know that you can Wish for bounce, draw and counter but Merchant Scroll do the same thing, but instead of Skeletal Scrying or Fact or Fiction, it will search Ancestral Recall. Instead of Misdirection, it will search Force of Will. Merchant Scroll has just not access to Echoing Truth, but he can fetch Chain of Vapor and Rebuild. Another advantage is that it's coverted mana cost is one cheaper. I really liked Merchant Scroll even if it is sorcery speed. I really don't like to have Cunning Wish in my hand except when I have a ton of blue mana, no black mana and 14 spells. What do you think about it?

Ok thanks.


Don't you want to Brainstorm in response of the Wasteland to search some lands?

Edit: What do you think about Tainted Pact if you have some slots in your TPS build? I found it great. Is the remove effet that bad?

I have two questions for you Negator13. I would have known what you will do in those kind of situations. Let me explain.

A)

You won the die roll. You start the game with the folowing cards (This game is pre-sideboard, so your opponent doesn't have any idea what you are playing): Time Spiral, Mox Pearl, Frantic Search, Brainstorm, Brainstorm, Underground Sea, Island.

I started like that (I precise I did that in a goldfish game):

1) First of my turn, Island. End of turn of my opponent, Brainstorm -> Duress, Flooded Strand, Dark Ritual. I put Undergound Sea firstly and Flooded Strand secondly on the top of my library.

2) I draw Flooded Strand. What would you do? You opponent still doesn't know what your are playing and lay a Island in his turn. Would you try to sham the Mana Drain or would you play the Duress?

Personnaly, I would choose to sham the Mana Drain, and I would play Brainstorm in the end of turn on my opponent and then use my fetchland to shuffle my library. Do you agree with that?

B)

You won the die roll. You don't know what your opponent is playing. You have two options in your first turn: Brainstorm or Duress. What would you play?

The same situation but you know that you opponent is playing a Control-Combo deck like Gifts or Oath. What would you play firstly? Duress or Brainstorm?

There is something I don't understand with the deck. I don't know it very well but I don't see how the deck can deal with Extract on Darksteel Colossus (I know Extract is not played at all but I would have wanted to know if this card is a good tech against this deck). Can it kill with the Tendrils of Agony easily? The same thing with Tormod's Crypt. How can it deal with it?

Thanks for response.

First off, I enjoyed to read your primer! It was very interesting.

I was justwondering one thing:


Why not sideboard in Brain Freeze in this two matchups? In response of the tutor for the lethal Tendrils of Agony, I think it is very useful. I did it once in a tournament and it won me the game because my opponent put his lone Tendrils of Agony from his library in his graveyard.

Well, it's a good idea, but in what does it improve any matchups? Why would I side that? To do what?

I saw a couple of days ago an interesting TPS's decklist from Hi-Val on Starcitygames.com. It was something like this:

From Hi-Val:

1 Future Sight  What do you think about the addition of this card to the maindeck?

1 Psychatog  The same question for Psychatog, what do you think of this creature instead of Darksteel Colossus?

3 Island  I think the third Island is here to support the three blue mana of Future Sight.

I found this decklist interesting too because it doesn't use Cunning Wish. It can have a extremely good sideboard. Three days ago I tested against T1T and I was a lot disapointed because I didn't have good results. Without Cunning Wish, I could make space in my sideboard to put Defense Grid and some other interesting stuff. I think that in game two with TPS, you have to try to disturb the opponent rather than use addtionnal draw or tutoring IMO. Against Control, Defense Grid is almost an auto-win card when it is not countered. I tried to add two Skeletal Scrying against T1T but it didn't improve my results a lot.

The main question of this thread is to know what you would put in your TPS's sideboard if you were not running Cunning Wish in you maindeck.

Me too. I just said that is analysis is illogical if he doesn't speak about Mana Drain. Nothing needs restriction IMO.

First, this prediction is for December 1st, not for now. I think that he wants to create a sort of balance. If Mishra's Workshop and Dark Ritual is restricted, Bob.dec would become dominant, so he wants to restrict it too. The thing that I don't understand is, that he forgot Mana Drain in his prediction...

http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/expandnews.php?Article=8644

Ben Bleiweiss wrote:


He didn't speak about Mana Drain in his prediction...

Thoughts

I don't see the Gifts Ungiven's targets in all matchups. Can somebody unlighten me? Are there some tricks to discover?

Why do you not try 2 Waterfront Bouncer and 1 Chain of Vapor instead of the white splash?

Sigil of Sleep against Akroma?  

What do you think of a build that takes away Null Rod and Curiosity for Mask of Memory, Skullclamp and Goblin Vandal?

1 Library of Alexandria
1 Polluted Delta
1 Faerie Conclave
1 Strip Mine
1 Mox Sapphire
2 Island
4 Flooded Strand
4 Volcanic Island
4 Mishra's Factory
4 Wasteland
-23 (no Voidmage Prodigy)-

4 Goblin Vandal
4 Cloud of Faeries
4 Spiketail Hatchling
4 Grim Lavamancer
-16-

2 Mask of Memory
4 Skullclamp
4 Standstill
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Ancestral Recall
2 *Blue Spell for FoW*
2 Daze
4 Force of Will
1 Time Walk
-21-

Null Rod isn't THE CARD tech against Stax and Drain Slaver, conversely, Goblin Vandal is good.

Thougths?

Edit: -2 Mask of Memory, + 2 Blue Spell.

That's the only Fish Ur post that I found. So I'll ask my question here.

What do you think of this modification (from a standard build)?

-2 Faerie Conclave, -2 Fire/Ice or -2 Stifle or -1 Stifle, -1 Misdirection | +2 Tundra, +2 Swords to Plowshares.

I think that this alternation can improve a lot of matchups, like Dragon, 4cc, (maybe Oath), Madness, random Aggro, etc.

Thoughts?

Wow, nice report!

Did you not regret a Basic Island?

Is the power of Standstill reduce without Cloud of Faeries?

What about Worldgorger Dragon and Ambassador Laquatus in this deck? You can cange the reanimation spells.