With the release (only a few months to wait) of Revenge of the Sith, I was expecting a topic like this. In my opinion :

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Concerning Empire Strikes Back, I just notice that this is just everyone's favorite movie, for obvious reasons.

Attack of the Clones is underestimated I think. The keys of Anakyn's face-off are suggested (mostly in the Tusken Raiders scene, with the slaughter, the music, the colors of sky at dusk,...), fighting scenes are among the most intense of the 5 movies (especially in the arena) and the origins of Bounty Hunter Boba Fett are revealed. That said, the love affair between Anakyn and Padmé was very boring.

Return of the Jedi would have been the best, without all the Ewoks cream pie.

Now it is clear. Thx Jacob.

Toad, you made a point here...but frankly speaking, the answer given on the french forum was less than satisfying, especially concerning point 2. As my concern was precisely about how to stack properly in order not to break the loop, I decided to ask this to experts.

Worldgorger Dragon
Creature - Nightmare Dragon 7/7
Flying, Trample.
When Worldgorger Dragon comes into play, remove all other permanents you control from the game.
When Worldgorger Dragon leaves play, return the removed cards to play under their owners' control.

Volrath's Shapeshifter
Creature - Shapeshifter 0/1
As long as Volrath's Shapeshifter is in play and the top card of your graveyard is a creature card, Volrath's Shapeshifter has the full text of that card, and has '2: Discard a card from your hand.' (Volrath's Shapeshifter has that card's name, mana cost, color, types, abilities, power and toughness.)
2: Discard a card from your hand.  
 

I would like to ask two questions about the interactions that may occur between these two cards :

1-WGD is the top card in the graveyard, I play VS. Am I right to say that VS just becomes a 7/7 flying trample creature without WGD's CIP abilities stacking ?

2-VS is in play, WGD in the top card in the graveyard. I cast Animate Dead for WGD. What is happening ?

Thanks for your answers.

Ok I finally got it. My 2-neuron-brain is sometimes so slow...

But the Oracle text says :

If a player would draw a card except the first one he or she draws in a draw step, that player discards a card from his or her hand instead. If the player discards a card, he or she draws a card. If the player doesn't discard a card, he or she puts the top card of his or her library into his or her graveyard.

So it implies a replacement effect for discard, doesn't it ?

As an addition to this topic, if we consider the interaction of Chains with Zombie Infestation :

Discard two cards from your hand: Put a 2/2 black Zombie creature token into play.

then, correct me if I am wrong, but what happens is :

1) I want to pay the cost for the creation of a 2/2 zombie token by discarding two cards.
2) The replacement effect occurs, which means I draw, I discard, I draw, I discard.
3) The zombie token comes into play.

Is that right ? Thanks.

Although it has more or less to do with the subject, I do not see how your build can deal with big creatures. There is at least one Tog in your meta and you choose Tormod's Crypt in the SB to stop the big Smash : nevertheless, in my opinion, this is not a good choice.

Generally speaking, one of the big problem of Fish decks is when they have to face huge creatures. PTW uses 2 Maze of Ith in his SB, which seems a good choice. Personally, I sometimes found it not enough because they can come too late. Last time I went to a tourney, I was paired with a random Sneak-and-Tell deck that consistently puts in play a Darksteel Colossus turn 3. In most cases, I can just concede because even after SB, I could not race (that among these, this opponent packs annoying stuff like Defense grid, FoW, etc...). Besides that, I really do not like the MD Razorfin Hunter and I advocate for 2 Waterfront Bouncer MD in place of the RH/Prodigy.

ok, the land drop argument is fair. I will playtest the two versions this week, in order to make more enlightened comments. By the way, in Toad's build, one can tutor the SB Academy Rector by means of Living Wish, but in that case why not using Worldly Tutor too ? There is no enlightened tutor neither, whereas in Kowal's version, it is MD.
What are you thoughts on these tutors ?
Thanks for your answers.

Just of simple question :

As far as the drawing engine is concerned and bearing in mind you play 4 Intuitions, have you tested the Bazaar+Squee engine ?

And as a corollary :  Entomb can be interesting too (Bazaar+Squee, Deep Analysis, Therapy, etc...). What are you thoughts on that ?

That said, congratulations for this very interesting article. Always nice to see some innovation in our format.

Here is a situation I have to deal with playing Hulk Smash. My opponent puts in play a Darksteel Colossus :

Darksteel Colossus
Artifact Creature 11/11
Trample.
Darksteel Colossus is indestructible ('Destroy' effects and lethal damage don't destroy it.)
If Darksteel Colossus would be put into a graveyard from anywhere, reveal Darksteel Colossus and shuffle it into its owner's library instead.

End of my opponent's turn, I wish for artifact mutation and play it :

Artifact Mutation
Instant
Destroy target artifact. It can't be regenerated.
Put X 1/1 green Saproling creature tokens into play, where X is its converted mana cost.  
 
What is happening as the Colossus cannot be destroyed by the AM ? Can I put my 11 Saproling tokens into play, even if the resolution of the fisrt part of the spell cannot be achieved ?

Thanks for the answers.

Hi everyone,

first of all, I am not currently a EBA player, so if my comments and questions are pointless, please accept my apologies.
This deck arouses my interest a few times ago and there are several questions I would like to ask.

1- Criticism focus on the draw engine. Skeletal scrying really worth 3 slots I think because 1) the deck packs a lot of instants along with 5 to 9 fetch+strip, and 2) the deck packs up to 4 Angels with have a really good synergy with Skeletal. 5 Fetch is the number currently advocated by Tog players to optimize the use of Brainstorm and I think it is also the right number in EBA. By the way, has someone ever tried Future Sight ? The casting cost is high but Mana Drains can help and the deck runs the 7 SoLoMoxen.  

2- Angels are the core of this deck, and neutralize aggro strategies as well as can really bother HS for its smash. 4 is a good number as it can put the pressure on the control player very soon in the game, and it dykes the loss of life due to Skeletal. But like the other critters in the deck (Meddling, eventually Soldier Tokens,...), they are fragile and can die to the popular Fire/Ice until they «demorph». How good will be the old-fashioned Morphling in this deck ?

3- The counterbase along with removal is one of the strengths of EBA compared to control decks like HS, but I think this key of this deck lies in tempo mastery. So how good would it be to emphasize the mana denial aspect ? I am referring to the inclusion MD of Stifle (which is not as circumstancial as the legend says) along with a full set of Waste/Strip. I haven't any MisD too, whereas the card has showed its intrinsic strength in GAT builds. Perhaps it will be interesting to include it.

Thanks for your responses and feedback.

I would suggest WGD before the restriction of Entomb, which was a monster, the classical Necro-Donate, Fluctuator (Zvi Mowshowitz NY PT 99) or even Buehler's Jar deck. Most of historical banned decks are available at : http://thesanctuary.online.fr/index2.php3?rub=historique

I agree THK has to be MD to generate Card Advantage, but there is a subtle point I would like to underline. The build of GAT has to be more focussed on playing spells than drawing cards. One may reply : Funny guy, how can play spells when your hand is empty ? My answer is Isochron Scepter. This card allows you to play spells forever if you want, and is definitely a silver bullet. The best choice for GAT is to imprint Fire/Ice (or in a lesser extent Mana Drain), which has the following consequences :

1- Fire can kill Welders
2- Ice can neuter Aggro
3- Ice fuels the hand  

Of course, the lonely Scepter is an artifact and it lacks synergy with the dryad when it comes into play, but after a few turn, it has always be great to me. Here is my current build :
 

3 Psychatog
4 Quirion Dryad

3 Misdirection
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will

1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Mystical Tutor
2 Fire/Ice

1 Gush
3 Cunning Wish
2 Isochron Scepter  
2 Thirst for Knowledge
4 Brainstorm

1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor

1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
4 Polluted Delta
3 Underground Sea
4 Tropical Island
3 VOLCANIC ISLAND
2 Island

Sideboard:
1 Berserk
1 Misdirection
1 Magical Hack
1 Blue Elemental Blast
2 Coffin Purge
1 Stifle
1 Naturalize
2 Pernicious Deed
1 Artifact Mutation
2 REB
1 Fire/Ice
1 Diabolic Edict

Well, for sure Deed can get rid of Xantid, but to my mind, there is a problem of speed in your point. To beat Dragon with the method you gave, you assume that :

1) You find Deed and play it with a backup.
2) You find Intuition and play it with a backup.
3) At the time you play them, the Dragon player has not gone off.

These three steps can happen, and it really depends on each player's builds (my current decklist has undergone several changes compared to classic builds, that among these, I now have 3 MisDirection MD), but for example, take a look at G. De Luca list at the last Milano tourney : I can assure you will really have a hard time to fulfill your plans.

I really agree with that, and I would like to add Dragon to both lists. The differences between GAT and Hulk appears after sideboarding.
Most of the time, the Dragon player will side in Xantid Swarm against Tog (to deal with counters and Coffin purge), and everything will be fine. Nevertheless, against GAT, Dragon has to deal both with more counters (3 MisD on top of the HS basis : 4 FoW+4 MD), Ground Seal and it faces a 1 turn quicker deck than HS. The SB choices are harder to make as far as :

-Deeds seem good against Seals and Dryads, but cannot handle counters.
-Xantids handle counters but is useless against Seals.
-Xantids and Deeds cannot be side in at the same time, as Deeds crush Xantids.

So to my mind, GAT has better sideboard options against Dragon (not mentioning the use of Damping Matrix suggested by D. Hernandez) than Hulk.

I do not see the point here as Dragon has precisely its most horrible matchups against Keeper. For sure it is not Dragon that causes changes into Keeper builds.  
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Well, nice shot again.   I am really puzzled to see how much Thirst For Knowledge improves the deck's results in tourneys. I have to write you a PM for several questions.

To go back to the original topic, I think Tog has mainly two hard contenders (at least preSB) : Dragon and Slavery.

That said, it is one of the best Tier 1 decks, and looking at the top 8s of the last tournaments, it is very easy to be convinced of that.

Pre-sideboard, Dragon builds often wreck Tog decks. After sideboarding, well it really depends if the Dragon player fears the Intuition on 3 Coffin Purge Plan or not. I do, so I use 3 Misdirections and that is generally enough to have a good win ratio.

The MadDragon concept is at least quite original, but in any case, I do not see it as strong as the "straight" UGB-Dragon build for two main reasons :

1) The nature of the combo
WGD decks are not as safe for you as Tendril based decks. You cannot fully develop both an aggro strategy and a combo strategy with this deck, because the Dragon combo really needs to be protected : have ever been Stifled in response of the Leave-Play ability of the WGD ? If so, you really do not want to go off without protection (4 Duress is really not enough, at least replace them with 4 Xantid Swarm), that is why Combo-control will always be the best option for WGD decks.

2) Speed
If you reduce the number of key cards for the Dragon combo, you loose both speed and consistency. I really do not see the point in half-playing a combo deck : combo is a game of speed, so if you do not optimize it, you loose the main advantage of playing it.

Séb.

Well, first of all congratulations. It is pretty nice to see GAT back in a top 8. I have several questions, some of them will probably find answers in your primer.

Concerning your decklist :

1) I notice a very unusual thing, precisely Deep Analysis+Thirst for knowledge prefered to the traditional AKs. Why ? Is it to optimize Moxen in the late game ?

2) You run 4 Misdirection MD. This is striking, as far as the real target for it is Ancestral Recall. It can be very useful in counterwars, but it is most of the time overlooked in favor of Stifle (for example see Landstill that makes 2nd at Columbus). Does it come from a metagame choice ?

Concerning your round against SuperGro,

3)  Why do you side out your 2 Cunning wish, without even siding in Berserk ?

Well done anyway.