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Back in November, BillTheDuck (before he quite magic) borrowed my Bazaars for a few weeks (in an effort to play Madness). During his Madness playing days, he also attempted to construct a control deck using Bazaar of Baghdad. Fast forward some weeks, and I find myself becoming bored with my mediocre Reanimator deck, not to mention that it ran 4 Burning Wishes which became unplayable (and Zherbus stopped bringing Timetwister with him to tournaments). I decided to take a shot at building a Bazaar Control deck myself.
Okay, enough background story.
I approach building a Bazaar Control deck this way: The deck needed to run at least 3 Bazaars and at least 3 Squees, and they needed to fit seamlessly (or almost seamlessly) into the deck. Bazaar is not Bazaar with out Squee, and if the deck does not run at least 3 of each, why bother running them at all?
I wanted to find a way to incorporate Bazaars into the purpose of the deck. Obviously, simply replacing 6 cards in the latest “Best deck out there� build, with 3 Bazaars and 3 Squees would not suffice. My first inspiration was the AK/Intuition draw engine. The graveyard dependant drawing mechanic seemed to flow with the mechanics of Bazaar. Deep Analysis also fit this mold and was considered, as well as Compulsion. After lots of ideas, what I ended up settling on was a deck that draws tons of cards then chucks them all for the sake of victory. It is more or less as deck of some utility, a lot of draw cards, and a bazaar (pardon the pun) win condition.
I would love to call this deck something cleaver like Arabian Zombies or Bazaar of the Living Dead, but at this point the deck is not good enough (and/or I do not play it well enough) to warrant a name better than Bazaar/Zombie Control. Below is the deck that I played at NH this past weekend and in Waterbury 2 tourneys ago. Enjoy!
Mana Producers: 20
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Mox Jet
1x Black Lotus
1x Sol Ring
4x Underground Sea
4x Polluted Delta
7x Island
1x Swamp
Disruption/Denial: 14
4x Mana Drain
4x Force of Will
3x Duress
1x Stifle
1x Chain of Vapor
1x Strip Mine
Search: 7
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Mystical Tutor
3x Intuition
2x Cunning Wish
Draw: 15
4x Bazaar of Baghdad
4x Squee, Goblin Nabob
4x Accumulated Knowledge
2x Deep Analysis
1x Ancestral Recall
Utility: 2
1x Yawgmoth’s Will
1x Time Walk
Kill: 3
Zombie Infestation
Total Cards: 61
The Board: 15
2x Smother
1x Diabolic Edict
1x Gush
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Coffin Purge
1x Deep Analysis
2x Tormod’s Crypt
2x Energy Flux
1x Hurkyl’s Recall
3x Blue Elemental Blast
Card Choices:
I wanted to create a control deck that was able to take advantage of Bazaar of Baghdad’s power. Since Bazaar inherently loads up your graveyard, I wanted to focus on the graveyard. The deck needed to utilize its graveyard, so I tried to incorporate as many graveyard dependant or graveyard effected cards as seemed reasonable. What I got was a pile that just seemed to work.
Lands:
-Of course Bazaar was included in the deck.
-Sapphire, Jet and Lotus were in.
-You have got to love Sol Ring.
-Underground and Polluted Delta made sense as well.
-To round it out, I added 7 Islands
-And one Swamp for kicks (and redundancy)
So far I have been pretty satisfied with the mana base. I rarely seem to draw too much or too little mana producing cards. At this point I would not change this aspect of the deck.
Spells:
-I couldn’t pass up a chance to run Squee, Goblin Nabob. He fits all to well.
-The Accumulated Knowledge/Intuition/Deep Analysis draw engine was too good to pass up. These cards fit perfectly with the theme of the deck. The deck incorporates two powerful and tested draw engines together, and allows them to feed off one another.
-The usual disruption and counter cards are also included. Force of Will, Mana Drain, and Duress are too good to pass up.
-Also included are the usual restricted cards such as Ancestral Recall, Time Walk, Yawgmoth’s Will, and Demonic & Mystical Tutor.
-This deck currently runs 2 Cunning Wishes; though I am not entirely convince they are needed. They have been helpful at times, fetching just the right answer in a pinch, but I am open to options.
-The lone Chain of Vapors:
Chain of Vapors
U Instant
Text(ON): Return target nonland permanent to its owner's hand. Then that permanent's controller may sacrifice a land. If the player does, he or she may copy this spell and may choose a new target for that copy.
While I imagine many people would disagree, I absolutely love this card. It is my main deck catchall, when timed correctly. Among other things, it gives you a second chance to counter your opponent’s threat.
-Finally, the win condition: Zombie Infestation. That’s right! This deck uses Zombie Infestation as the kill, or more accurately lots of Zombie tokens created by Zombie Infestation as the kill. The Infestation is fueled by the 4 Squees and the many cards drawn by its draw engine.
Sideboard: general for now, will update later.
While it may not look it, this deck runs smoother than you may think. Most cards work in conjunction with most other cards. With a Bazaar or Zombie Infestation in play, you can discard an AK or Deep Analysis, if you don’t have enough Squees in hand. You can Intuition for most cards in the deck in a pitch, since most run 3 or more. The deck can take advantage of Bazaar or AK to out draw its opponent, it doesn’t need both. If your Bazaar is wasted or striped, it is no big deal. Chances are you were able to use it 2 or 3 times to load up on more draw spells. Use your AKs, and Deep Analysis to draw another Bazaar. This deck is kind of like shampoo, wash rinse, repeat. Bazaar, AK/Deep Analysis, repeat. If both are working, most decks cannot keep pace. It also runs a good amount of disruption in FOWs, Mana Drains, and Duress. The can also makes great use out of Yawgmoth’s Will. This deck (like some other decks) will win 1/3rd of the time by casting Yawg Will, then drawing a ton of cards, discarding them to Zombie Infestation, Time Walking, and then swinging with X number of Zombies for the win. While I could ramble on about the little idiosyncrasies of this deck, I urge you to give it a shot on MWS or apprentice and see for yourself.
Testing & Results:
I went 3-0-3 and made 9th place at the recent NH tournament. (By the way, I am glad to see Type 1 coming to Southern NH, NE Mass.) Though the metagame wasn’t as competitive as one of the “Championship� tournaments, it was certainly a fair starting point. There seemed to be an above average number of fish/standstill decks (I played 3), but overall it was somewhat balanced.
Now, let’s look at the results of Bazaar/Zombie Control in the field. The good news is I never lost a match; the bad news is it didn't matter, since I didn't make the cut. I must point out that the 3 ties are deceptive. While, one of the ties was a 1-1-0 match, the other two were 1-1-1 matches that ended after our 5 turn clock ran out. In both cases I feel that I had solid board position and could have possibly won. It is very possible that I could have gone 4-1-1 or maybe, but less likely, 5-0-1. Either one would have made top 8, I believe. I played 3 fish/standstill decks, TNT, Hulk, and something else I cannot remember. (I also played 4c Control in a $1 match, but Ben Kowal is just too good a player that I couldn’t keep up.) Insert sarcastic comment here:_____.
Match Ups:
While I know this is a cliché, but I have found that if I can play my game I can win. What do I mean by my game...? I need to start my draw engine faster that my opponent, be capable of responding to his threats, making the most out of my broken stuff, and dropping my threat when appropriate. In the end though, it all comes down to drawing more cards.
While the above is true I know it is extremely general and thus useless in a serious discussion of this deck, so I will try to give a few examples of matchups. In General:
Aggro: Drop a Zombie Infestation as fast as possible and then find your Squees. It also helps to be able to counter a few severe threats along the way. Just survive and then out draw aggro, like you were Doc Holliday at the O.K Corral. (If you are playing a fish/standstill deck, don’t worry about blowing an early standstill. Just survive until you start outdrawing your opponent. Then you can match them threat for threat and counter for counter. Fish/Standstill cannot match your drawing power and thus becomes over whelmed. Against Workshop decks, an early Bazaar and Squee is important game one. A constant supply of Zombie tokens can own many workshop decks almost as much as Verdant Force does. As always, a proper sideboard and use of that sideboard can be critical game two and three.)
Control: Out Draw, Out Draw, and then Out Draw some more. Counter his/her serious threats, protect your graveyard, and then hold out for a big Yawgmoth’s Will. (If you are playing Hulk/Tog decks, your goal is to out draw them. No questions asked. And I believe this is certainly possible. Use an early Bazaar, and then feed off their AKs. When playing true control, try to out draw your opponent. As I said before, most deck cannot keep up with the draw power of this deck.)
Combo: I haven’t tested against combo enough to be sure, but at this point I try to: survive the initial threat, counter the must counters, and then draw like a madman. Depending on the combo deck, side boarding can be a definite advantage.
One of the advantages of this deck is the “rogueness� factor. Game one especial, your opponent is almost always convinced you are playing some version of Dragon or Tog. This can really work into you favor. It is not until game 2, or 3, (or sometimes even after the match) that your opponent realizes what the decks weaknesses are. At this point, you typically know what your opponent is playing and can sideboard appropriately. Even thought this deck is very similar to a couple main stream decks out there, you typically know your opponent’s strategy well before they pick up on yours. And in an era of net decking, this is a much bigger advantage than many people realize.
Bottom line, I know this isn’t the best possible deck one could play at a tournament. That is not what I set out to accomplish. What I wanted to do was create a decent competitive control deck that utilizes Bazaar of Baghdad, which I think I did, and create a deck that is fun to play, which I KNOW I did. This deck probably won’t win Waterbury, at least with me at the helm, but I could definitely see it winning some smaller tournaments. So if you’re interested, give it a shot. At the very least I think you’ll find 12 zombies > 1 angry tog.
Thanks for reading, as always comments welcome and encouraged. I am not the most experience player in the world
-Tony
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