Thanks for all of the suggestions, I will be working this week on card combinations to try to address these flaws in the current build of the deck.

I have been slaving over searching for different Magic cards in order to make this deck competitive and viable, and I know it will take a lot of work but I believe it can be done! The deck in its first version did not abuse the power of Eureka/Show and Tell/Oath of Druids like it could and should have. Here are the changes I have made so far:

-3 Forest
+2 Ancient Tomb
-1 Spirit of the Night
+1 Razia, Boros Archangel
-1 Fact or Fiction
-1 Gifts Ungiven
-1 Mox Diamond
-2 Arcane Laboratory
+1 Mox Jet (my best friend is allowing me to use his Mox for tournaments until I get one)
+2 Concordant Crossroads
+4 Mystic Remora (will explain below)

I have made these changes to the deck so far. I have seen Mystic Remora mentioned on TheManaDrain forums beforehand, and with testing it seems to be very useful for drawing a large amount of cards early on in the game. I am not sure of the benefits between the remora and Sylvan Library, and which would be better to use. The mana acceleration has improved a lot in my testing, as well as the hand composition consistencies.

The biggest disadvantage is the Combo/Storm type of matchup that "wins instantly." Extirpate perhaps could be a powerful addition or way to break the back of the combo player long enough to achieve victory.

The last tournaments that I have checked out near my area do not offer 5-proxy or 10-proxy tournaments, and plus collecting the power nine is always fun and challenging I will continue running tests, goldfish hands and all of that good stuff; thanks for all of the comments so far and please continue to make them!

Thanks for the suggestions so far, I have so many improvements that I can make! Eladamri's Vineyard I actually did try earlier, but I thought it would help the opponent too much. However, you make a good point that the opponent's that it would help the most have a huge advantage anyways over this type of deck.

I am going to work on some updates and revisions and post here tomorrow, keep posting comments and suggestions please!

Hey everyone,

I am a returning vintage Magic player (I participated in a few vintage world championships in Indianapolis, did not place very high with my red burn deck at the time) after having a few years away from it, and I have been working on a deck that utilizes Eureka to its fullest extent (this also includes Oath of Druids). I have been testing against friends with it, and also testing in MWS to see how it fares against others. Here is the version of the deck as it is now:

Lands:
4x Tropical Island
4x Wooded Foothills
5x Forest
4x Bayou
4x Forbidden Orchard
1x Boseiju, Who Shelters All

Creatures:
4x Darksteel Colossus
1x Akroma, Angel of Wrath
1x Spirit of the Night
4x Simic Sky Swallower
1x Akroma, Angel of Fury

Spells:
1x Mana Crypt
1x Tinker
1x Vampiric Tutor
4x Eureka
4x Oath of Druids
4x Show and Tell
1x Fact or Fiction
1x Mystical Tutor
1x Gifts Ungiven
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Regrowth
1x Chrome Mox
1x Sol Ring
1x Mox Emerald
1x Mox Diamond
1x Enlightened Tutor
2x Arcane Laboratory

Sideboard:
4x Leyline of the Void
2x Leyline of Singularity
2x Kataki, War's Wage
2x Energy Flux
1x Pyroclasm
1x Avoid Fate
1x Terror
2x Trickbind

This is my deck in its current version, copied directly from Magic Workstation. I have been reading as many vintage articles on TheManaDrain as well as StarCityGames to get a feel for the competitive vintage environment again, and since my deck is different I will explain my card choices and their strengths and weaknesses, and after that post how the deck has done in my testing:

Lands:
The land base of the deck is fairly self-explanatory, with probably the question of why the inclusion of 1x Boseiju, Who Shelters All. This land I am still not sure about maindecking, but it seems like at least 50% if not more of the competitive decks use some type of counterspell effects (ex. Mana Drain, Force of Will, Pact of Negation). Without Crop Rotation, this card is not as strong as it could be. Any suggestions would greatly be appreciated!

Creatures:
4x DarkSteel Colossus He is one of the largest creatures in the entire game, and added to that he is indestructible and has trample. Darksteel Colossus is a great tinker target to boost as well. However, he is vulnerable to removal from bounce or remove from game spells (ex. Swords to Plowshares, Rushing River)

1x Akroma, Angel of Wrath She is one of the strongest creatures in the game as well, having multiple evasion effects in order to stay on the table. Added to these factors, she has haste and vigilance which is always helpful against decks with creatures. She is weak to bounce spells the most (ex. Rushing River)

1x Spirit of the Night He is the "old" version of Akroma, and does not have as many evasion effects as she does. I have been thinking about putting Razia, Boros Archangel in his place perhaps. This slot I am still unsure about.

4x Simic Sky Swallower SSS is a creature that is almost impossible to remove from play, due to his high evasion abilities. Once he hits play the likelihood that he will leave it is very low.

1x Akroma, Angel of Fury The red version, or "angry" Akroma has protection from blue which is very important especially in Type 1. Blue bounce spells seem to be on the rise, which makes her inclusion that much more important

Spells:

4x Eureka Eureka is the heart of how this deck works, and also provides some interesting synergies. I will discuss why I included Arcane Laboratory a little later on, but in the context of Eureka it can make that uncounterable in a sense. If Eureka is not countered, then any additional permanents I wish to play in order to keep my opponent locked and slowed down can come into play as well. The biggest weakness of this card is the power it gives to both players. Many decks that I have looked at (tournament winning/placing decks, decks in the open forum, etc) seem to have a high spell to low permanent count. What I mean by this is, my opponent usually does not place more than 1-2 permanents on the table when I play Eureka.

4x Oath of Druids Oath of Druids is a very powerful card in the format right now, with Tyrant Oath making itself known. One of the best uses for Oath in my deck is that it fetches one of my creatures, or masks my deck in the appearance of a Tyrant Oath deck.

4x Show and Tell Show and Tell is a very powerful and simple card, allowing me to plop down a creature while my opponent can plop down a permanent. It also can be used to place down an Arcane Laboratory or the like "under the radar" so to speak.

2x Arcane Laboratory I have been looking for a card that can suppress the power of combo decks that I will be facing, and I came across Arcane Laboratory. While it is in play, it can shut down Storm decks, and slow down a lot of other decks in the format that make use of a large number of low costed spells. The other strength of this card is that my deck plays relatively few spells per turn, so it would not affect me as much.

The tutors are probably self-explanatory, so I won't discuss them >.> I currently am working on purchasing the power nine to use for this deck (the Mox Emerald I just purchased a few weeks ago, and setting on Mox Sapphire next).

Sideboard:

4x Leyline of the Void This card is very important, especially due to the occurence of Ichorid decks, Dragon combo decks, and pretty much any deck that uses the graveyard to win the game

2x Leyline of Singularity This is a card that can slow down Ichorid quite a bit (especially with Bridge from Below tokens), and can slow down Hulk Flash (assuming they use the sliver strategy)

2x Kataki, War's Wage MUD type decks are hurt quite a bit by this creature, as well as any decks that use a large number of artifacts

2x Energy Flux Another type of artifact removal I felt was important to include to put the pressure on MUD type decks, and the additional benefit to this is that Show and Tell/Eureka can bring this out if need be

1x Pyroclasm I included this card in the case that I face a very fast creature deck (such as Goblins, or even Hulk Flash), to slow down the opponent

1x Avoid Fate I included this card as a way to protect my creatures from instant removal from cards such as (Swords to Plowshares, Rushing River, Echoing Truth)

1x Terror This card was put into place as instant creature kill, and will be changed to Swords to Plowshares once I purchase one

2x Trickbind Storm combo is very difficult to beat, and trickbind is one way to neutralize the threat that it causes

Deck Strengths:
Consistency (in my testing, opening hands have been very consistent with ways of getting creatures into play)
Creature Base (usually when one of the creatures hits play, my opponent is placed on a short clock and has no means to get rid of them for the most part)

Deck Weaknesses:
Combo (Combo decks like Storm and such will absolutely destroy this deck until the sideboard is implemented) This is part of the reason I put in Arcane Laboratory in the maindeck, as its universal effect can help my deck against any opponent
Eureka/Show and Tell/Oath of Druids (the power that these cards give to my deck my opponent can also benefit from, and a possible unbalance in the favor of my opponent could occur)
Acceleration (some hands are very nice, with slow acceleration though. This may be solved once I acquire more of the Moxen/Lotus to put into the deck however)

This is the deck that I have been working on, and any suggestions would be greatly appreciated by me as I try to make it tournament worthy! I know it has far to go to evolve into a force and such, and that is why I am posting here on TheManaDrain. From a lot of testing, the deck seems very consistent but sometimes lacks in mana acceleration (which may be solved once I acquire more of the Power Nine I am thinking). Storm and Combo decks are still a big problem of course also, something I am trying to figure out a way to better counteract.

I just realized that I have not included Fastbond or Balance, two cards that would help out the deck quite a bit as well I believe. Thank you for reading all of this and I look forward to any comments or suggestions that anyone has.

 

Thanks for the advice. I am going to look into a food chain goblin deck, and I will post it here in a few days and hopefully you guys could help me some with it. Thanks again.

I have created an Ankh Sligh deck, that I would like to take to GenCon this year. I appreciate any and all advice that anyone can give me. I went to GenCon last year, and have went to several tournaments, so I have a lot of experience. Anyways, here is my decklist as it currently stands:

Creatures(8):
4x Grim Lavamancer
4x Skizzik

Artifacts(12):
4x Ankh of Mishra
1x Black Vise
4x Cursed Scroll
1x Memory Jar
1x Mox Ruby
1x Sol Ring

Instants, Interrupts(10):
1x Fireblast
1x Fork
4x Incinerate
4x Lightning Bolt

Enchantments(0):

Sorceries(9):
4x Browbeat
4x Chain Lightning
1x Wheel of Fortune

Lands(21):
16x Mountain
1x Strip Mine
4x Wasteland
*---------------------------------*
Sideboard(15):
3x Crash
4x Pyroblast
4x Red Elemental Blast
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is my first build version of an ankh sligh deck. It looks extremely well-built to me. The only thing it lacks right now is actual tournament experience. I am making this for GenCon this year, so I would appreciate any and all feedback that anyone can give me.

If anyone wants my reasons of including certain cards, please ask and I will post why.

The only weak cards in this deck that I see at first are the 4 Skizzik. I put Skizzik in because I didn't know if I would have enough red mana available to use Ball Lightnings. Regardless, I have 4 of each card so changes can be made. Every other card in this deck seems solid to me.

Thanks for looking, and I look forward to your comments.