Ok first with the CotV debate ... how do you win again? I mean it should be obvious to everyone that 1 is the correct number and then 2 for the clincher if possible later. All of your draw spells are 1 casting cost so that leaves you with night's whisper to hopefully draw into hurkyl's? It just seems like this deck is missing the simple outs that normal combo decks enjoy. Now I know you guys are trying to create the fastest possible highest % goldfish rate but why couldn't this deck be more tournament worthy. I mean barring Saucemaster's finish at Waterbury the results have been piss poor. And I'm not blaming it on bad players ... you guys are all well experienced and excellent Type 1 players - so why not mold this deck to be a winner. As it stands this deck is the fastest turn 1 kill deck - but what does that mean anyway. I feel like Zherbus was right with the whole Duress/Hurkyl's plan. Deathlong was very successful with those same plans and this should technically goldfish faster anyway.

I mean technically hurkyl's is pretty much a mana/storm booster when cast on yourself not to mention it can handle opponent's stuff when necessary too. I feel like adding hurkyl's could increase this decks chance to survival in a brown world with it's red weenie king. I mean playing TPS i have managed to kill many people off rebuild into tendrils and with this decks explosiveness i would imagine it's capable of much more.

In all honesty I don't see how chain of vapor would be an answer to chalice, and neither will help you against trinisphere if you're on the draw (but i guess that's an acceptable loss given the speed of the deck?). It seems to me like if you're going to play any removal (especially with the lack of tutor/drawing power) you have to play hurkyl's in multiples. I mean by the time you get it after already being held down with trinisphere (assuming you're on the play since on the draw is a loss) or chalice they will have already stabilized much bigger and badder threats and mass removal is pretty much your only answer. Much as I had stated when talking about TPS and Longdeath what are you really afraid of that Rebuild (or in this case Hurkyl's) can't handle? Meddling Mage, statistically unlikely but possible. Oath, D4rg0n, etc. Nothing out of that will touch you if you have a winning hand ... and if you didn't then you were gonna lose anyway.

Just an idea but how important are the darkwater eggs? Conjurer's bauble accomplishes the virtually same thing:

Darkwater egg (3) mana -> UB + draw
Conjurer's bauble (1) mana -> draw + put a card on the bottom of your library

so for less mana you get the same effect provided you don't need the blue mana. I could be wrong but this seems like it'd be much more effective giving you more slack when it comes to your mana being tight. I'm not saying cut them completely or at all maybe just conjurer's would be a more effective cantrip then say sleight. if you dropped sleight then you could focus more on just black and colorless creating less guessing games and a stronger reliability when floating mana.

I think honestly the problem with this deck is you are limiting the possibilities that having the eggs open up to you. Mystical, Vampiric, and Enlightened Tutor are all missing as well as a solid way to refill your hand such as Timetwister or Tinker for Jar. I feel minimum adding the three tutors has helped me as I can find chains or hurkyl's in a snap and it increases the efficiency of draws and INCREASES CONSISTENCY. I don't think I can stress that enough. Remember even Long didn't desire to win turn one all the time. It would go off turn 2 realistically all the time. Maybe that's the problem with the direction of this forum. My intent would be to make this a tournament worthy deck much like Longdeath or TPS . This is also why i think the deck should add Duress, the tutors, maybe Timetwister and Tinker and focus more on consistent turn 1/2 kills instead of these insane ballz to the wallz, win or crap out luck draws.

Maybe I'm just too used to having those options available to me in other combo decks. I know the reasoning of not running draw 7's, but is there some happy medium between draw7's and personal draw that could stabilize this deck better. I mean honestly as explosive as this deck is I feel like giving your opponent a new hand after you have already played your out is minimal and will give you even insaner possibilities to go off.

My point is this deck has opened up the explosive tutoring power of spoils and i think if refined into a more consistent deck it could see success much like Long did.

I think honestly the problem with this deck is you are limiting the possibilities that having the eggs open up to you. Mystical, Vampiric, and Enlightened Tutor are all missing as well as a solid way to refill your hand such as Timetwister or Tinker for Jar. I feel minimum adding the three tutors has helped me as I can find chains or hurkyl's in a snap and it increases the efficiency of draws and INCREASES CONSISTENCY. I don't think I can stress that enough. Remember even Long didn't desire to win turn one all the time. It would go off turn 2 realistically all the time. Maybe that's the problem with the direction of this forum. My intent was to make this a tournament worthy deck much like Longdeath or TPS but it has contorted into this possibility of what's the best way to add 1% to my chance of winning turn one. This is also why i think the deck should add Duress, the tutors, maybe Timetwister and Tinker and focus more on consistent turn 1/2 kills instead of these insane ballz to the wallz, win or crap out luck draws.

My point is this deck has opened up the explosive tutoring power of spoils and i think if refined into a more consistent deck it could see success much like Long did.


Edit: removed a bunch of me babbling because i had a bad weekend

There has been alot of fuss about this belcherless Belcher deck that was a surprise deck at this past Waterbury. I believe one Meandecker, the Saucemaster, even Top 8'd with it. Anyway, I figured I had to get to the bottom of this "new" idea for Tendrils. The core of it actually seems to be like Belcher, but it plays much more like the Legacy (formerly Type 1.5) deck known as Easter Egg Tendrils. The idea is to use the cycle of artifacts that sacrifice to both add mana to your pool and draw a card. Besides netting card advantage, the preservation of mana is key to accumulating a high enough spell count to eventually win. As a disclaimer I myself am no Meandecker and probably never will be, but I provide this information for public domain for the bettering of the combo possibilities of the best drain life card ever printed, Tendrils of Agony.

Also for those of you who don't know me, I rarely write or post on TMD, but have well represented combo at every major tournament since GenCon 2004. Tendrils decks have been my specialty since i became obsessed with the insaneness that was Long.dec

Needless to say I have to give Meandeck credit for one thing, they seem to find some simple tweak to combo decks i have scrapped that turns them from zero to hero. For example, I scrapped the Eggs Tendrils deck last September after having a few major problems, the main being drawing lands and not spells off eggs. The "new" version of this deck solves this problem using a belcher like mana setup. Also the search provided by Spoils of the Vault seems to work ideally in this deck as it will most likely not kill you, and since you are going to win immediately off playing Tendrils. So without further adio here is my version of this interesting new combo engine:

Spoiled Tendrils

"the Mana" (22)
5x Moxen
1x Black Lotus
1x Lotus Petal
1x Sol Ring
1x Mana Crypt
1x Mana Vault
1x Chrome Mox
1x Lion's Eye Diamond
4x Dark Ritual
3x Cabal Ritual
3x Elvish Spirit Guide

"the Land" (6)
4x Land Grant
1x Tropical Island
1x Bayou

"Draw Engine" (13)
4x Chromatic Sphere
4x Darkwater Egg
4x Sleight of Hand
1x Ancestral Recall

"the Win" (2)
2x Tendrils of Agony

"Search Engine" (8)
4x Spoils of the Vault
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Mystical Tutor
1x Tinker

"Brokenness" (4)
1x Yawgmoth's Will
1x Timetwister
1x Memory Jar
1x Necropotence

"Protection" (5)
4x Duress
1x Hurkyl's Recall

So from what I've taken the basic idea is to accumulate a couple of eggs, generating mana to power a few draw spells and maybe one broken spell and the ending it by casting spoils for Tendrils. That is by no means to say this is an easy to pilot deck. I've been playing combo for well over a year solid now and this deck is quite complex. The main problem I would see with running a deck like this is that unlike DeathLong (also incredibly skill intensive) is that you can make all the right decisions and somehow still depend on good draws. Although this is arguably the case with most Draw7 / Tendrils decks netting one card for one card leaves much more risk in the hands of the user. And if you aren't planning on winning now maybe you should be playing a deck that wins later more consistently. ANother problem this deck seems to face is the amount of utter hate that it faces. Nearly every card that kills Belcher hurts alot. Not to mention I think this decks main strength is beating people unaware of how it works. Countering something as simple as Dark Ritual is usually the correct and most efficient way to win.

Needless to say let the boards flood with ideas of innovation and creativity, I'd love to see a deck like this flourish into a new dominant combo engine.

Yeah the engineered plague has got to go ... I tried that for a few months but it's just so inadequate. However Hydroblast is so needed ... you didn't get to play against Cerebral Assassin, and I'm not sure what versions of Control Slaver you got to play against but a Welder on the board is bad times. I'm not gonna say you got lucky but maybe you did. I mean Slaver is heavy on counters and all they have to do is weld in a slaver to win against you. Not to mention some versions play REBs or Blood Moon ... the kinda stuff you just dont' wanna see. My point being siding in a few hydros only increases your chances of winning, not that you can't win without them. But then again that's the beauty of TPS in my mind ... the fact that it is possible to win every matchup.

Lastly, cut Time Spiral? I really would urge you to consider testing more before doing something like that. After all Time Spiral is like the "ideal" TPS Draw 7. on average it costs 2 or 3 colorless and leaves your mana open and give you a new hand. I mean if you could play more than one this is the deck that would do it. Plus you desperately need to keep as many bombs in the deck as possible. I'll admit Gifts is a little shaky but it's been good ... although I think Gifts real potential will be shown in a deck i've been working on for the past few months, not in TPS.

Congratulations on the Top 4 finish. I'm happy to see that although i just missed the top 16 cut with 6-2 that a fellow TPS player took my spot.

Anyway, I thought I'd point out some of the finer points I noticed about your deck ... first of maindeck removal (2x Rebuild, 1x Cunning Wish). Although I have utter distaste for the 1xCunning Wish I will leave that for another time. The 2x Rebuild removal (the same I used in my 3rd place finish at the last Waterbury with TPS) is the ideal maindeck removal for the NE metagame in my opinion. Pretty much the only unhandleable threat would be Meddling Mage for game 1. After SB you bring in your answer to Meddling Mage, Arcane Lab, etc as necessary (hopefully Echoing Truth). SO many people are probably wondering why no Chain of Vapor ... quite honestly it's the sux most of the time. Think about this .. your opponent is playing a homosexual workshop deck and drops a turn 1 trinisphere. Being as how you aren't playing land disruption he will continue to build up his board position while you struggle to get to 3 mana. What's better 3 mana to reset or 3 mana to remove one of many board threats? Not to mention every smart player knows that CHalice against TPS is always 1 so therefore you just made CHalice that much more effective to play with Chains instead of a second Rebuild.

Second, we both seemed to agree that Energy Flux is an answer to workshop (not control slaver) that can be played around with ease. It was an experiment for me but in the future I think I would always prefer Rebuilds #3&4 over the two Fluxes. Not to mention TPS is a control deck and control decks prefer instants, right?

Third, Hydroblast in the board? I have to disagree with you and say they belong there. Much like you did this time, I easily swept Control Slaver at the last Waterbury due to killing welder. If you are familiar at all with "Control" Slaver no welder in play means no win. If you can solidly prevent a welder from being on the board you can almost guaranteed assure victory (i mean unless they hardcast slaver or platz or titan ... but you should win by then) Believe me I know you want to drop them but it's sooo necessary.

Last but not least here's a new debate for you to consider ... to Gift or not to Gift? How many Gifts can one play before going clunky? and even then Why not just play four gifts and go for the win everytime? I mean if you're gonna play Tutor-TPS why not play with a full rack and go NUTZ!

While yes naming "Spirit" does prevent them from Oathing, is it better than Gilded Drake? Besides if you're so concerned with SBing against the combo what happens when you lose the counterwar over an Arcane Lab. Then you're royally screwed. Echoing Truth does just as good a job and handles both. I think you guys are coming at this the wrong way. Although I do agree in the strength of Engineered Plague vs Welders, you should play the Oath match more like a control mirror. Every now and then you just go busted in the first turns. But if not you simply out play them by being reactive NOT proactive. In fact if you want the honest truth I have won many Oath matches simply by dominating them with their own tokens. A couple turns worth of swings and you have them in range for a small Tendrils or the ability to disrupt them while you finish them off with tokens.

A humorous time was had when I was playing vs Oath in SCG Chicago P9. I think it was like 6th round. He played Arcane Lab after i had one or two tokens from his land, I say 'ok ... you know you just dug your own grave?' Then I fanned my hand of 3x Force of Will, 2x Gilded Drake, and Ancestral Recall to the crowd. Needless to say that was an easy victory at that point. You see Engineered Plague is a problem, BUT what are you taking out to make it worth it, are you weakening the combo or losing search or disruption. I think it's noteworthy that many top finishing TPS decklists have been posting  more and more in the variety and less in the quantity (i.e. Several 1x spells [not just wish targets if they play wish]).

Also that is another qualm of mine ... should Cunning Wish just replaced with the appropriate main wish target (or SB fill in) for the metagame:

Control: Skeletal Scrying / Fact or Fiction / Gifts Ungiven
Workshop: Rebuild / Energy Flux
Combo: Stifle / Gifts Ungiven / Skeletal Scrying / Fact or Fiction / Platinum Angel
Aggro: Darksteel Colossus / Platinum Angel

I think the real question is - what are you pitching to Unmask? Unmask served me well as a SB card for both LongDeath and Doomsday ... but in TPS what do you pitch Dark Ritual or a busted black card? The major difference between the two decks is speed. LongDeath and Doomsday want to win within the first two turns preferrably ... whereas TPS just wants to win. The difference is you are sacrificing card advantage to play a "burst" combo deck that just wants to go nutz and do it as fast as possible.  TPS wins the game via disruption and card advantage. Maybe i could see Unmask vs Control ... but then again would you rather just play something more diruptive (Hurkyl's/Rebuild vs Control Slaver for example).

Ok as far as the Doomsday match, here's the jig - Cranial Extraction BAD, Platinum Angel for the WIN. One of the main reasons I've decided to play Platinum Angel SB is for this match. Although they are fast, quick and simple disruption can allow you to combo out earlier. Just don't underestimate the power of their deck and never Draw7 before you combo or you've probably dug you're own grave.

Also i'M starting to have a little more respect for Gifts Ungiven ... it's basically a better intuition. It provides the card advantage of FoF (+1) but it guarantees two bombs in your hand at least.

The correct sideboarding of Oath vs TPS would either be:

-SotN, -Akroma, +Platinum Angel, +Arcane Lab

OR

-SotN, -Spell, +Platinum Angel, +Arcane Lab

The only difference or not being whether they leave in Akroma or not. In my personal opinion the second SB is preferred against hardcore combo, LongDeath + Doomsday ... whereas the first SB is the best against TPS, since although Platinum Angel is great, TPS has no problem taking care of opposing threats if given the extra turns that Akroma takes away.

I'm am of course saying this assuming they are playing meandeck oath (the current best one) and not some random Eternal Witness/Darksteel Colossus variant.

I think I was mistaken when I said I liked FoF ... I didn't mean it was greater than Gifts Ungiven ... more or less the reason I dislike Gifts is the 4 casting cost. TPS reliably can get to 3 mana turn two, and quite often on turn one frequently. For this reason I'm cautious of using a 4CC spell that isn't a specific tutor. I do understand that the card advantage is +1, but does TPS really need Gifts or is Gifts just the current card to fill the gap. It always seems like no matter what TPS build you look at it has one or two cards which you really wish were another solid 3CC draw7 (Gifts Ungiven, Meditate, Diminishing Returns, Cunning Wish, Gush, Fact or Fiction). Is there a better answer for this dilemna or is Gifts the current best fit?

The Annul thing I have been thinking about for a while, just because i get really annoyed with Stax opening (Smokestack, trinisphere, chalice etc) although I have rebuild it is all too late against Stax if they go nutz.

I don't know what more to say except Gifts Ungiven does not belong in TPS. It strategically impair the deck for any kind of setup you are trying to do. What exactly do you get off Gifts anyway? please tell me because I'm having a hard time figuring out how you get something while not putting all your bombs in your graveyard. I mean what use is it to wheel into nothingness? Maybe you just need to explain how you make Gifts good in a deck where Intuition would be better if you're looking for a search card.

@ViRiDian: Did you play at SCG P9 in Richmond? If so how did you end up overall. I was 5-1-2 (my one loss was a concession to let Jacob Orlove make Top 8). I was also playing a non red splash version although I did play a maindeck Cunning Wish.

As far as the Platinum Angel I strongly disagree with people saying it doesn't win. Platinum Angel games 2 and 3 is nearly invincible. Slow? Hardly it's the same speed as Darksteel Colossus and I don't see people saying that's slow. And as far as this myth that DSC still wins ... seriously guys decks have evolved and this whole "DSC smashes Fish thing" doesn't fly. The new fish decks (Phish) have Swords and Gilded Drake, not to mention it's still a solid aggro control deck. Workshop decks match your turn 1 DSC with a Welder to make short work of DSC. I think if we are going to put more TPS players in Top 8's we need to wake up to the changing metagame. I'm not advocating Platinum Angel as the win all card that Colossus was ... but if you're in a heavy combo metagame it is a perfect SB card.

I do somewhat agree that I wouldn't feel as comfortable without DSC in the board ... However it is ridiculous to think it still just wins games like it originally did when the whole Tinker -> DSC -> gg thing first came out. There are very few decks left that can't win or handle turn 1 or 2 DSC. And it's worthless against the new Fish deck, Phish - which plays maindeck StP and other "problem" cards. Resolving a turn 1 Tinker might merit a frown, but not the almost immediate concession it use to. However the Platinum Angel is meant as a Tinker target for Mirror match or other combo. It basically buys you the time to combo, or sometimes just wins on its own. It's something I have been leaning back and forth on for a while but haven't settled on an answer yet.

Lastly just to make sure I'm clear, I do agree with Viridian that it just seems too good to remove Darksteel from the board. I mean the only reason he's SB for me is that in the average tournament around 60+% of my matchups are Workshop variants in which Goblin Welder owns DSC.

Speaking of SB, what do you guys think of Annul vs Damping Matrix. The Matrix is more versatile in shutting down Slaver.dec whereas Annul is much more crucial to winning the Stax matchup (countering an early Sphere or Chalice just wins games).

Necro + Time Walk? I fail to see how a busted card like Necro merits the inclusion of a card like Time Walk. Now given I'm not saying that Time Walk isn't a good card I'm just saying that it isn't a card you'd ever tutor for ... and if you remove it and seriously test with it you'll realize it's a card you don't miss. I think the real thing you have to realize is what spot does Time Walk fill - card drawer or bomb drawer ... and the reality is it's somewhere in the middle. It's more like an untap phase for this deck, which really is unnecessary.  I mean once you go off you pretty much want to win, not have to re-storm it up again. Honestly I'd be much happier drawing a brainstorm off a Bomb then a Time Walk. Unless you stall out alot in which case Time Walk would be good in the deck, but then it's really on you why you stall out alot.

As for the inclusion of Skeletal Scrying, Fact or Fiction, Gush ... these are cards which help the general problem with TPS of having too little bombs.  Gifts Ungiven seems interesting ... however, playing it would be ridiculously dumb. No offense but Intuition > Gifts Ungiven. Think about it, you save 1 colorless mana in your casting and if you were going for 3 restricted cards you still get one. I guess I can't merit paying the extra mana when playing Intuition allows so much greater possibility. OMG, I just realize what a bomb this card could be ... casting YawgWill? Intuition for Lotus, Dark Ritual, Dark Ritual ... wow this is going to require some serious testing.

Anyway "God's Will" doesn't have the problems of stalling out as TPS does and it doesn't get mocked by bad players ... but I will have to retest Time Walk to see if it merit inclusion, it just seems so weak to me when I'd rather be doing other stuff like winning.

Oh man I totally forgot LED, it belongs in there believe me. Anyway Time Walk is pretty worthless in the deck if you ask me. It's always been the first cut I've made in tweaking combo and it has always served me best. It just really doesn't have a place in building up your storm count ... and there isn't much TPS can't handle that it would need to go off, time walk, then go off for the win ... ya know what I mean? And as for Gush it is awesome, you have to really gold fish with it about a few thousand times to realize the difference it makes but it's awesome. And no it's not a turn 6 card it's a turn 2/3 card.  Also keep in mind TPS isn't going to be dropping a land every turn if the game goes past 3 turns so you actually only lose one land in play usually - not to mention wasteland protection.

Yes Fact or Fiction is very powerful in the main ... I've been trying it too. The real question is how much it's worth screwing up your Mana Base to play Wheel of Fortune. Playing 4x Polluted Delta, and 1x Volcanic Island (replacing the other 3xorchards with 3xunderground sea) smooths out the problem without opening yourself up to the massive problems playing orchard brings.  Also Orchards are not going to win you an Oath mirror match. They play wastelands whereas TPS plays no land disruption - NONE. Also Oath was something like 30% of the meta, maybe ... i think there was none in the top 16 though. Another tried and scratched idea - Doomsday. It's not good in TPS, it's better in Meandeck D-Day. Basically I tried it and ended up 13th with TPS/Doomsday at SCG Chicago. The real problem is the whole day I found myself struggling with deciding whether to combo off Doomsday or Draw7's. It tore the deck up. Honestly if I were you I'd test this which is so far the best TPS-style deck IMHO:

God's Will
=======
4-Underground Sea
4-Polluted Delta
2-Island
2-Swamp
1-Tolarian Academy

5-Moxen
1-Black lotus
1-Lotus Petal
1-Sol Ring
1-Mana Vault
1-Mana Crypt
1-Chrome Mox
4-Dark Ritual

1-Demonic Tutor
1-Vampiric Tutor
1-Mystical Tutor
1-Tinker

1-Ancestal Recall
4-Brainstorm
1-Skeletal Scrying
1-Gush

1-Mind's Desire
1-Fact or Fiction
1-Windfall
1-Timetwister
1-Time Spiral
1-Memory Jar
1-Necropotence
1-Yawgmoth's Bargain
1-Yawgmoth's Will

4-Duress
4-Force of Will
2-Rebuild

2-Tendrils of Agony


Sideboard:
3-Echoing Truth
4-Energy Flux
3-Gilded Drake
1-Skeletal Scrying
1-Darksteel Colossus
1-Platinum Angel
2-Rebuild

Obviously I was joking when I said Bribery ... but Gilded Drake is not so far off. Another option is to play Engineered Plague, but usually you can square off disruption wise enough to be able to easy resolve a drake (since against you they will get Akroma or the Big Platypus of Undeath) either of which i would rather have. That said I have to honestly comment that I think the Oath matchup should be played more like a control mirror than a combo mirror.  Why use up your resources getting Draw7's countered when you can just Drake their junk and use their own resources to kill them. Another thing I'm not sure if you're aware of is the fact that Oath plays zero removal for their own creatures post board.  Also it appears that the future of TPS in the US East depends on me as I appear to be the only person that devotes enough time to testing pre-tournament (except for that Doomsday idea that was like 20 minutes before the tournament).

BTW, I'm totally for the whole naming one's deck design ... you build it you call it what you want. (e.g. 'Meandeck' Oath, for people who don't understand what i mean) - I call my TPS "God's Will" because I choose to understand that God not I decides what godly, savage topdecks i get ... but also because that's the meandeck way to name decks ['team name' broken card], in this case my team is me and God and who would dare tell me Will isn't broken. I'm submitting this idea of changing TPS to God's Will ti the T1 community.

I noticed you had Darksteel Colossus coming in against 4CC ... do you think this is a real viable solution against them? Keeping in mind that 4CC generally has no SB against TPS specifically I don't see a reason for them to SB out Swords and even then it's only a Cunning Wish away.

Also in my plenthora of playing of TPS I have to say the whole Cunning Wish for Brain Freeze was nothing more than 'cute'. It just doesn't work in the same way Tendrils does and the whole "OMG, they just Cranial Extracted my win condition" scare just doesn't seem realistic to me.  I tried the Cunning Wish thing and realistically the only thing I got was Fact or Fiction OR SKeletal Scrying, either of which I would rather have has in the Maindeck instead of the Wish. Remember TPS isn't just combo, it's Control->I Win; meaning you use the resources you have (mainly life total) to net as much card advantage as you can to completely destroy your opponent in a single stormtastic blow of a drain life. Often I will have the apparent win in hand against a good matchup like Workshop/x, but I'll wait a turn and tutor for Rebuild (vs 5/3) or Duress (vs Control Slaver) just to tighten the coffin even more. It's not so much winning more as it is winning more reliably. In Goldfishing (which any good TPS player does for 3 months straight), you'll realize this winning more reliable concept when you make decisions like do I pop Jar or wait a turn?
Lastly, Forbidden Orchard MD? uh ... that is a TPS no-no. TPS is not LongDeath, you don't just go off and go off and go off until you win. TPS is all about preparation. With the average game going 4 turns (or more if facing a heavy disruption deck) you need to use your resources appropriately and giving your opponent creatures seems less than optimal. TPS is deck that wins the long haul. Ask any control player which combo deck they'd least play and it's probably TPS. Look at the others; Draw 7 is dead, and LongDeath has maybe three certified worthy players that I know of (haha although I don't know if Smmenen still would consider me in that category). The reason why TPS wins tournaments is because it's a deck that wins the war of attrition. After the initial dust has settled if you can control things reasonably you should be able to overwhelm your opponents.  If you really feel like Oath is that big of a force in your area I guess you could consider playing Forbidden Orchards since it is all about the Orchards for that matchup ... but I just feel like the real key to winning is exploiting the fact that they can't cast any of their win conditions without a Black Lotus in play. Hell if Oath is really such a problem maybe you should just play Bribery ...

First of all the 6 mana shouldn't be too hard if you played smartly, I mean Dragon is not a Turn 1-2 combo deck. It's a Turn 3-4 Combo deck. It is usually a safe assumption that the Dragon player has no hand  after comboing (to find Laquatus), so he's not going to FoW anything on your turn. I mean it shouldn't be very hard at all to find the 6 mana unless they pull a rare turn 1 win; but even still a timetwister can put you back in the game in no time.

Secondly I didn't mean to state it as if your game plan was to let Dragon go off and the TECH them out. I merely was stating another obstacle you force Dragon players to overcome, as well as also dealing with the inherent speed of this deck. Besides I don't really know Dragon to drop Chalice for Zero against Long ... the correct play is almost always to drop Chalice for One and win in like 2 turns before Long recouperates.

Basically the thing to remember is Dimishing Returns and Time Spiral are for the same situation, when a Yawg Will doesn't equal game. 85% of the time I feel I usually wish for Will, with the other 15% being for Artifact Removal or a Draw7. Out of the two time I wished for it I know one was when I had Academy which was of course ridiculous. The other was when I had just Duress, Death Wish, Lotus Petal, and Dark Ritual in hand, not anything in the grave to really make somethign happen (i think there was a Jar in there), and three lands and an untapped Mana Vault in play.  So basically as you can figure out, Time Spiral ended up costing me 3 colorless Mana, but more importantly having three mana of any color available after a Draw7 is almost indefinitely game. Don't get me wrong it's situational, and why get Spiral if you could win otherwise. But I've been very impressed with it so far  with it usually costing me 2-3 colorless at most. I know in at least a couple games I SB'd it in ... Not really impressive matchups but I took out Windfall against Dragon and Burn for the Spiral since it seems dumb to rely on their hand size to go off.

Also, although I'm sure you've already figured it out, Darksteel Colossus is the BIGGEST foil to Dragon ever. Basically if you have Death Wish or Burning Wish in your hand you win. They deck you, you draw colossus, cast wish for will for your entire library. I mean does it get better than that? I mean theoretically you should beat Dragon anyway but they can slow you down if they are playing Chalice or Null Rod. I still think the best was when I decked that Dragon guy at Waterbury. He went off, I'm playing TPS. He Duressed me, taking Chain (obviously), went off (in the process discarding his deck down to 7 cards) and decked me, but then frowned as I revealed Colossus and put him back in the library. Next turn I went Land, Necropotence, with a Black Lotus and two off the wall moxes left open for the last card in my hand, Force of Will. I didn't have to use it, but he did get decked and it was hilarious.

Anyway I hope I've shed some light on the topic I wish I had time to write a report because I feel like I have alot of exciting matchups and ridiculous wins ... but maybe later when I have time

A few noteworthy points ... the Time Spiral in the SB is not just to side in for matchups (except maybe some super crap pile that you don't need the maindeck hurkyl's/rebuild/chain against). It's one of the three combo outlets that Death Wish provides, the other two being Diminishing Returns and obviously Yawgmoth's Will. The reason? Unlike popular belief sometimes Yawg Will doesn't just win you the game.  I mean this isn't Long and you don't have the near infinite mana that 4x Lions Eye Diamonds provided. Hence the two Draw 7's in the side. Return is awesome, but if you have the mana Spiral is always better. It almost always guarantees a combo-out victory. Twice at GenCon Worlds I wished for Time Spiral, both times winning the same turn.  It is a solid Wish choice and although the SB's mentioned are strong there are a few better choices IMHO. I definitely think Damping Matrix belongs in the SB as a wish against Slavery. The beauty of Death Wish is they never know what you got and you can get anything so take advantage.

As far as the whole Oath thing, it sux. Seriously it's like the greatest idea on paper, but in practice you open yourself up to so much stupidity you'll wish you just stuck MisD's (or Unmask, my personal favorite) in the SB instead. Darksteel Colossus as a win condition off Tinker is actually very TPS-esque in nature, as they have ways of protecting him while he handles business. After all nothing sucks more than your opponent Welding out your Colossus after you expended your resources to get him out ... especially when you could have just gotten Memory Jar, as LongDeath indefinitely wins off the first Draw7 (or Death Wish) you cast; unlike TPS which sets up and goes off.

As far as my opinion, LongDeath is not broken, but amazing when you know what you're doing ... and when you use an abacus to keep track of your mana (sorry Smmenen).

I couldn't help but notice that you are missing a very important burn card, Chain Lightning. I don't know if you intentionally cut it or if you just didn't think it at the time, but I feel like card for card it definitely belongs in this deck over something, maybe kird ape? I don't know ape is a beast against fish, so I'm not sure what you'd cut. I don't know how I feel about Browbeat but I think Smmenen's success with Mono Blue (B2B was his bomb) has proved that Blood Moon is a good maindeck choice. Looks like a really fun deck to play

Ok, I don't mean to offend anyone, but doesn't this deck seem like it would be EXTREMELY vicious if we cut the 3 ironworks and replaced them with 3 more Ravagers. I know the goal was to combo ASAP, but it seems like even without the Ironworks you should have enough card advantage (Steelshapers Gift / Skullclamp) and recursion (Myr Retriever) to overwhelm your opponent even without the excessive mana the ironworks gives. Although I must say I think at least one Cranial Plating might be worth it considering you are playing steelshapers gift. Think about it Cranial Plating (if equipped early) can not only get around Null Rod but produces insanely savage beats. I tried to doubt the power of this card but honestly playing combo against Affinity in Type 1, the one card I hated to see was Plating because it single handedly can produce the same effect Hatred once did without costing the life points to it's controller. All I'm saying is it seems that we're trying to "force" together a combo deck that would kill quickly and more reliably as an aggro-combo deck then as a pure combo deck.

I guess I don't understand why people are debating playing Sundering Titan in Combo (TPS, Draw7, DeathLong). Playing anything other than Darksteel Colossus seems dumb.  I mean Tinker for Darksteel is hot, but Sundering Titan is really only good against matchups which you should be winning with a storm count. The whole reason for Darksteel was maindeck combo hate (Trinisphere, Null Rod, Blood Moon). At Type 1 Worlds I played 1 SB (I noticed a lack of Fish), and it proved amazing for the matches when i brought it in. I hardcast it once for the win against Psychatog, and MatRix hardcast it turn one with TPS (ask Karl about that one).

I guess what it boils down to is Darksteel is what you go for when stuff hits the fan. Someone drops a Null Rod? Hit em with Darksteel. Besides do you really want a BLOCKABLE oof? I mean Titan is good, but if you're playing combo your goal is to win as fast as possible ... not to let your opponent chump block while they replenish there hand and continue to draw blockers with a curiositied cloud of fairies.