Gorilla Shaman and Rootwater Thief seem like great cards to put in this deck to deal with the traditional bad matches that most fish decks encounter, Stax and Oath. They also have broader uses, the monkey to destroy artifacts and the thief to put the hurt on decks that run few win conditions, like gifts, slaver, tps (remove the tendrils and burning wish if it runs it) and such.

I agree with Kowal in the fact that this deck should have the cheap cantrips ever present in the gro archetype like Serum Visions, Opt, Sleight of Hand etc. I also think as far as draw goes putting in the single Frantic Search isnt such a bad idea, even if this deck doesn't run the multi-mana lands the card's usually abused with. I think it has great synergy and fits in with the decks M.O. (filter, pump, fly over and win).

Cycling lands are better.

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/arcana/933

Straight from MTG.com itself.

I am super excited for this, will they continue with the mechanics found in that block, like the pitch cards? Will we see snow covered lands once again? Could any of this break Type 1 if it has cards comprable to the power level of IA and AL?

I agree on the darkblast.

And you misread my list, i put 6 LoMoxen, implying that I'm not running sol ring

Typo. I counted 61 cards in the deck and the swamp looked weird to me too. Just gonna edit that  now.

Status Update:

-1 Seal of Cleansing
+1 Oxidize

-1 Duress
+1 Auriok Salvagers

I decided ultimately to run the 2nd salvagers, since Swords is rampant right now.

But Lava Dart can deal 2 to the head to finish someone off!

(But seriously, Darkblast is some good tech. I agree with Dralock about putting this into Oath (maybe as a tutorable bullet, since you only really need 1 unless you're facing some serious gy hate, which is almost never played maindeck and almost never sided in vs. oath)

@ everyone fearing needle, chalice and rod

The deck runs 1 E-Tutor and 1 Seal of Cleansing. Is that not enough to handle the hosers? Should I run more artifact kill than that?

Yeah, but that's been done to death. I figured I'd try it with the GWS skeleton, and so far its worked very well for me. The draw engine is excellent for the Salvager plan and the reason why should be obvious.

Ever since Mat Endress's performance at worlds, I've been infatuated with the GWS way of playing Oath. I am akin to them in thinking that oath should be played as a straight-up combo deck as opposed to being a sub-par control deck. The numbers prove that this approach is the better one, since before Mat's 3rd place finish at worlds, nobody had landed a top 8 at a major event with Oath since the Meandeck boys brought the deck back with the release of CHK.

I'm also a huge fan of the salvager combo as well, and while not posting as many strong finishes as pure Oath, i feel that it is still viable, and plugging it into the excellent GWS oath skeleton seemed like a natural fit.

Without furter ado, the list. (Oddball choices bolded for clarity)

//LAND
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
2 City of Brass
4 Forbidden Orchard
1 Tropical Island
1 Underground Sea
4 Polluted Delta
1 Island
1 Tundra

//DORK
1 Auriok Salvagers

//SPELLS
6 LoMoxen
1 LED
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Balance
1 Mystical Tutor
4 Oath of Druids
4 Duress
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
3 Impulse
3 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Seal of Cleansing
2 Pyrite Spellbomb

//SIDEBOARD
1 Seal of Cleansing
1 Darksteel Colossus
1 Tinker
1 Rushing River
1 Hurkyl's Recall
4 Oxidize
2 Choke
2 Phyrexian Furnace
1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
1 Spirit of the Night


Why the extra white cards? Seal of Cleansing is in there to fight problem cards like Chalice 0 and Null Rod, and Enlightened Tutor does double duty as a 2nd answer to the aforementioned problem cards as well, not to mention finding your Oath, your combo pieces and your Chokes out of the sideboard. I maindecked the B-Bomb as personal preference, as it has saved my ass numerous times.

This was going to be my Waterbury deck, but unfortunately car troubles have prevented me and the rest of the North Bay boys from making it this time around.

Anyways, discuss.

You should really try and make room for Lotus and Mox Pearl. Artifact mana can lead to some pretty explosive starts, like Kataki+Field, choke+maze or other brokenness.

Looking at Ravnica, I can see 2 cards that would be possible fits in this deck.

First is the much-discussed Suppression Field (1W Enchantment; Activated Abilities cost 2 more to play unless they're mana abilities). Even more hate, slows down a lot of relevant threats to your deck, like Jitte & Triskelion, as well as opposing welders, fetches, bazaars and anything else relevant in the format.

Second is Life from the Loam. This card has to be one of the more broken ones in Rav. I have found a multitude of uses for this card already (With trade routes in standard, tog fuel w/ cephalid coliseum in ext), and vintage is no different. This card digs deep for lands when you're hurting, as well as recurring strip mine and wasteland, and feeding your wild mongrels.

Deja Vu - 2U
Sorcery
Return target sorcery card in your graveyard to your hand.

Portal brings us this on-color recursion for Gifts Ungiven. I think it will see play. I know we've had Relearn available to us, and it can recur instants as well, but it pales in comparison due to it having UU in its mana cost, not to mention Gifts game-winning spells are sorceries, so the instant recursion is sort of irrelevant. I think this card is a perfect fit for the deck as a one-of.

Magus is good enough without a sacrifice outlet.

It trumps the tinker win plan in gifts.

It steals Stax's lock parts, which you then sacrifice to the Smokestack itself, as well as its win conditions.

It messes up combat with Workshop Aggro.

Steals CS's stuff too.

If you're playing WTF, I suggest filling that ever so present "4 Blue Creature" slot that was originally Gaea's Skyfolk with 2 Rootwater Thief and 2 Magus, with 2 Bouncer in board to trade with the magus' for the Oath matchup.

If raze is banned, shouldn't crack the earth be banned as well?

My word was Discard

4 Wild Mongrel
4 Arrogant Wurm
4 Basking Rootwalla
3 Aquamoeba
3 Krosan Tusker
2 Gigapede
2 Merfolk Looter

4 Careful Study
4 Circular Logic
3 Rites of Refusal
3 Break Asunder

13 Forest
11 Island

Here's a funny conclusion to the first game we had with our stack here in North Bay. There were 4 out of 5 players left standing and I had shared fate on the table. Paul, the guy to the right of me, plays Trade Secrets on Donald and they draw out everyone's decks. They have a big war to see who can remove the shared fate first (answer-counter-answer-counter etc.), while Nick and I sit idly by with useless cards that we had in our "hands" from shared fate, until Paul drops Upheaval, which Donald counters with a Memory Lapse, and since Paul initally drafted the Upheaval, it went back ontop of his library. I was still alive, so I picked up the Upheaval, played it and won the game, since the only counter left was a Thoughtbind.

Just porting this over from MiseTings, but words needs to be spead about this... debauchery if you will.

The guy bought and paid for cards (Transmute Artifact priced at $3 to be exact), and then recieved this.



So for those of you buying from this sad excuse for a business, be wary of the bargains.

Ontario:

The Card Den
68 Lakeshore Dr.
North Bay, ON
TEL: (705)497-1326

The card den holds monthly 5-proxy tourneys. Prizes are getting sweeter and sweeter each tourney. The Den is giving away an LOA on the 21st.

EDIT: LOL Derek

Last I heard, in reality, losing a piledriver/warchief < losing a piledriver + a warchief. That's simple goblin math for you.



And you precious clamp isn't asking for it either?

Well since there's only 5 artifacts in the deck to begin with, aside from colossus, it wouldn't be that viable of an option now would it? Nothing worse than a dead card in hand eh?

My best guess is that might be a combined rating for Vintage & the yet unnamed Type 1.5.