Just for Clarification, this is a more "fun" idea but when searching MWS for some replacements for hatchling/skyfolk, i ran into one of the coolest cards that i would conider shoving into a competitive deck because Hippos are just that fucking awsome.

Pygmy Hippo
UG
2/2
Summon - Hippopotamus

Whenever Pygmy Hippo attacks and isn't blocked, you may have defending player play a mana ability of each land he or she controls and empty his or her mana pool. If you do, Pygmy Hippo deals no combat damage this turn and at the beginning of your postcombat main phase, add X to your mana pool, where X is equal to the amount of mana emptied from defending player's mana pool this way.

Kinda cool, fits the curve. UG for a 2/2 bear w/ a fun ability. Can help speed out jites and equips and at worst have them tap out to take the burn in response. But most importantly it acts as a psedo xantid swarm agaisnt mana drain decks so you can play all your sorcery speed spells in your post combat main phase w/o the fear of running into a mana drain.

I get that its probably not optiomal, but im just thowring it out there. It may have a spot agaisnt drain decks and is always usefull as a 2/2 beater. So in conclusion....its a fucking hippo (pygmy to be specific)

Kowal:
A lot of my experiance with WTF standstill has been aided the most by conjunction with Mishras Factory. Often having an uncounterable beater on the board is enough to drop an early standstill and claim w/ the Factory enough of a superior board possition that the opponent is forced to break the Standstill imediatly creating a critical swing in my direction. Your build diverges from alot of the synergy in earlier builds between factory/ninja/vial, along w/ mongrel -> rootwala that made standstill a powerfull threat. and i'd say that your builds absence of the Ninja / Factory is adequate reason to remove standstill.

Also im curious as to how your useage of the Mage and Theif have been. Was the Theif more of a meta call or do you think it belongs in an optiomal decklist? As stated before, do you think the additionional power of the Mage/Theif/White was more potent than the more seemingly synergystic approach taken by more traditional builds?

-Matt

Hey,

Recently I've been playing around with the deck and have been very impressed. Recently I have been running 2 Brainstorms main having cut the vice and a single standstill. Im fairly certain the standstill isnt the optiomal card to cut however I am impressed with the inclusion of the Brainstorms. Aside from implied synergy with fetches, running two has been good, and they almost always show up when I need them, later in the game when im looking for something specific. In that regard the brainstorms have made running into key Sideboard cards a key factor in many games. When running only 3 oxidise or other key SB spells having the brainstorms to allow you to dig further into your deck can be invaluable.

One of the clear advantages of green in this build is the vastly improved clock along w/ the jiite, however I am wondering how people feel about recent inclusions of geas skyfolk over spiketail hatchiling which i have found to be extreamly valuable. In a deck like this the differnce between a 1/1 and a 2/2 is significant however the number of times i have been able to cripple oponents gameplan through either a suprise spiketail or aggresive atacks on their mana base through an early chalise / wasteland combonation and the ability to keep them off their key spells for another turn with the spiketail, though they have proven less usefull with out the assistance of daze.

Also against decks that rely heavily on artifact exeleration like Gifts belcher or what not, Game 2 or 3, when your on the draw do you feel that its still worth it to keep in Chalise?

-Matt

while they function simiarly, the strongest play you want to make with chalise is droping it first turn before they get their moxes up, and at 0 it differs alot from null rod which in fish, w/o moxes or lotus cant come up before turn 2.

It would seem the strength of droping a first turn chalise at 0 warrents running a full set. For people who have been playing, how often do you find that going seccond you dont have a chance to drop a chalise before all their jewlery has hit the board?

As of now (due to Financial Issues) I do not have a SSG premium Account, and I regret it almost every day. It really seems that the Premium Stuff is Top Notch and Especialy b/c I like to play Limited/T2. And from almost everyone ive heard they deffinatly enjoy it.

Juggernaut-Go: Has that list been doing well for you?
I'm curious about some of your less Conventional Card Choices?

ex.)
3 Duress
Mox Diamond
13 Lands
Lim-Dul's Vault
Lions Eye Diamond

Seems odd, but hows it been working?
It seems that Less than 4 Duress is sub-optional, and I feel that as a card it is more important than 4x FoW
Also the LD Vault seems intresting but out of place.
Alot of Current builds are also running Cunning Wish, and Ive really liked it in testing.

The current list I am trying out is using 2 Volcanics to splash for Wheel of Fortune and Recoup which in slow games where your throwing bombs at their counterwall at a 1:1 speed can be very usefull.

One of the Important things i feel about TPS is SB slots allocated to Mana Drain Decks, often the 4 Duress 4 FoW isn't enough to punch through their counterwall AND additional SB hate. I Have been testing running 2-4 REB in the board to help punch through bombs and have seen other lists running Mis-D which i haven't tested but think has potential for use in the board Vs. Control Metas.

Thoughts....?

Name: Hatt0ri Hanz0

Play: T1 , Occasional T2/1.X

Times: Honestly much more than what People would consider "healthy"

I think this is a great idea seeing as how we all know about the dismal showing of competant Players/Vinate Players on MWS. Also Has anyone thought of possibly (if we dont have one already) a Manadrain Server where TMD'ers can look for Serious Testing or actuly competant players?

AIM: roseym216 (seriously, if anybody is interested in playing dont hessitate)

Notably These changes sound rather absurd, however as a means of moving this thread in a productive direction questions over the use of Mystical Tutor over Vamp. may hold some weight. To Brassman, Kowal, and Outlaw: Did you ever consider running Vamp in the place or w/ conjunction of Mystical?

It seems that from what i Understand of the deck, that it Use of Vamp may be redundant as it will be used to fetch the same gamebreaking cards that mystical would and holds the important drawbacks of less readily availability of Black mana and probably the most important: Does NOT pitch to Force.

However Durring Testing have you found that added utility and versatility of being able to fetch (tolarian/library) or even lotus/welder etc. been reason for possible inclusion

-Matt

I think this is Deffinatly something that people have never been able to truly belive (the idea that such an inherntly powerful and dominating deck in standard and its appearance in Extended would not find a place in T1).

The premise of the build is remnicent of a Metagamed extended version of affinity, that in the presence of notable artifact destruction opted to run affinity with somber hovergaurd and meddeling mage rendering hate useless.

The idea of a more controling Affinity sounds intresting, but even with cranial plating and moxes its doesnt seem capable of a fast enough clock while offering enough the same disruption/protection that a more control oriented deck like slaver/tog is capable of.

Disruption in the form of Duress/Cabal Therapy seems like it could also be a viable option, while providing more Aggresive MD options and overall more brokeness. For this deck i think that the presence of 4 stifles as well as the Mis-D's might be supurflous, and with less nonbasic hate, a splash for black seems nessisary: Y.Will, Dtutor, Duress ect.

Nice Artical, Its good to see you tried to experiment with the different builds despite what you may feel about them. Alot of us thought we wouldnt see the day.

Ive always felt that Intuition was very strong in CS, without the AK's taking up lots of spots. Adding the 2 Deep Anal. seems to be a perfect fit for the build as a default play, assuming no welders on the board.

How has Boseiju been treating working? it seems far to scary to risk a MD spot drawing one first turn with few to no other lands.

None of your builds seem to have Crucible encorporated in them, do you think that the addition of Crucible and an Artifact land as a Quick Hard Slaver Lock is inferrior to A single slave / pentavus beats? Addition of crucible i think could be a strong posiblity with the addition of Strip mine, and early options of Intuition: Crucible, Strip, Trike. Or something of that nature.

Nice Work

-Matt

Hey, This is my first Post after about a year of close following of Competitive T1 and Magic, And I figured that this would be an appropriate topic to begin my Posts.

Anyway, I actually had heard of Kowal's NINJA SWORD a few weeks prior at YMG tournament where he simply mentioned his badass deck premise: Ninjas & Swords. Knowing only that and the fact that it ran blue I tried to build a deck that would accommodate those ideas. IT turned out to resemble U/W Fish, but played differently and rather synergistically.

4 Ninja of the Deep hour
4 Sword of Fire/Ice

For the origonal foundation of the Deck i decided to start off w/ a stable U/W manabase

Adding W for StP, Meddling Mage, and Raise the Alarm (teck)

First List:

Counter: 11
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
3 Stifle

Search/Draw: 6
4 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk

Creatures: 7
3 Meddling Mage
4 Cloud of Faries

Ninjas: 4
4 Ninja of the Deep Hour

Swords: 3
3 Sword of fire/ice

Utility: 6
2 Raise The Alarm (Surprisingly Good, alot of synergy with the deck)
1 Mystical Tutor
2 StP
1 Echoing Truth

Mana: 7
5 Mox
1 Petal Petal
1 Black Lotus

Land: 16
4 Flooded Strand
4 Tundra
3 Island
1 Plains
1 Strip Mine
3 Wasteland

I played a bit and tweaked it, Eventually Adding Red for REB/R&R and SB, as well as trying out Mox Monkey Main.

From playing My version, it feels somewhat like fish, but the access to the Power of Mana Drain, and the Synergy of the Deck with the Ninjas and Sword makes it promising.

The ability to Lay early threats w/ Cloud of Fairies as well as being able to fairly consistently have Mana Drain up on Turn 2, makes the deck very reactive and having Access to stifle is often key when left w/ 1 mana open to halt the opponents Game plan.

The synergy between Cloud of Faries and Ninja is obvious but it fits amazingly well in this deck as it allows for dropping a creature to bring in w/ ninja while still enabling Drain mana on Turn 2, and is never useless especially with the Addition of Sword of Fire/Ice which turns any of your creatures into massive threats late game.

The meddling mage has been pretty strong, and especially with ninja, where you can return it and replay it naming more pertinent threats. However as noted White may not be the final Direction for the deck, Red is clearly necessary for Power of sideboard options.

While much different from the intended direction of SB NINJA SWORD, I feel that these decks as foundations could serve to produce what may become a viable deck.