Bazaar vs Ponder.
Tell your friend, that Ponder is a free way to smooth your draws/mana development (almost no mana investment, replaces itself with "draw a card"), while Bazaar gives a similar ability to dig through the deck, but at an entirely different cost (1 card + 1 land drop investment to play it. Plus additional card disadvantage each time you use it). Bazaar however has the ability to dump stuff into your 'yard in an uncounterable way and has a nice interaction with certain dragons and goblins. Ponder is fixing your draws. Bazaar is an engine. They're entirely different, despite the digging thing.

Vintage vs the attack phase.
What did you imagine in the most broken format? If combo has a chance anywhere, it should be in vintage?
And Gush brought Gro back, no ? That deck has been known to use attack steps.

Brainstorm:
I think you quite neatly summed up why Brainstorm had to go, yourself. As you explain, brainstorm just does sooo much good for consistency. Letting you play a smoother land base, giving you pitchable cards to FoW, letting you hide key cards from discard effects, putting accidentily drawn Colossi and Oath-creatures back in your library and letting you go through your deck faster. All this at instant speed and almost for free. Yep, it made vintage streamlined. But maybe a bit too streamlined. Digging 3 cards deep into your deck is a powerfull effect in vintage, as a single card can end the game right there. Which leads on to...

Ponder: This card digs even deeper than Brainstorm. It almost goes as deep as Fact or Fiction (+shuffle), for just U. Ponder also let's you play with a shakier mana base, since you get to manipulate your deck almost freely.

While I do agree that this swing at consistant blue decks is certainly a format-shifting alteration, I can see the motives behind it, and I think it may be alright.
(I would like to have seen an additional blow at Dredge though - a deck that is just as lame as flash, in my book.)

Regarding the "golden age of vintage", I'm not quite sure if i agree, seing top 8s of Hulk, Dredge and [random-gush/bond-engine.dec]. That's not a golden metagame.

As already said a number of times, Workshops and dredge look scary at the moment. Fish variants look interesting too, and blue based control as we know it, seems to have its work cut out to reinvent itself. It'll be interesting to see what happens.

EDIT: A new sligh mage is born!

Uhm, this land only changes land type.

Lands dont't actually get the ability to tap for B. Right ?

This deck has very few issues with Null Rod. It really doesnt hurt me at all. 
The sb could easily fit a set of Energy Fluxes or a couple more Naturalize/Oxidize if Stax was a huge factor. In my area, it isn't at the moment though. (And we agree that the sb has awful cards. In the tournament I won with this deck I wished for: Echoing Truth, Hurkyl's Recall, Vampiric Tutor, Berserk and Misdirection exclusively - apart from Wish targets from the maindeck after Will/FoW pitch --> Thirst + Recall)




This is where I think our metas differ. If playing in a field of mirror matches and Gifts all over, these arguments would hold true. I, however, play in a quite varied field. There's lots of combo being played and a great number of Fish-type decks and aggressive strategies like FCG or sligh'ish decks (Try playing intuition slaver against this and you'll lose ). I DO face control mirrors also, but mainly in the top 8. My first concern is getting there and this deck performs well in a varied field due to its speed and consistancy.

I agree that this is a late game deck, therefore I think it makes sense trying to get to that phase of the game. I cant just fill my deck with late game bombs and card drawing, because I'm playing a "late-game deck". I need to speed up my deck/fit answers/disrupt my opponent enough to make me live through to the mid-late game.
Another option that this deck often uses, is simply overpowering it's opposition with Tinker, that wrecks most strategies even still. People pack hate against it, but it still works.

While I may not have as strong a late game plan as an Intuition/AK + Deep Analysis + LoA deck, I still get to outlast most decks with me getting quality cards through Thirst and Brainstorm rather than dead draws in the mid-late game. And I can disrupt with the best of them, with a full suite of Duress, Drain and FoW + Wish backup.

Your quote is a bit off, but I get the point. Merchant scroll for Recall is actually a 2 card net gain, that's right. This helps a bit, but I still find it clunky since it's a sorcery.. You almost never want to tap 1U turn 2 or 3, so you have to do it turn 1 with a mox or later on to play it optimally. This doesn't find you new options NOW.

I was inspired by the thread and discussion therein, not the deck. Sorry if that didn't show in my post. I made this deck long before reading jCoKn's thread.

EDIT: I also wish to stress, that my criticism towards Merchant Scroll and Intuition/AK only goes for this Tog/Tinker/Tendrils deck of course.. Intuition/AK can be amazing in other decks, as I mentioned in my first post. I just don't think it fits into this archetypes strategy.
These cards have been playable in T1 for a long while. They didn't go bad overnight - that was not my initial idea anyway... This thread is about Tog-type decks, i hope.

I'd like to post my take on an updated tog list, inspired by this thread:
http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/index.php?topic=27042.0

While the build in jCoKn's (what's up with the name, bro?) thread acknowledges cutting down on the number of winconditions, I think there are some flaws in the deck theory.

I agree that the deck can function very well and be very brutal with just a few win conditions. I stick to my guns with 1 Tog instead of the Tendrils. I wont spend much time discussing this secondary win condition, as Tinker/DC will win you the game 80% of the time.

My major concern in regards to jCoKn's list is the 'card advantage' parts of the deck - it's draw engine. Let me explain:

Intuition/AK is an established way to refill your hand. It is amazing when you're holding AK no. 4 in hand or when your deck has other uses for the Inutitions (Mindslaver, Dragon, etc.).
But if you look at AK/Intuition under other circumstances, it's just a 3 for 2 card advantage for 3UU. That's really slow when facing FCG or some other nasty beats. And in this deck it doesn't even tutor for brokenness... Sure it sets up a Win More Yawgmoth's Will or finds 3 FoW in a pinch, but nothing REALLY spectacular happens when playing Intuition for anything besides AK.
AK/Intuition's reliance on the graveyard is a problem too, as random hate towards the grave hurts you pretty bad.

Merchant Scroll has the same problems card advantage-wise in my opinion.


I'm not sure I agree here... Sure you get 3 new cards, but at the cost of 1UU at sorcery speed and 2 cards, this seems less than impressive. It is really good to be able to tutor for broken blue cards, but at sorcery speed and getting no real card advantage in the process, makes it problematic to me. Especially in this very tight deck that needs to be on top to win - controlling the game.

These factors combined: the slow and unimpressive 'card advantage' takes a lot of the 'oomph!' from this very explosive and savagely controllish deck.

I've tried to make my version of Tog faster, while still having the ability to dig deep into the library for answers in the opening turns.

MAIN:
1 Psychatog
1 Tinker
1 Darksteel Colossus

4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
4 Duress

4 Thirst For Knowledge
4 Brainstorm
3 Cunning Wish

1 Echoing Truth
2 Engineered Explosives

1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Fact Or Fiction
1 Gush

1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
4 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
2 Tropical Island
4 Island
4 Undergroud Sea
1 Seat Of The Synod


SIDEBOARD:
1 Oxidize
1 Berserk
1 Seedtime
1 Krosan Reclamation
1 Moment's Peace
1 Misdirection
1 Stifle
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Echoing Truth
1 Chain Of Vapor
1 Darkblast
1 Coffin Purge
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mind Twist
1 Hideous Laughter
(Please disregard the sb. The only vital cards are: the bounce spells, Vampiric Tutor, Mind Twist, Berserk and Misdirection)

The big difference between the two builds is obviously my inclusion of Thirst For Knowledge as my main draw engine. It is supported by Fact Or Fiction, tutors, 3 Cunning Wish and a questionable Gush.
Thirst + Fact has a nice ability to dig deep into the deck NOW. You don't have to spend a turn setting up with Intuition.. You draw the cards at once and see your options right away. This wins you games when staring down active Welder, Goblins or an active Oath. It does so in the important turns 2-5 in which most T1 games are decided. This is essential in relation to Intuition/AK that loses a turn for you on this account.

Here's two examples:

With Intuition/AK:
A turn 2 Mana Drain (for 2), lets my turn 3 play be: Intuition for 3xAK for U, and keep UU open (expecting to draw 3 cards in my opponents next EOT step if he has no play)

With Thirst For Knowledge:
A turn 2 mana drain (for 2), lets my turn 3 play be: Thirst 3 cards deep into my deck giving me options NOW, maybe even finding another Mana Drain, extra land or brokenness. It still lets me put up UU and playing a brainstorm, tutor or whatever.

The Thirst version is a lot more aggressive this way - it lets me randomly see proactive cards like Duress, Time Walk and Tinker and lets me able to play these right away.

Adding enough artifacts to make this work was actually pretty easy.
Even as I include green for the good ol' Berserk win, I still chose Engineered Explosives over Pernicious Deed, because og the Thirsts. Explosives have been working wonders for me and are often one or two mana cheaper than a Deed. It's fine to discard these to Thirst, when you're in control of the game. Also U+random mox/black is a lot easier to produce than finding consistant green mana in this deck.

Being able to get rid of a Darksteel Colossus in hand in other ways than by Brainstorm'ing it away is obviously another huge benefit from Thirst - Oath players know how it feels to be stuck with 'big dude in hand' (some pun intended).
1 artifact land was added to give another random artifact to discard without wrecking the mana base too much.
Try it out - it works quite alright.

I feel that Green still gives some very nice options. Berserk is not to be scoffed at. It makes Tog lethal ALL THE TIME. and I've even played it on DC to finish the game NOW. I don't see it as a win more card at all. It gives you a lot more options.
Krosan Reclamation doubles as Graveyard hate and it recycles your sparse win conditions if all goes wrong. If someone decks you, you can put Timewalk + Tinker back in your library (or cunning wish + Tinker).
The most important sb-card is Vampiric Tutor. It gets you tinker at the cost of card advantage - When your opponent is properly disrupted this has little consequence as Mr. 11/11 JUST DOESN'T CARE. It feels clunky to end of turn Wish for vampiric, and miss your next draw - but it has won me lots of games. I'm sure this is true for jCoKn as well.

Bounce maindecked AND sideboarded as numerous different wish targets are very important in the current environment of oaths, Needles, Chalices, and other hatefull artifacts and enchantments.

I like the idea of adding white if Stax and Oath are problematic. But I'd rather have an effective toolbox in random metas.

I played this deck in a 24 man well-powered tournament last week and won, but that's the only test the deck has had so far.
Gush won me the semi-finals, but has to move to the sb I'm afraid. Maybe a maindeck Misdirection or an extra explosives or a Sol Ring will take it's slot.

Thx for reading.

Nice Read.

I could have used this info, when I was 6-1 in Sealed deck at GP Leipzig back in spring.
I lost my next game, going to 6-2, and when my opponent asked me to draw in the final round of the day (Rnd 9), I refused, since I didn't want to "risk" my chance of day two (my deck was very good). I should clearly have drawn with him, since my tie-breakers were so good, but once you've tried drawing yourself _OUT_ of top 8/day 2, you get a bit paranoid about doing this.
I ended up in 79th place with my 6-3 record, where top 64 qualified. A draw would have been sufficient. Too bad.

(If you don't like limited, ignore the rest of this post.)

Leipzig Sealed deck:
1 Frostling
1 Kami Of False Hope
1 Genju Of The Fields

1 Nezumi Cutthroat
1 Kiku, Night's Flower
1 Indomitable Will
1 Konda's Hatamoto

1 Kabuto Moth
1 Honden Of Infinite Rage
1 Yamabushi's Flame
1 Takenuma Bleeder
1 Waxmane Baku

1 Mothrider Samurai
1 Torrent Of Stone
1 Harsh Deceiver
1 Befoul
1 Eradicate
1 Blind With Anger
1 Devouring Greed
1 Gibbering Kami
1 Okiba-Gang Shinobi

1 Scuttling Death
1 Heartless Hidetsugu

7 Swamp
5 Plains
5 Mountain

Notes:
I never mulliganed a single game, in spite of my horrible mana base. How lucky!
I never got to play my Blind With Anger a single time throughout 9 rounds  :shock:
Almost Everyone at the top tables had Jitte, go figure.

Oh, I think you missed the point.

If you read JP's quote thoroughly, you'll see that he actually switched a few words, making the former statement into a valid question. It can be re-phrased into something like this: "Does it really matter, which win condition you have? (Tog or Colossus) You only go for the win with backup anyway, making StP equally irrelevant vs. both builds..."

I don't care who 'invented tog' - it is irrelevant.

Ground Seal > Lava Dart
Berserk >>>>>>(Brushwagg)>> Fling
Rack and Ruin is Savage, no discussion there. But Oxidize/Energy Flux gets the job done as well (albeit with less ease).
Naturalize is nice and all, nut it sits in your board filling up a slot, being used only once every 6th or 7th game until you finally switch it for an(other) Echoing Truth.
Duress > Red Elemental Blast pretty much most of the time.

I see very little reason to play red. Shaman is no argument to me as I agree with our italian friend, who questions: "Does tog really need mana denial ?"
Chalice may be huge in some areas in America, but is a rare sight in Europe these days... It is not to be feared. If it rears its ugly head, Cunning Wish will solve it with Oxidize or Echoing Truth.

I myself would stick to a more controllish version than the explosive 4x Merchant Scroll list. I'd rather have instant draw and more disruption. No Tinker for me either at the moment, but it's random win effect might push me over - especially since i play Berserk for utter b0rkenness

I agree on some of your points, but the way you present them doesn't do anything to convince me any further...


True - this random fact, can't be denied. It is however uncomparable that way...
Turn 1 Channel + Fireball wins games, turn 1 FoW + [blue card] does not ?
Tinker decks are made to combo out. Tog is meant to take control of the game and combo out when that has happened.. You can't say decks are bad if they can't win on turn 1.

I do however agree that Tinker is better and more broken than an Atog. I'm just saying that Colossus vs. Tog is a pretty close call.


Berserk


I don't think I quite understand what you're trying to illustrate here. Sorry.


It seems to me that a lot of people think of an early Darksteel Colossus as an invincible win condition... it is far from that as every deck has ways to deal with him by now. Relying on Tinker Colossus is bold. Gifts wins on tendrils most of the time anyway...
Tinker/Colossus is obviously far more vulnerable than 3x tog.

I'm not sure I follow the trend in this thread about Tog being a bad card.

It is so close to Tinker-Colossus in power level, that I find it amusing to see people diss the Tog, while advocating Tinker.

Tog kills in two swings just as often as Darksteel colossus does. And you can play 3 if you like.

What makes Tog interesting to me at the moment, is the fact that combo decks seem to be everywhere right now (mainly gifts).
There is no other deck I'd rather pilot against combo, than Tog. it has the nice blue counters and adds Duress which is obv a total house vs. combo. On top of that even REBs if deemed necessary. Fish may be better vs. some combo decks, but Tog is so versatile that it can handle a wide open metagame as we see now.

I know that this is spoken out with this in mind --> , but I just have to stress (just this once), that Tog is one of the most powerful concoction of cards - It is basically Draw and Disruption + bombs and only 2-3 slots spent on winning. Very few decks abuse the three dukes of doom: Time Walk, Ancestral Recall and Yawgmoth's Will as well as Tog does. It is a very tight deck and quite versatile being able to combo out aggro and Out-control Combo. If you're playing in a stax-less meta, you might want to give Tog a try. (Hey, that's me!)

This being said, I agree with your . Tog uses a lot of time to 'set up'. Gifts, Stax and Slaver decks do this more brutally and explosively, so I see what you're saying..
It does nothing for the first turns besides disrupting and drawing cards, but whoops - suddenly you have a yardfull of goodness, and can suddenly just win from there.. Not as synergistic as Slaver in its card interactions, but pretty darn close.

Great responses. I think I'm getting closer to understanding...


But let's face it -  isn't this counterproductive to slavers main gameplan?
To completely play it's own (and it's opponents) game the way it wants to.

Tossing in 1 Rack And Ruin, 1 Echoing Truth and 1 Gorilla Shaman to answer problems makes your own game plan less consistant...
Draw spells makes your own game plan a lot more focused and makes you care less about what your opponent does.
Threats are better than answers. <--- [PERIOD]

I'm not advocating draw spells here - I'm simply trying to find out why the deck has taken this direction. To me 3 1-ofs and a tutor package seems just as slow as an assload of draw spells and a solid game plan.
Sure - this deck will be the slower deck in most duels, but does this warrant maindeck 1-of hate/answer-cards that solve specific problems? (Speaking prejudiced here, I'm guessing that you probably never have that single Fire/Ice when you REALLY need it anyways - but you draw it when facing TPS or something stupid. Mystical for Fire/Ice is really awful...)

I think the deck needs to have more general answers and solid threats. When I say general answers I'm thinking along the lines of 2-3 Echoing Truth, 2-3 Blood Moon, 2-3 Annul, 2-3 Stifle, 2-3 REB etc. suiting your expected local meta. I'd much rather play this constellation than a series of one ofs and the tutor package.
2-3 Fire/Ice really boost your mirror, fish and FCG matchups if those is give you wrinkles.
2-3 Annul does wonders in a world of Oath and Stax...
You have to be fairly good at metagaming to do this though - I'll be the first to admit that, but even then, I still think this is better.
BTW: It can't be Cunning Wish as that is clearly too slow.

By more solid threats, I mean 2 maindeck Mind Slavers and/or 2 Sundering Titans (next best win condition IMO) + probably Trisk and Pentavus to ensure consistancy (Plats would be my next choice I think).

Control Slavers inherent problem as I see it, is it being (along with 3-4cc and Ophie-based decks) the slowest deck in the format.
Control decks are usually slow - that's ok... but Control Slaver doesn't have THAT much disruption. Sometimes you just wished for maindeck Duress, Stifles or more counters - I never feel confident playing against combo with Slavery.

I may have been out of the loop for a few months, due to stupid things like WoW and Work.
People tell me that Control Slaver is back in business. It's supposed to be one of the best decks right now. (Meandeck Tendrils SX obviously is the best deck ALL TEH TIEM!, but what do they know... Newbsorz!)

When I played Slaver a year ago, people advocated Intuitions and AK to boost it's draw and out-bust even Hulks draw engine. At one point the deck had:
3 Intuition
4 AK
1-2 Deep Analysis
4 Brainstorm
4 Thrist for Knowledge
1 Fact Or Fiction
1 Ancestral Recall

...thats blatantly overdoing it. Some games would be like:
Turn 1: brainstorm, take 1 from lackey, Goblin Warchief pops into play
Turn 2: Intuition for AK, take 8 from Lackey + Warchief + Piledriver. Recruiter joins the party.
Turn 3: Thirst, Welder, die to crap...
 - You'd draw a lot of cards, but never have a chance to use any of them, since you draw... well... draw.

I never liked the AKs, but Intuition is a mad tutor in this deck - why has that been left out in recent builds? Is it dubbed: "I win more"? I can see how it is "only" good, with an active Welder, but even then, I think it's good enough to be played at least as a two of. Turn 1 Welder, Turn 2 Intuition/Thirst is as easy as Turn 1 Careful Study, Turn 2 Wild Mongrel.

So - Where have all the clowns gone ?

I'm offering english translation for future coverage on this site, if "Panteren" wants me to, and is willing to make the required coding...

Congrats to the high finishers and all that. It seems to have been a fun and highly competitive duke-out.

I'm surprised, that no Fish decks made it to the top 8. There always seem to be one Sligh/WtF/FCG/metagame deck pulling it through, but not this time.

Fish usually does great vs. combo and can be tooled to deal with CS, but obviously not enough to encourage people to play it? Were Fish decks absent at this tournament ? Not even Mr. Perez?

Arcane Lab does very little against this deck. It hits play too late unless coupled with a Lotus or other rude mana acceleration.
And decks that play Arcane Lab have 2-3 in the board or they're playing bad Erayo combo - they'll roll over either way.
On top of this, you should remember that even with a Lotus + Arcane Lab starthand, you're probably gonna lose around 65% of the time, if the Tendrils player goes first (disregarding FoW on your part, which would make you a total git to play against, You mising lucksack :lol:)

I've faced Stax decks pre-Trinisphere restriction, but as stated in the original SCG article about the Tendrils deck, this was and still is actually an ok matchup. Stax have around 40% chance of getting a lock component that wrecks Tendrils, but Tendrils still have the 65% chance of winning first turn and almost certainly on turn 2 if that fails. The cointoss is of course immensely important here, which is the fall of this deck... If you lose too many dicerolls to see who goes first, during the day, you're not gonna make it to the top 8.

My advice for you with ways to combat FoW with this deck is simply: "don't". The deck is SO tight, and it really only works optimally when it is in it's maindeck mode... removing cards to add Duress or FoW drops your chances of going off by too much to make it viable. Let's face it: you only play this deck if your balls are the size of Melons, so you might as well play 4 Stream Of Life and 11 Forests in your sb. trying to make this become TPS after sideboarding wont work. Play TPS or Sensei, Sensei if you want to play a combo deck that can handle disruption.

I still think this is one of the most savage decks ever created. Play it in a tournament once and never pick it up again.. just try it once - it's really worth it.

My mini report:
Rnd 1 - Stax
1: He mulligans twice and goes land, mox, mox, Sol Ring. I go off in my turn 1.
2: He Jester's Caps me turn 2, removing 3 Tendrils Of Agony. I win on my turn 2 with the tendrils i have in hand.

Rnd 2 - Stax
1: He plays a Welder and a mox. I go off on my turn 2.
2: He plays turn 1 Workshop, Trinisphere. I scoop before my turn.
3: He mulligans looking for lock components, I go off on my turn 2
(4 - we play another game, because there's lots of time left. I tinker forth a colossus, achieve storm count 11 and kill myself with spoils - all in turn 1.)

Rnd 3 - TPS
1: He Duresses twice, I lose.
2: I get storm count 22 on turn 3. He stifles

Rnd 4 - Hulk
1: I have a slow hand and he Engineered Explosives 2 of my moxen and Wasteland my Bayou. I lose
2: He Forces turn 1 Land Grant and Mind Twists me for the win.

I scoop with the flu.
As you can tell, I won the dice roll in game 2 only. Had I won the dice rolls in game 3 and 4, it would have been very different.

If you look at results in Europe, it should be pretty clear that TPS has been THE dominating combo deck of the past year. It's ability to roll over Stax decks pre-Trinisphere restriction, made it one of the top choices in that meta.
The metagame has shifted since then, but TPS is still an amazingly consistant deck.
It shouldn't crap out if played correctly. I see TPS as a slower, more controllish combo deck than the rest - but with an incredible resliilence. It has very good disruption, maindeck bounce to handle hosers and will go off regularly in the opening turns. It's worst matchup is fish type decks, making it less valid at the moment, but it is still a very strong deck. Gifts is overrated to me, but time will tell if I'm wrong. Rector based combo seems just as good to me. But oh well...

I was at the tournament myself and I was quite puzzled at the judges decision too. I am not a certified judge though, so I didn't want to intervene.
 
I later asked someone who usually knows stuff like this due to 10 years of high level tournament magic (he's good). He agreed with the judges decision, having had the same ruling against himself earlier.
Weird I think - but I would guess that it may seem odd to us all because of the fact that it never really matters. In this case it mattered a lot. Especially since game 2 was very well played out with Jacob and Rasmus giving their best. A draw seemed like a nice ending to that game. When Rasmus went lucksack-broken on the extra extra turns, you couldnt really do anything but shake your head and smile... Soo lame.

Judge: "Can any of you do a first turn kill or is this a draw?"
Rasmus: "Theoretically I can"
...

I also watched the semi between Jacob and Martin.
Game 3 really should have been Jacob's as well.. He goes for a turn 1 Crucible (with Waste in hand), but it get's get's forced. Martin Recalls in his first turn. Jacob then goes turn 2 Platinum Angel, with Kira in hand to seal the game in turn 3, if he can find a blue mana source. Martin then Plays Scepter-Chant with 2 mana open due to a topdecked Academy, and Jacob never get to play another spell.

Interesting deck - I didn't know how to describe it when people asked what decks had made the top 8. I think my description on another forum was: "weird controlish aggro-deck-thingy with workshops".

I'm surprised you havent tested Lava Dart in a Tendrils build. It looks interesting to me.

1. It costs 1 mana total.

2. It does 2 points of damage, which can handle problem creatures in a pinch. (Goblin Welder, Meddling Mage, True Believer, Voidmage Prodigy, Spiketail Hatchling and Wormfang Manta (ok just kidding) come to mind)

3. It ups the storm count by 2. Most of the time being: "do 6 pts of damage" for R. (this part 3 here, is obviously the reason to play it - the other benefits are nice, but this is what makes it interesting in the first place.)

4. It's drawback requires a Badlands or Taiga in play, but Polluted Delta and a black core or Land Grant, could work around this. A deck that wins in the first 1-3 turns doesn't care if it loses a land, when it goes off.

Any thoughts on this ?

EDIT: On another note, Coffin Purge has the same potential, being on color and doing 4 points of damage for BB. It might be better due to being on color.

This saturday 53 players gathered in 'Faraos Cigarer', Copenhagen, Denmark to duke it out for a Mox Ruby.
All tournaments in this area are sanctioned and thus with no proxies allowed. The meta is getting quite strong with people from Sweden starting to show up and lots of power.

--------------
Top 8 decklists:

Brian Nielsen — winner
Stax
4 Mishra’s Workshop
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
4 City of Brass
3 Gemstone Mine
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Mana Vault
1 Mana Crypt
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Saphire
1 Sol Ring

1 Balance
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
2 Sphere of Resistance
3 Chalice of the Void
1 Memory Jar
3 Crucible of worlds
1 Ancestrall Recall
1 Tinker
1 Karn, Silver Golem
1 Sundering Titan
1 Triskelion
4 Tangle Wire
4 Smokestack
4 Trinisphere
4 Goblin Welder

Sideboard:
3 Swords to Plowshares
4 Pyrostatic Pillar
3 Rack and Ruin
2 Triskelion
1 Duplicant
2 Ray of revelation

Kenny Öberg - Runner Up
TPS
4 Polluted Delta
1 Flooded Strand
1 Volcanic Island
3 Underground Sea
2 Swamp
3 Island
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Dark Ritual
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Saphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mana Crypt
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus

1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Cunning Wish
1 Tinker
1 Yawgmoths Will
1 Yawgmoths Bargain
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Necropotence
1 Minds Desire
1 Timetwister
1 Time spiral
1 Windfall
1 Memory Jar
1 Ancestrall Recall
1 Time Walk
4 Brainstorm
1 Tendrils of Agony

Sideboard:
1 Brain Freeze
1 Rushing River
1 Echoing Truth
2 Hurkyl’s Recall
3 Hydroblast
1 Coffin Purge
1 Stifle
1 Meditate
1 Darksteel Colossus
2 Defence Grid
1 Chain of Vapor

Lars Birch – 3/4
Rectal Agony
4 Flooded Strand
3 Underground Sea
3 Gemstone Mine
2 Scrubland
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Tundra
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Saphire

4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Frantic Search
1 Timetwister
1 Minds Desire
4 Dark Ritual
4 Cabal Therapy
2 Duress
2 Tendrils of Agony
1 Yawgmoths Will
1 Necropotence
1 Yawgmoths Bargain
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
4 Academy Rector
1 Balance

Sideboard:
4 Orims Chant
3 Seal of Cleansing
3 Chill
1 Form of the Dragon
1 Illusions of Grandeur
1 Control Magic
1 Hurkyls Recall
1 Rebuild

Troels Krog – 3/4
Tinker Surprise variant
2 Volcanic Island
2 Island
4 Polluted Delta
4 Mishras Workshop
1 Tolarian Academy
2 Ancient Tomb
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Saphire
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
3 Gilded Lotus

4 Chalice of the Void
1 Memnarch
1 Sundering Titan
1 Platinum Angel
1 Mindslaver
1 Memory Jar
1 Triskelion
1 Jesters Cap
4 Force of Will
4 Thirst for Knowledge
4 Brainstorm
2 Transmute Artifact
1 Timetwister
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Tinker
4 Goblin Welder

Sideboard:
1 Razormane Masticore
1 Jesters Cap
1 Triskelion
2 Rack and Ruin
2 Duplicant
2 Crucible of Worlds
3 Trinisphere
3 Blue Elemental Blast

Martin Schultz-Nielsen – 5/8
Oath
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Saphire
1 Black Lotus
1 Strip Mine
2 Wasteland
1 Tropical Island
5 Island
2 Flooded Strand
2 Polluted Delta
4 Forbidden Orchard

4 Force of Will
4 Mana Leak
4 Mana Drain
4 Brainstorm
4 Accumulated Knowledge
2 Impulse
4 Intuition
4 Oath of Druids
1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
1 Spirit of the Night
1 Rushing River
1 Echoing Truth
1 Gaeas Blessing
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall

Sideboard:
3 Arcane Laboratory
3 Energy Flux
3 Ground Seal
2 Back to Basics
2 Control Magic
1 Platinum Angel
1 Pristine Angel

Andreas Petersen – 5/8
Oath
4 Polluted Delta
1 Flooded Strand
4 Forbidden Orchard
1 Underground Sea
1 Tropical Island
1 Tundra
1 Volcanic Island
2 Island
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus Petal
1 Sol Ring

4 Oath of Druids
4 Brainstorm
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
4 Accumulated Knowledge
3 Intuition
3 Duress
2 Cunning Wish
1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
1 Darksteel Colossus
1 Demonic Tutur
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Yawgmoths Will
1 Tinker
1 Gaeas Blessing

Sideboard:
3 Energy Flux
3 Arcane Laboratory
1 Ground Seal
1 Pristine Angel
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Fire/Ice
1 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Rack and Ruin
1 Balance
1 Swords to Plowshares

Ulrik Tarp – 5/8
Stax
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Saphire
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
4 Mishras Workshop
4 City of Brass
4 Gemstone Mne
2 Glimmervoid
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy

4 Smokestack
4 Trinisphere
4 Juggernaut
4 Goblin Welder
2 Crucible of Worlds
2 Seal of Cleansing
1 Memory Jar
1 Jesters Cap
1 Karn, Silver Golem
1 Duplicant
1 Triskelion
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor

Sideboard:
1 Hannas Custody
1 Arcane Laboratory
1 Damping Matrix
1 Blue Elemental Blas
1 Hurkyls Recall
1 Stifle
1 Root Maze
2 Red Elemental Blast
2 Swords to Plowshares
1 Ray of Revelation
1 Seal of Cleansing
1 Balance
1 Platinum Angel

Jonas Cleemann – 5/8
TPS
4 Polluted Delta
1 Flooded Strand
2 Underground Sea
3 Island
2 Swamp
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Dark Ritual
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Saphire
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault

4 Force of Will
4 Duress
2 Rebuild
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Cunning Wish
1 Tinker
1 Yawgmoths Will
1 Yawgmoths Bargain
1 Necropotence
1 Minds Desire
1 Timetwister
1 Time Spiral
1 Windfall
1 Memory Jar
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
4 Brainstorm
1 Tendrisl of Agony
1 Wheel of Fortune

Sideboard:
2 Hurkyls Recall
1 Stifle
1 Meditate
1 Coffin Purge
1 Brain Freeze
1 Darksteel Colossus
1 Misdirection
1 Echoing Truth
1 Rebuild
1 Rushing River
3 Hydroblast
1 Chain of Vapor




--------------

//Random obseration:
Not surprisingly, the p9 are dominating a non-proxy event like this:

The Top 8 had 66 pieces of power ~ 13,75% of their maindeck slots.
The rest of the field had 144 pieces of power ~ 5,4% of their maindeck slots.

Go figure.

---------------

//Deck breakdown:

Combo:
2 Earthcraft/Squirrel Nest
1 Dragon
1 Intruder Alarm/elves
4 TPS
1 Rectal Agony
1 Meandeck Tendrils SX
1 Doomsday
1 Rector/Pattern

Aggro:
1 Sligh
2 FCG
2 Elves!/Mono G
2 Bazaar Madness
1 WW
2 Affinity
1 Reanimator

Aggro-control:
1 Grow
1 Landstill
3 Pale fish
4 U/R fish
6 Stax
1 The Riddler

Control:
2 Land Destruction
3 Slaver
2 Oath
2 3cC (uwb) / (uwg)
1 U/R counter-burn
1 U/W Control
1 Hulk

(please move this to the tournament forum and grant me TO status for further coverage )

(EDIT: Decklists supplied by Faraos Cigarer: http://www.faraos.dk/magic/index.phtml?page=10&sub=3&news=286 )

I also, would like to hear magus888's opinions on why dragon is a bad choice right now... Out of curiosity more than anything really.

I'm not saying either of you are right. I just want arguments on the table.
I think dragon has an ok Stax matchup if kept at 2 colors (U/B based), and TPS should be alright too i think, since you're faster. Control is always a bitch, but dragon can be tuned to pack a lot of disruption/add alternative threats like Verdants.. Again: Why is dragon such a bad choice right now ?

Since this version has no discard outlets (apart from Cabal Therapy'ing yourself), you're aiming to resolve Buried Alive as soon as possible (Intuition if that fails. The problem with Intuition is getting Ambassador in hand and having to spend 1UU playing him). Because og the importance of resolving Buried Alive, you don't want any dead draws. a WG dragon drawn is just that.

I actually think it adds to the consistancy by playing only 2 dragons in this build.. i have neither spoils, compulsion or bazaar to make the deck benefit from extra copies of dragon. This deck needs 2 only because it plays Intuition. 1 would be enough otherwise. Intuition for 3 Buried Alive is sometimes better than for Dragon, Dragon, Ambassador, if you have the time to do it.



I play 7. That or maybe one more is sufficient in my experience.

Sorry 'bout the "budget full p9" version.. I always found bazaars to be the problem, not the power. Once again: My bad!

I gave 4 CotH + 1 Adarkar Wastes for a Mox Pearl (Unl, not the best condition).

Thank you. Great trader. Highly recommended. A+++. Will trade with again.

I've had relatively consistant turn 3-4 kills (goldfish) with a U/B version.

Buried Alive was MVP in this deck. Combined with Intuitions I still think this is a fairly strong version. And there's no shame in winning through Cunning Wish, if your intuitions sends ambassador to your hand with no discard outlets. The Buried Alive version goes for the throat FAST but is more susceptible to hate (which is why you Buried Alive for 1 Dragon + 1 Ambassador only - and keep the last dragon in the deck for later use if necessary).

This is the list I've been testing...

4 Force Of Will
4 Duress
3 Cabal Therapy

4 Buried Alive
3 Intuition
2 Cunning Wish

4 Animate Dead
3 Necromancy

2 Worldgorger Dragon
1 Ambassador Laquatus

1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor

4 Dark Ritual
4 Underground Sea
4 Polluted Delta
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Island
4 Swamp
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Black Lotus

Sideboard:
1 Aerial Caravan
1 Stroke Of Genius
1 Coffin Purge
1 Entomb
1 Frantic Search
1 Fact Or Fiction
1 Stifle
1 Mystical Tutor
2 Defense Grid
2 Verdant Force
3 Chain Of Vapor

EDIT: The lack of draw engine in this deck is a HUGE problem... either you win FAST or you don't win at all... It's a "balls up front!" type deck. Take care out there...

EDIT 2: Error in the decklist. My bad!

It IS doing exrtemely well here. TPS seems to be a great choice in a meta dominated by Stax. It obviously handles aggro without blinking and has enough disruption to overpower most control decks. It's problem matchups include decks like U/R Fish if played correctly.

In the last 4 tournaments I've attended here, TPS have been well represented in the top 8. It is a hard deck to master, but terryfying in the hands of a trained pilot.

mana bases aren't based on numbers only. While I agree that you should always strive to keep your landcount at a reasonable (low) level, I think it is much more important to consider the composition of your manabase.

Your local metagame has a lot to say in this as well. In a control meta, you'd want lots of basics, in an aggro/combo you'd want more consistancy (being able to go Prismatic without fearing too much denial is sweet) and against prisondecks you'd probably just want a combination of basics and MORE lands in general (since smokestack really doesn't discriminate between basics,fetchies or duals.

A manabase's composition is a lot more important than the actual number of lands in contains.

Also. Some cards are hard to dub "powerful". A maindeck Naturalize or Root Maze or even Blood Moon can be game breaking, but in some matchups it is chaff... Teched out metagame cards can be awesome in some matchups and miserable in others. I wouldn't cut them just because they might suck in one or two matchups. Even If I draw my Blood Moon against FCG, i still know that it will be worthwihile, when I face 4cC in the next round.

(I'll edit this later, since I'm in a hurry... sorry for bad grammar etc.)

I've played 2 maindeck Annuls, since Oath started spreading. They've been good to me so far in Cunning Wish's slots.

Oath's sideboarded Ground Seal can be a real pain, so I'm boarding a pair of Engineered Explosives to handle both these enchantments.

Also, Duplicant and Platinum Angel are amazing against Oath. As is your maindec Blood Moons, that sometimes just win game 1.

I'd say it's a toss up, if you come prepared.

I know that I have been voicing my opinion on Trinisphere whenever I've had the chance lately (and I'll quit whining after this, I promise).
This was just an example of a tournament where broken Trinisphere plays helped out immensely througout the day. I ask again: "Is it TOO broken?".

On top of the quotes I've made, it seems that 2-3 other games during the day were decided by an early Trinisphere as well (Round 5, game 1 i.e.).

EDIT: I forgot to mention that this was a great read. And well done.