Erdrick:

That is actually pretty close how it looks now.  I have removed the black entirely and went with the green and blue.  The problem is still the inability to remove anything on the board such as Goblin Welder.  I didn't have Chain in but it seems like a good idea.  I still think that there needs to be board sweeping ability or at least some targeted removal for utility creatures.

Against, something like Slaver, even Null Rod doesn't help against a Pentavus or two on the board because they are such big beaters.  You could continuously block with Factory but to kill it you would need 3 Factories.  Two activated and one to pump (Null Rod means they can't pump themselves).

I think Chain may be able to cut it but maybe more copies are needed.  Anyways, thanks for your thoughts.  You thought of some things I didn't think of.

JD

Well it currently does have 4 Strip Mines in the main deck.  Strip Mine, Crop Rotation, Demonic Tutor, and Vampiric Tutor.  That is part of the reason for having 4 Crucibles and 4 Trinispheres.  I don't want to tutor for those if possible.



Agreed.  I am still working on that issue.

JD

There is this card called Pernicious Deed which tends to handle threats okay.



Why would I want to post this in a Newbie thread.  I posted in Open so that I can get opinions from people on what can be done with it.  Maybe it is absolute garbage and should be scrapped.  Maybe not.  Bottom line is, by hearing other opinions, I can play around with it and find out if it will work.  How will opinions from "Newbies" possibly help me.  I want opinions from people that have been playing a while to combine with my knowledge of the game and the format.

You are making an assumption that because I don't choose to post a lot that I am new to Magic and/or Type 1.  I am neither.  Deckbuilding however, is definately not one of my better Magic skills.  I do like to mess with it from time to time and if I do, who are you to say where I should post it.  Frankly, I was more put off by the condescending note of your post then anything else.

JD

Well, I actually was trying it with Force of Will at first but there are a few issues.  First, there is not a whole lot of blue in the deck as is, and you really don't want to toss Brainstorms.  Second, Force of Will and Trinisphere is some bad.  I can Duess for one mana and make sure the way is clear before casting what I need to resolve.  It gives me more information to work with.

JD

Ok, I have reworked things somewhat and incorporated blue into the deck for more consistent draw.

4x Mishra's Workshop
4x Bayou
4x Underground Sea
3x Polluted Delta
4x Wasteland
1x Strip Mine
4x Mishra's Factory

1x Black Lotus
1x Mox Emerald
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Mox Pearl
1x Mox Ruby
1x Mox Jet
4x Crucible of Worlds
3x Tangle Wire
4x Trinisphere
4x Pernicious Deed
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Yawgmoth's Will
1x Crop Rotation
1x Ancestral Recall
4x Brainstorm
1x Time Walk
1x Mind Twist
4x Duress

This build seems to be a bit more consistent while goldfishing with the Brainstorms, off-color Moxen,  and Recall.

I really want to put Mana Crypt in here but I am scared off the drawback considering a win won't come very fast with this deck.

JD

I don't think of this as a combo deck but more as a prison deck.  It obviously needs work but is something I believe could be viable with tuning.  I may be wrong but I want to put as much effort as possible into it before I drop it.

I am working on changing some things around.  It is a work in progress.  The reason I chose Deed as the sweeper is because it is the most flexible.  I want something that will take out mana artifacts and stuff like Goblin Welder without blowing up my permanents.  The problem with the other sweepers is that either they blow up everything or only one casting cost at a time (Engineered Explosives, Powder Keg).  With Deed I can take them all out at once.

I am currently trying to add blue for some power and card drawing.  Dark Ritual and Pact are on the way out to make room.  Fastbond will be another casualty.

JD

I am currently working on moving stuff around to try incorporating blue instead of green.  I will post it once I flesh it out.

Duress works as a pre-emptive counterspell.  I thought about Explosive Engineers from 5D but the fact that it blows up equal to the exact amount of counters makes it less useful than Deed.  Deed works as my catch all for anything that snuck out before I lock them down.

Factories shouldn't die to Swords because I would not be activating them until they are in a lock except in emergency situations.

Playing first, a first turn Trinisphere really puts a dent into control.  It means that until turn three (assuming I don't strip anything), the only counter they have is Force of Will.  Plenty of copies of each card as well as tutors and Duress should allow me to force through a Crucible.

I picked black and green specifically for Deed, Crop Rotation, and tutors.  I considered adding blue but to do so I would have to add more mana sources.  I thought about switching green for blue, but I think that Deed is key to this deck.  Crop Rotation is another tutor and Fastbond for blowing a bunch of lands in one turn.

I don't think that off color moxen would be better in this case because I want the 3 mana explosion on turn 1.  Dark Rituals allow that explosion with one card.  With moxes I would need the land and two moxes.

I considered Plunge into Darkness, but I think that Pact is better because I don't have to choose how many cards I want to look at beforehand.

 

I also considered Spheres but Trinisphere already stops the main thing I am interested in stopping which is the artifact mana.  I would hope to stop the higher casted stuff from coming out with mana denial



Four kill conditions is enough because Crucible allows them to be re-used.  I originally had Troll Ascetic as the kill condition but it takes up a slot where Factory can double as mana as well as come back from the yard.  I would rather use Treetop Village but the comes into play tapped ability is a real nuisance.

JD

Ok, try not to flame me too much here.  I am not much of a deckbuilder but I think that this may have potential.  I have been goldfishing it and making changes based on that but probably won't do any real testing until Workstation updates for 5D.  Any suggestions are welcome.  Here comes the list.

1x Strip Mine
4x Wasteland
4x Mishra's Factory
4x Bayou
4x Llanowar Wastes
4x Mishra's Workshop

1x Black Lotus
1x Mox Emerald
1x Mox Jet
4x Dark Ritual
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Mind Twist
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Entomb
1x Yawgmoth's Will
1x Null Rod
1x Fastbond
1x Crop Rotation
4x Tangle Wire
4x Crucible of Worlds
4x Duress
4x Trinisphere
4x Pernicious Deed
4x Tainted Pact

Playing first, a first turn Trinisphere followed by a second turn Crucible & Strip Mine is a lock.  Tangle Wires are there to slow your opponent down until you can get a recurring Strip Mine going and Deeds are there to take out any artifact mana that may be dropped early.

Tainted Pacts are the best Impulse type card I could think of for black/green but there may be a better option.  The Null Rod is basically another way to stop the artifact mana as well as something to be tutored up against Mindslaver.

Fastbond allows you to still get a lock later into the game by stripping multiple lands in one turn.

Mishra's Factories work as your kill condition and you don't worry about them being destroyed because of Crucible.

Thanks for looking.

JD

Unfortunately, Ben was correct on the fact that the median skill level of Type 1 players is lower than that of other sanctioned formats, excluding Type 1.5, which I like to pretend doesn't exist.

Not everyone can afford to get into Type 1 based on the original start up cost.  Less people playing with these cards means less people learning from each other.  You cannot become skilled at a competitive game in a vacuum.

In my opinion, Type 1 is the most skill intensive constructed format in Magic.  From the beginnings of a deck to that last life point of a match, the chance to make mistakes is much greater.

Allow me to expand.  You can play with any card in Magic.  We are talking about a 6000+ card pool here.  When you build a deck, assuming you are using only 60 cards, you are using less than 1% of the entire card pool.  This means that every single slot in your deck must be the best possible fit.  I've spent countless hours agonizing over every slot for each deck that I play with.  This isn't the hardest decision to make in Type II because your options are much more limited.

None of the other formats punish you like Type 1 for making a play mistake.  The power level in Type 1 is so high, that just one small error can easily cost you an entire game or match.  The majority of the Type 1 matches that I see and/or play in, are not won because one player had an amazing opening draw.  They are won because one player gave his opponent an opening that was unnecessary, and his opponent proceeded to cast Will, Mindslaver, Ancestral, etc.

But who is going to teach you not to make these mistakes?  The 10-year old child who pulled a deck off the internet, threw the allowable 10 proxies (or whatever) into it, then brought it to the tournament with no playtesting whatsoever?  Or maybe it will be the guy that thinks he is great because he beats the same 10-year old.

The best players in the world do not play Type 1 competitively.  Why should they?  They focus their energy on the Pro Tour and the Grand Prix where they can make some money playing.

I'm not saying that none of the great players play Type 1 or that all Type 1 players couldn't be playing on the Pro Tour.  However, I am fairly certain that it is a very small minority that do.

The purpose of this post was not to belittle the Type 1 community.  It was written with the hope to educate and inspire the community as a whole to make each other better.  The Type 1 Championship this year was considered a joke by many Magic players, and even more so after some of the less than complementary articles written about it.  I hope next year that the joke will be on them.


JD

Here are my suggestion for your deck.

-2 Humility, +1 Fire/Ice, +1 Isochron Scepter

Humility is just not very optimal creature control.  By upping your scepter count and removal count, you should be able to just rely on an imprinted Swords to Plowshares or Fire/Ice for creature control.

-1 Misdirection, -1 Stifle (to the board), +2 Brainstorm

Misdirection is just another counter spell that you shouldn't need to rely on right now and one Stifle main and one that can be wished for should be plenty.  The ability of Brainstorm to fix your hand, protect against discard, and it's synergy with shufflers is very powerful.

-1 Undiscovered Paradise, -1 Tolarian Academy, +1 Wasteland, +1 Volcanic Island

The full multi land is pretty unnessecary now because of the sac lands and also because you are only running four colors now.  Academy has the potential to create a lot of mana which is usually semi-useless to Keeper.  You will generally have the mana you need from Mana Drain to cast your X spells.  Academy is better suited to combo decks.  The fourth Wasteland is very important against many decks that run Workshop or man lands.  And lastly, the Volcanic Island makes another source of red for your two new red spells.

-1 Zuran Orb, +1 Stroke of Genius

The life gain from Zuran Orb is usually negligable unless you are playing against sligh.  A quick Fire on a stick is just as useful.  I am a firm believer in having three X spells in the main deck to sink Mana Drain mana into.

Sideboard changes

-1 Stroke of Genius, +1 Stifle

Explained above.

-1 Misdirection, +1 Skeletal Scrying

Again, Misdirection is pretty useless and having a wishable card drawing target is pretty useful.

-1 Tormods' Crypt, -1 COP: Black, +2 Coffin Purge

I'm not quite sure why the COP: Black was in your board, but you should be able to deal with any black damage threat via Swords to Plowshares.  Tormod's Crypt while removing the entire graveyard from the game, does not do so at instant speed which puts you at a disadvantage against dragon decks.  It is also not a wishable target game one.

Well, that's about it.  I could make a whole lot more changes and make it exactly like my build but that isn't the point of your post.  I tried to stick with making changes to make your build better.  Also, keep in mind that you metagame probably differs from many other posters here and so you will have to use your judgement based on what decks you expect to face.

Calibus

That's not necessarily true.  First, not every deck runs coutermagic.  Second, it has the ability to gain such massive card advantage, especially when you are down.  It can be Wrath of God, Armageddon, Mind Twist, or any combination of the three.  Balance if one of the most broken cards in the deck and to cut it would be sacrilege.