Hi, I've been working on 4cc/3cc decks for quite some time trying to figure out the best approach thusfar. I decided to take a 3cc design for Waterbury, which posted less than well 8/.
Deck List
7 Solomoxen 5 Fetch (3 Delta/2 Strand) 3 Underground Sea 2 Tundra 4 Wasteland 1 Strip Mine 1 Library of Alexandria 2 Island 1 Swamp 1 Plains
4 Force of Will 4 Mana Drain 4 Brainstorm 3 Cunning Wish 1 Ancestral Recall 1 Time Walk 1 Fact or Fiction
1 Yawgmoth's Will 1 Demonic Tutor 1 Vampiric Tutor 1 Mind Twist 1 Diabolic Edict 2 Duress 2 Skeletal Scrying
1 Balance 2 Swords to Plowshares 1 Decree of Justice
1 Crucible of Worlds
2 Morphling
SB: 1 Misdirection 1 Stifle 1 Disenchant 1 Dismantling Blow 1 Skeletal Scrying 3 Blue Elemental Blast 3 Planar Void 1 Swords to Plowshares 1 Diabolic Edict 2 Forbidden Orchard
Pros
The Mana Base is actually what I worked on the most. 4cc/3cc has always been plagued by non-basic hate, and I tried to engineer the mana base to find a way out of Blood Moon and Back to Basics. Sundering Titan should never hit the board, and if he does it's usually game over anyways. I decided not to run City's of Brass to fit more basic lands, giving me the grand total of 2 Islands, and 1 Swamp and 1 Plains. This mana base proved itself all day, as I never got locked up under either blood moon or back to basics, managing to claw my way out of either. This mana base only lost once, when my opponent resolved an early game Blood Moon before I got a chance to find either a basic land or a fetchland. All other games involved me being a bit mana light, but being able to claw my way out for the win. I chose to run a full complement of Solomoxen due to the fast pace of our current environ. If I had my way I would have ran more accelerants, but was hard pressed to find any solid ones for the former king of decks.
All of the card choices made for the main were very valuable, crucible especially, letting me resolve into Crucible soft lock oftentimes, or Crucible/Strip after a tutor.
Vampiric was chosen over Mystical to get whatever I needed, at whatever point, often resulting in Vamp/Brainstorm/Fetch Combo. It proved itself all day, and I was very happy with the results.
Morphling may look a bit archaic, but I was happy with the result of using him over Exalted Angel. All versions of the deck I tested had incredible troubles flipping or playing the EA, especially in the face of non-basic hate. I also experienced a lot of trouble keeping her in play, as she was often Lavamancered, darted twice, or swords/ edicted. Morphling only presented me with Edict. Case in point, Morphling won me more games than Angel.
Cons
Cunning Wish looks good on paper, and in goldfishing, but I was majorly disappointed by their performance in a high level Metagame. They basically equated into what we've all known: High Intensity mana cost for something you'd probably want back in your main deck for this meta. Occasional good plays such as Ancestral, Skry, Wish Ancestral are gems, but not worth the wish. My board was tailored to handle the 3 wishes, but I would have rather had the cards in my deck, and just tutored for them.
The Mana base was just too slow. Even running a full complement of Solomoxen, I was looking at an 80% chance of drawing a piece of acceleration in the early game (approximately). I was oftentimes too slow to compete with my opponent. I can't tell you how many matches I lost due to being behind by one "turn" on mana development.
Mana Drain ironically enough caused me a lot of problems. I had to engineer my mana base to support double blue by turn 2 , and be able to support double blue in the face of non basic hate(hence the two basic Islands). Mana drain was oftentimes a dead card for me in the face of Blood Moon, or early game wastelands.
Thoughts on other designs/ adjustments.
I really missed red in this build, mostly due to Rack/Ruin, and Red Elemental Blast. Lava dart would have been nice to have all day as well, and the occasional monkey 8P.
Enlightened tutor was a definite consideration of mine, being able to search for a much needed piece of power (sapphire, jet, pearl). I regret not running it.
Green has been being kicked around in my head for quite some time as an addition/ replacement for certain color(s). Green gives the addition of Pernicious Deed, Naturalize, Oxidize, as well as various other good cards. Regrowth was also a consideration of mine, and of course Fastbond, in lieu of all the tutors that I would be running. Green even has the possiblity of smoothing out the mana base at certain points in the game, and may even add Eternal Witness if the Mana base was developed to support it.
I really enjoyed max matt's design, and have been looking over it and various other 4cc/3cc designs.
Thoughts anyone?
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