TurboLich Primer ...

[goldfish]

Alright here we go, Let's start with my most recent decklist... My deck is in constant flux, cards marked with an * are rotatable...

TurboLich v4.0

Latest version
1x Glacial Chasm
1x Bazaar of Baghdad
1x Ancient Tomb
1x Tolarian Academy
1x Crosis's Catacombs
1x Darigaaz's Caldera
1x Undiscovered Paradise
1x Tundra
4x Underground Sea
4x Tropical Island
4x City of Brass
1x Black Lotus
1x Mox Emerald
1x Mox Jet
1x Mox Pearl
1x Mox Ruby
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Sol Ring
1x Mirror Universe
1x Mana Crypt
1x Scroll Rack
1x Overgrown Estate
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Yawgmoth's Will
1x Lich
4x Duress
1x Mystical Tutor
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Frantic Search*
3x Brainstorm
3x Intuition
1x Windfall
1x Time Walk
1x Timetwister
1x Time Spiral
1x Fastbond
1x Reclaim*
1x Regrowth
1x City of Solitude
1x Wheel of Fortune
1x Enlightened Tutor*
1x Replenish
1x Pursuit of Knowledge*

SB:  1 Cursed Totem (Gorilla Shaman, Frenetic Efreet, Morphling, Dwarven Miner, BoP)
SB:  2 Hydroblast   
SB:  2 Red Elemental Blast
SB:  2 Pyroclasm (Specter, Shaman)
SB:  1 Seal of Cleansing
SB:  1 Circle of Protection: Black
SB:  1 Circle of Protection: Red
SB:  3 Annul (Stacker)
SB:  2 slots free

[Master Tap]

I like the deck only 1 question though I have noticed alot of card that make you lose life and a glacial chasm how has that been working out with the interaction with the lich?

[Fragmnt_1]

Goldfish:

 Could you please explain how this deck goes off? It's late and I'm either really tired, or just to stupid to figure it out.  

[goldfish]

Like I said, it's work in progress, I'm rewriting the primer and I'll be posting it piece by piece.

The Combo
Fastbond – Glacial Chasm – Lich –Overgrown Estate – Mirror Universe.

For an alternative way to win, see the questions & answers at the end of this article, there I will focus on replenishing your way to victory… The following is the way to play the deck without Replenish (you need to know that too)

A. Setting up the recursive environment (Fastbond - Timetwister)
Your first focus is Fastbond (so don't tutor for ancestral). When you get Fastbond on the table you move on to play the deck as a Timetwister deck, get resources out, never mind the damage from Fastbond (you'll go to 0 anyhow), if you see the chance this is also a good opportunity to get your Glacial Chasm into play.

Card Title:   Fastbond
Color:      Green
Card Type:   Enchantment
Cost:      G
Card Text:   You may put as many lands into play as you want each
      turn. Fastbond does 1 damage to you for every land beyond
      the first that you play in a single turn.
Artist:      Mark Poole
Rarity:      Rare 1

Card Title:   Timetwister
Color:      Blue
Card Type:   Sorcery
Cost:      2U
Card Text:   Set Timetwister aside in a new graveyard pile. Shuffle your
      hand, library, and graveyard together into a new library and
      draw a new hand of seven cards, leaving all cards in play
      where they are; opponent must do the same.
Artist:      Mark Tedin
Rarity:      Rare 1

Card Title:   Glacial Chasm
Color:      Land
Card Type:   Land
Card Text:   Cumulative Upkeep: 2 life
      When Glacial Chasm comes into play, sacrifice a
      land. You cannot attack. All damage dealt to you is
      reduced to 0.
Artist:      Liz Danforth
Rarity:      Uncommon 1

B. Setting up the uninterruptible environment (Abeyance-City of solitude-Sterling Grove)
Our second goal is setting up the uninterruptible environment (city of solitude), this must be done before dropping your Lich. You don't want your opponent to Disenchant or Counter anything when Lich is in play... Bolts are quite are annoying too... The uninterruptible environment exists of City of solitude/Abeyance and Glacial Chasm (you can drop this early in the game if there's need - red decks, weenie decks)... The thing with Glacial Chasm is that you can play it basically whenever you want, but it's best to get it out before you drop your Lich. It's not really necessary since you can start sacrificing Moxes etc for the damage from Fastbond (I regularly do that), and it's definitely not a reason NOT to play Lich. In the latest version I moved away from abeyance because it was just not very often used.

Card Name:   City of Solitude
Card Color:   Green
Rarity:      R
Casting Cost:   2G
Card Type:   Enchantment
Card Text:   Each player may play spells and abilities only during
      his or her turn.
Artist:      Romas Kukalis

C. Setting up the Combo (Lich-DarkHeart/Overgrown Estate/Zuran orb)
Once that's accomplished you go for the Dark Heart of the Wood, Overgrown Estate or Zuran Orb, and finally Lich. Each has its advantage Zuran orb is a zero-drop, the others will net you 3 cards instead of 2 and are enchantments (and thus replenishable). If you are in serious trouble you can play Lich early (let's say you have Fstbond but no CoS or Chasm), drop Lich and sac some lands, you will go off too since you’ll draw a massive amount of cards it will be very likely to draw your Fastbond... but there's high risk only do this when you have no other option.. I did it twice at a tournament, and was able to recover from being at 1 life...

Card Title:   Lich
Color:      Black
Card Type:   Enchantment
Cost:      BBBB
Card Text:   You lose all life. If you gain life later in the game, instead
      draw one card from  your library for each life.  For each
      point of damage you suffer, you must destroy one of your
      cards in play. Creatures destroyed in this way cannot be
      regenerated. You lose if this enchantment is destroyed or if
      you suffer a point of damage without sending a card to the
      graveyard.
Artist:      Daniel Gelon
Rarity:      Rare 1

Card Title:   Dark Heart of the Wood
Color:      Multi-color
Type:      Enchantment
Cost:      BG
Card Text:   You may sacrifice a forest to gain 3 life.
      Counts as both a black card and a green

Card Name:   Overgrown Estate   
Card Color:   Multi-color   
Mana Cost:   BGW   
Type:    Enchantment    
Card Text:   Sacrifice a land: You gain 3 life.   
Flavor Text:   The decay of Crovax's ancestral home matched the
      state of his soul.   
Artist:      Brian Snoddy   
Rarity:      R   

Card Title:   Zuran Orb
Color:      Artifact
Card Type:   Artifact
Cost:      0
Card Text:   0: Sacrifice a land to gain 2 life.
Artist:      Sandra Everingham
Rarity:      Uncommon 1

D. Setting up the Kill (Mirror-Time Walk)
When all above steps are completed you need to get your Mirror Universe into play, get hold of your Timewalk and make sure that before you take your extra turn, you have as many cards left in your library as your opponent has life (most of the time 20 cards), you accomplish this with a Twister or a spiral... and that's it... Timewalk, upkeep, switch life (you are at 0 thanks to Lich)... Game

Card Title:   Time Walk
Color:      Blue
Card Type:   Sorcery
Cost:      1U
Card Text:   Take an extra turn after this one.
Artist:      Amy Weber
Rarity:      Rare 1

Card Title:   Mirror Universe
Color:      Artifact
Card Type:   Artifact
Cost:      6
Card Text:   TAP: Sacrifice Mirror Universe during your upkeep,
       and trade your number of lives with opponent. For
      example, if you had 2 lives and your opponent had
      10, you would now have 10 lives and your
      opponent would have 2.  Effects that prevent or
      redirect damage may not be used to counter this
      change of life.
Artist:      Phil Foglio
Rarity:      Rare 1

Coming next: Troubleshooting situations and card choices

[Master Tap]

very insitefull I am looking forward to a new deck list

[goldfish]

Next part... The rules to keep in mind when playing Lich...

The Rules

Rule 1: Protecting Lich
You don't want your Lich to be Disenchanted, Cleansed, Dismantled or Vindicated.
So when you play Lich you don't give your opponent another turn. You do not play Lich unless you have City of Solitude in play or unless you are darn sure your opponent doesn’t hold any enchantment removal. City of solitude will also protect you from those pesky counter decks and is on top of it an enchantment itself, so if it gets countered you can still replenish it !

Card Name:   City of Solitude
Card Color:   Green
Rarity:      R
Casting Cost:   2G
Card Type:   Enchantment
Card Text:   Each player may play spells and abilities only during
      his or her turn.
Artist:      Romas Kukalis

You don't care if your Lich gets countered (in case you're hard-casting) since you run replenish. Another way to protect your Lich is Sterling Grove… Sterling grove is optional, sometimes I run it, sometimes I don’t. I never really needed it since I stick to the CoS rule to not give my opponent another turn after I drop Lich (with CoS already in play). CoS protects you basically from everything, you don’t want 2 bolt thrown at your head when you drop you Lich, right? Same for Zuran orb and other fast effects, CoS takes care of all of them.

Card Name:   Sterling Grove
Card Color:   Multi
Rarity:      U
Casting Cost:   GW
Card Type:   Enchantment
Card Text:   All other enchantments you control can't be the targets of spells
      or abilities. 1, Sacrifice Sterling Grove: Search your library
      for an enchantment card and reveal that card. Shuffle your
      library, then put the card on top of it.
Artist:      Jeff Miracola

Rule 2.
You have all the time of the world, life is a resource so use it. Once you play Lich you go to 0 anyhow, having 20 life left when you go to 0 means you didn't utilize all your resources. Unless of course you had a real good opening hand

Rule 3.
Save those FoW's... You don't really care if someone counters your Lich (if you hard cast it), or your Sterling Grove or Estate... Always remember you play replenish... Your opponent countering an enchantment is always card disadvantage for him/her... Let them counter and save your FoW and ReB for that replenish that will seal the game...

In some of my latests builds I’m running Duress instead of FoW. There’s pro’s and cons. Duress only costs B, it will be able to remove a threat (a disk for example), so it’s more an aggressive defense and it will show you your opponents hand, which is beneficial for your timing (when to drop the combo). Disadvantages are obviously the interaction with twister, but I see this as a minor disadvantage. I think every one here knows how good a first turn Duress is, or if you want to save it up for later on you can also do that.

FoW on the other hand gives you card disadvantage, you can’t use it once your Lich is in play and is more reactive. It all depends on your metagame and preference. You can add 4 FoW and 2 ReB to have quite some countering force available… Another problem with FoW is the poor interaction with CoS.

[goldfish]

Justin, here's the first parts of the primer...

[Justin]

Very interesting. im picking up some of the cards on ebay now (should be working but...) Ive seen some of your lich posts on bdominia before, very cool. thanks!

[Justin]

hey goldfish, how long does it take you to go off with this build?

[goldfish]

In minutes or in turns ?

[Justin]

in turns, though in minutes as far as the recursions concerned would probably take a while, kinda like academy

[goldfish]

It can go by 3-4 turns... The thing is that you're not really in such a rush to go off immediately, since your life goes to 0 anyhow when you play Lich. It all depends on how much risks you take when dropping Lich... If you play it safe it takes a bit longer, against non-counter decks you do'nt have to worry that much so it can go really fast. Aslo I didn't touch the subject yet but I play the deck normally with Replenish/Intuition and that can go REALLY fast...

Intuition for Lich/Fastbond/Overgrown Estate... Replenish...

[Zelif]

 

I love Lich. What about Second Chance? Wouldn't THAT give you a few turns? I just know everyone is trying to remember that card! Lemme save you a lookup: Second Chance, Urza's Legacy Rare: U2, enchantment. At the beginning of your upkeep, if you have five or less life, sacrifice Second Chance. If you do, take another turn after this one. The only reason this card sticks in my head is that I managed to draft three in one draft one night, with a fleet of "timmie" cards from that block. I used the Tims to wipe myself down to four, and took multiple turns via the Chances. Kinda cool, for a draft that'll NEVER happen again.


Zelif

[TheMailman]

How does this version compare to the Lich/Donate/Delusions of Grandure build? I admit I'm not a big Lich player, but this seems a little more complicated than the Lich/Donates that I've seen.

[Necropotince]

Goldfish, i've recently been playing your lich deck for awhile though i did make some small changes. The card Sickening Dreams helped me a whole lot in this deck. Not only as creature removal but also as another win condition. Let me know if you've tested this card or you think its good.

[Anonymous]

Im not a lich player but if you add sickening dreams wouldn't it just be better to run turboland- i like the build that is currently being tossed around- it seems to be consistent -adding dreams seems to be an extra unnessicary kill card

[Necropotince]

Quote (westredale @ Aug. 06 2002,21:07)Im not a lich player but if you add sickening dreams wouldn't it just be better to run turboland- i like the build that is currently being tossed around- it seems to be consistent -adding dreams seems to be an extra unnessicary kill card

The Sickening Dreams helped me alot when i played the deck - which was alittle different than the latest version posted. I would often find myself dying too quickly because of aggro decks. I added in a Moat but that was too slow to Replenish back in, so i tried Sickening Dreams. It helped kill most creatures without me worring much. It also helped alot when i couldn't dig up a mirror for the kill. The deck seemed very fragile, though i don't think i did fully master it yet. Though it was very fun to play, difficult at times what to do in certain circumstances, but all in all very very fun.

[jimbo]

All the things I like about your deck idea I already like about pandeburst (it is easy to dump into the graveyard and nail the combo with one cheap sorcery that is relatively easy to defend) except for your combo being more cards, but I digress.

The many things I dont like about your deck are the ways in which it is not as good at pandeburst in a lot of ways.

1) You run one bazaar, pandeburst runs 4 plus 3 squees. Bazaar/Squee isnt the most broken drawing/digging engine ever thought up, but it is definitely in the top ten. If youre playing recursion combo, why are you not running the maximum amount of bazaars? Bazaar is autowin against most control decks unless they kill it right after you play it. It can't be countered and it lets you draw 3 cards a turn.

2) You are running one lich, one overgrown estate. This is very risky IMO. Pandeburst runs 4 of each combo component and can almost certainly topdeck into them with bazaar. You almost are forced to tutor for them, which makes you more vulnerable to countering (which is already painful for combo decks). This doesnt even mention Jester's cap, which will eat your deck in one fell swoop.

3) The combo, even if you run 4 copies of each is very very non splashable. BBBB and BGW are expensive as hell compared to 4G and 3R and 3W for the "big spells" of pandeburst.

4) Both decks are vulnerable to counterspells, back to basics and meddling mage, but you arent running 4 red blasts maindeck. This spell is very advisable maindeck considering the cards that you should fear.

Some of these problems can be fixed easy, but the fundamental problem is that pandeburst casts replenish and proceeds to win immediately in 99 percent of games, while your deck needs a weird convergance of cards in hand and on table to prevent your opponent from being able to kill lich off, at which point you STILL have to cast the enormous drain bait artifact called mirror universe.

If you can find a way to make this work without mirror universe and CoS, I would say you have a shot at a quirky replenish deck. Otherwise forget about it completely.