Lowrider.dec

[thorme]

Scared of Long.dec but don't want to wait until Mirrodin gives you Chalice?

Tired of losing to Hulk and wish you could play with 8 Spheres of Resistance?

Want to see if the jank that is Land Tax + Scroll Rack can actually be viable?


Presenting:

-- Lowrider.dec

4 Sphere of Resistance
4 Glowrider
4 Juggernaut
2 Karn, Silver Golem
4 Smokestack

3 Land Tax
3 Scroll Rack

3 Swords to Plowshares
3 Seal of Cleansing
1 Powder Keg
1 Balance

1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
5 Moxen
1 Mox Diamond
1 Mana Vault
4 Mishra's Workshop
1 Strip Mine
3 Wasteland
1 Tolarian Academy
10 Plains


The premise of this deck is that Sphere of Resistance is a key card in many matchups today...notably Hulk and Long.dec.  Although Glowrider costs 3 non-Workshop mana, the deck has enough acceleration to cast him turn 2 fairly regularly.

Against Hulk and Long, this configuration makes it quite easy to muligan into a turn 1 sphere or turn 2 glowrider.  (By the way, I am in no way claiming a huge win percentage vs these decks, this is still largely theory, although initial testing shows promise)

As for the Land Tax engine...it works fairly well with Smokestack, and against this deck, your opponent will certainly need to be laying lands.


So, has anything like this been tried?  What are your thoughts on combining Sphere and Glowrider?  (I know that if you play the Sphere first...Glowrider can become difficult to cast)\n\n

[Triple_S]

Testing versus Coal/V Masque shows it doesn't like an active Survival at all since it can help neuter the draw engine...why play lands when you have Bird/Wall/Ranger?

[thorme]

Quote (Triple_S @ Sep. 16 2003,11:12)Testing versus Coal/V Masque shows it doesn't like an active Survival at all since it can help neuter the draw engine...why play lands when you have Bird/Wall/Ranger?

Yes, Coal is probably one of the deck's weakest matchups.   Land Tax and Smokestack certainly don't like a deck packed with Birds and Walls of Roots and Quirion Ranger!  (without the mana creatures, Survival isn't scary at all)

Still, a turn 1 Sphere on Lowrider's part basically bought a concession by Coal, so the fact that the deck has a decent shot at a horrible matchup actually makes me feel pretty good.

[Triple_S]

That is very true, w/o a FoW in hand a first turn Sphere is very hard to work around.

[Jacob Orlove]

Only 3 Wastelands? In a deck with Juggernaut and 8 "spheres", it seems like you really want all four.

[Phantom Tape Worm]

I'll have you know that the glowrider's ability is curiously similar to the mechanic i submited for you make the card 1.  

"Except for creature and enchant creature spells, all spells cost 1 more to play."

It actually made top 10 but babycakes beat it out



I really like this deck, apart from hulk and long have you done any other testing of matchups?

[thorme]

Quote (Jacob Orlove @ Sep. 16 2003,12:41)Only 3 Wastelands? In a deck with Juggernaut and 8 "spheres", it seems like you really want all four.

You are right.  I do really want all 4.  I suppose going down to 9 Plains won't significantly impact my Land Taxing, so I'll definitely test that out.

Quote I really like this deck, apart from hulk and long have you done any other testing of matchups?

Well, as Triple_S alluded to, I threw the deck into the deep end of the pool by testing against Coal, a deck that should be a horrible matchup.  Indeed, it was certainly in Coals favor, but I was pleased by the fact that I was able to take several games off him.

I've also done some preliminary testing vs. Sligh.  This matchup looks pretty good...especially given the delicious sideboarding options an all-white deck has against an all-red deck.  Spheres are key vs. Sligh, and the Keg, Balance, and Plows help contain their creatures while they use their burn on my threats.  This means that I can normally make it into the later game, where my higher card-quality and card-advantage can help win me the game.

Suicide is very afraid of Land Tax.  An early Tax means they're gonna have one tough game ahead!  Virtually all my cards are strong in this matchup, and I have a good winning percentage here.

Stax/MUD:  This is a tough one, no doubt.  I do have Plows for Welders and Seals for their pesky artifacts, but they can play around Land Tax fairly easily.  They should take a majority of game 1's, but I should have some attractive sideboarding options.


Anyway, its fun to play, and it gives me a change of pace from the ordinary.  I would certainly recommend it for a Long.dec and Hulk-dominated metagame.  Keep it at home if you're heading to a tourney with lots of Coal and Stax.

[Matt The Great]

//  Mana
        2 Flooded Strand
        3 Polluted Delta
        2 Swamp
        1 Plains
        4 Dark Ritual
        1 Lotus Petal
        1 Sol Ring
        1 Black Lotus
        1 Mox Ruby
        4 Scrubland
//  Aggressive
        3 Mishra's Factory
        2 Devout Witness
        1 Mox Pearl
        2 Withered Wretch
        4 Glowrider
        4 Squee, Goblin Nabob
        4 Zombie Infestation
//  Controlling
        2 Bazaar of Baghdad
        4 Wasteland
        1 Mox Jet
        1 Strip Mine
        2 Cabal Therapy
        1 Demonic Tutor
        1 Buried Alive
        4 Duress
        4 Sphere of Resistance

I tried that deck out a long time ago. It didn't work out. It's the closest I've seen to what you're doing (same basic plan).

[Hyperion]

Is there a reason why you don't run Enlightened Tutor, seeing how it lets you get just about all the important cards (other than StP, Glowrider, and Balance) in your deck? I don't know what your SB looks like but the 1 Powder Keg is staring at me as one of the more expendable slots - do you SB additional Kegs? However, it would seem that you could also make room by cutting a Scroll Rack.

Furthermore, depending on what you SB Enlightened Tutor could help you there as well.

[thorme]

The Powder Keg does stick out.  While building the deck, I got to 59 cards and didn't have anything else that I thought of as a must-include.  I figured Keg was a nice flexible catch-all that would almost never be dead and came out easily with the Workshops.

I have a feeling that you're probably right...an Enlightened Tutor would really help.  Still, I think the Tutor would be even stronger if I left the single Keg in, rather than replacing it with Tutor.

I'll try the deck out with 1 less Scroll Rack for the Tutor and see what I think.

So, from the decklist at top, I'll be working with:

-1 Plains
+1 Wasteland

-1 Scroll Rack
+1 Enlightened Tutor

[Grand Inquisitor]

I see you've tested against coal, and sligh, but what about the two matchups you've build the deck for (Hulk and Long)?

Without Force of Will, long can go freely about its way on turn 1 or if you don't have a sphere/rider.  Sphere is easy to toss out turn one, but rider seems (from some quick probability) that it will almost always be turn 2 at the quickest.  If you board a decent number of orim's chants, I can see this matchup swinging in your favor rather quickly, but as it stands, I don't think its any better than the 4x Duress, 4x Force of Will, 4x some hate card plan.

The Hulk matchup does look extremely interesting.  I guess much of it depends on your ability to keep their pernicious deed off the table.  I would think you'd try to find something to keep them from their wish>mutation strategy (something more creative than ring of gix).

On the build itself, can you afford to cut the 3rd scroll rack?  I know there are a lot of bombs, but you have 28 mana sources and no other draw besides tax/rack.  I would think threat consistency would be a problem against certain decks.

[thorme]

Quote (Grand Inquisitor @ Sep. 18 2003,08:25)I see you've tested against coal, and sligh, but what about Sphere is easy to toss out turn one, but rider seems (from some quick probability) that it will almost always be turn 2 at the quickest.  

You are right about this.  The plan is to mulligan into a Turn 1 Sphere or a Turn 2 rider.  Long's disruption is Duress, against which the Rider is immune.  Anyone know the percentages that Long can pull off a Turn 1 win?  I figure that I'm more likely to get Turn 1 Sphere or Turn 2 Rider than them getting a Turn 1 kill.

Quote I don't think its any better than the 4x Duress, 4x Force of Will, 4x some hate card plan.

It's probably not much better, if at all.  I'm just trying to propose an alternative plan that I haven't seen before.

Quote On the build itself, can you afford to cut the 3rd scroll rack?  I know there are a lot of bombs, but you have 28 mana sources and no other draw besides tax/rack.  I would think threat consistency would be a problem against certain decks.

Yeah, I'm having doubts about cutting the 3rd rack.  In some (albeit limited) testing since making the change, I feel like getting the Scroll Rack isn't as easy as I need it to be.  Any suggestions on what to cut instead for the Enlightened Tutor?

[Triple_S]

Cut 1 Karn for a tutor?

[Jacob Orlove]

Quote (Triple_S @ Sep. 23 2003,16:18)Cut 1 Karn for a tutor?

I can't see anything else to remove. With 8 more creatures, Karn #2 isn't a critical win condition, and his mox munching abilities are a little slow early on. Everything else is just obviously necessary, except possibly the removal, which is somewhat more metagame dependant. However, if he's optimized it for his metagame, then cutting the removal is also bad. It's gotta be karn.