Another kind of combo

[walking dude]

Another kind of combo

The best build of not dragon combo hasn’t been found since the death of old school long. I suspect it will wind up being TPS, but in the meantime I’m testing just about everything.

When I was going over my archives for ideas, I came across an old deck that someone in Europe had used to top 8. It was a sort of trix-long hybrid from before the ideas for long had really been standardized. The later tendrils bargain builds also used the draw 7s even though they were not true hybrids. I couldn’t straight grab the deck list because it had lost led and burning wish. I did however test out the basic idea of hybrid combo decks. This is preliminary testing and not the product of extensive results but I figured I’d post what I have so far incase in would help others in their search. This seems to work, but take it with a grain of salt.

Will


// white
        4 Academy Rector
// blue
        1 Ancestral Recall
        1 Time Walk
        1 Mind's Desire
        1 Windfall
        1 Timetwister
        4 Brainstorm
// red
        1 Wheel of Fortune
        4 Gamble
// black
        4 Cabal Therapy
        4 Dark Ritual
        1 Demonic Consultation
        1 Demonic Tutor
        4 Duress
        1 Necropotence
        1 Tendrils of Agony
        1 Vampiric Tutor
        1 Yawgmoth's Bargain
        1 Yawgmoth's Will
// mana
        4 Gemstone Mine
        3 Glimmervoid
        4 City of Brass
        1 Black Lotus
        1 Lion's Eye Diamond
        1 Lotus Petal
        1 Mana Crypt
        1 Chrome Mox
        1 Mana Vault
        1 Mox Diamond
        1 Mox Emerald
        1 Mox Sapphire
        1 Mox Jet
        1 Mox Ruby
        1 Mox Pearl

Notes: Goldfishes turn 2 quite consistently.

How you should try to win:

Sometimes you play like trix and just go therapy for force, drop rector turn 2 then flashback and win. Those wins are very smooth and not uncommon. This is probably ideal.

Sometimes you win like long and just chain draw sevens and artifact mana till you win. When winning this way, I really miss chromatic sphere. I’ve done it several times and its quite manageable, but its harder than you are used to and shouldn’t be your preferred strategy. This is a possibility that is always open to you and you should always look for it (ie if you wheel into a will 2xrit and dt kill this way) but its usually a bad idea to actively go for this.  

Most of the time (note most of my testing is v control, it may be different v aggro) I think your best bet is to go for the trix kill and if they stop your rector use the draw 7s to reload and try again. You have a ton of must counters and 8 discard spells. Use the strategies outlined in Steve’s long article on star city.

Single card notes:
Desire: I think I maybe this should be cut. It’s a mammoth bomb, but its not suited to using as a reload card (unlike say time twister) since it requires a lot of setup and dropping spells before it.  Also its hard to use when going off long style with only led and lotus giving you multiple U and no chromatic sphere to wash other colors.

Consult: I think I might cut this because I never cast it. I don’t use it to get restricted cards cause that’s suicide and I don’t use it to get rector because I might remove bargain on the way there and leave my rector useless. Any suggestions for replacements?

Gamble: In the early game, think of this as primarily as therapy 5-8. You drop rector and get therapy with gamble if you didn’t have it already. Then you cast it if it’s in your hand and flash it back if you discarded it. If the game goes longer than that, (ie you need to cast a draw seven and can’t just win) you can use this to fetch things after your hand is refilled. The odds of losing the card you want if you cast this with a full hand is about 14%, that’s the same odds as spoils outright losing you the game in mask. Missing on the random discard is less bad than losing the game and people play spoils so you can play this. Late game (after you get bargain in play) this is a demonic tutor for one mana. Drawing 15 cards with bargain I have never not been able to find the lone tendrils for the kill and this is part of the reason why.  Lastly, when you are desperate you can use this and hope to get lucky. That’s not a good plan, but neither is consult for lotus and I’m sure anyone who’s played combo for a long time has had games where they had to do that. It should go without saying that you should not cast this if you don't need to due to randomness.\n\n

[Maxx Matt]

I think that adding the single Burning Wish, won't be wrong.
You can try to wap it with a redundant sorcery as Duress with the possibility to be the 4° Dures, A Draw 7 from the Board, a RFG Tendril, an answer for anything and so on.

As usual I don't feel the need of the Diamond in any combo list.

Well built, nice to see Gamble appearing in some new good decks ( i like it a lot in any deck than can capitalize a card from the grave as this )

[Smash]

I might want a second tendrils just to help win after some drawing.

A guy I knew in italy played 5 color draw-7 trix for a while before long came out, and it seemed to be doing well for him.

[Mon, Goblin Chief]

You're definitly missing Sol Ring and Academy!!
A Burning Wish should supposedly be good, too.\n\n

[VideoGameBoy]

Hah, consult, you make me laugh.  You only have 1 kill card, and there's no way to fetch it if it gets scalped.

Sol Ring is noticeably absent.

Tinker/Jar are definitely worth considering.\n\n

[walking dude]

Quick update on the deck.

Consult is out. Reason: I never cast the darn thing because I was afraid of removing key cards. The deck has too many 1 ofs including the win condition, Bargain, and the technical win condition, tendrils.

I was consider two options
1. –consult +sol ring
2. –consult –desire + tinker +jar

I went with the first option because the desire helped me win several games in testing. I’m still not sure if I would have also won those games with tinker though. I suspect not but its impossible to tell without more testing.

Other considerations for the future
I would like to fit in tinker jar. What two cards would I cut for this? I think probably mox diamond and something else, but what’s the best choice for the something else?

[MoreFling]

Quote (Smash @ Dec. 11 2003,22:25)A guy I knew in italy played 5 color draw-7 trix for a while before long came out, and it seemed to be doing well for him.

Actually, that is commonly reffered to (or WAS commonly reffered to) as Budde-Trix, since that's what he played in the invitational and in duelmen IIRC.
Also Tom vd Logt played that build in Duelmen and at worlds in Augustus.

Unless you mean a different deck, then I'm mistaken.