Ever since running Future Sight in Ur-phid a few weeks ago in our casual Friday tourney I loved flipping over card after card and abusing brainstorm, mystical tutor and the like.
Shortly after I came across a
post on building combo-keeper around future sight. It was the last decklist offered by womprax that caught my attention. The use of burning wish as a utility and recursion engine for yawgmoth's will and other bombs got my head spinning. With
a lot of help from adam (i don't think he has a tmd account, lmk if i'm wrong) I finally came up with this list to play. The name came from the fact that for the last week i've been saying this for no reason in response to questions and in the middle of conversations: your mother.
Your Mother, or I hate your deck no matter what you're playing (unless you're playing bloodmoon)
Lands (20)
1 City of Brass
1 Library of Alexandria
4 Polluted Delta
1 Flooded Strand
3 Tundra
3 Underground Sea
3 Volcanic Island
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Strip Mine
2 Wasteland
// Enchantments (3)
1 Power Artifact
2 Future Sight
// Spells (29)
1 Ancestral Recall
3 Brainstorm
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Gush
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Stroke of Genius
3 Swords to Plowshares
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
1 Misdirection
4 Burning Wish
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Lim Dul's Vault
1 Time Walk
// Artifacts (8)
1 Grim Monolith
1 Scroll Rack
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
// Sideboard (15)
SB: 1 Balance
SB: 1 Braingeyser
SB: 1 Chainer's Edict
SB: 1 Vindicate
SB: 1 Yawgmoth's Will
SB: 1 Timetwister
SB: 1 Cleansing Meditation (for the mirror )
SB: 1 Circle of Protection Black
SB: 1 Circle of Protection Red
SB: 1 Aura Fracture (I ph34r the bloodmoon)
SB: 2 Morphling
SB: 3 Red Elemental Blast
Most of the explanations for card choices will be in the post linked above. My feelings after 1 tournament are that:
1) If i had a mox emerald i
might run it in place of the 2nd wasteland
2) cleansing meditation and timetwister would be replaced, probably with fireball and duress (or mind twist). i know duress sounds funny, but its sort of like tutoring for a counterspell when you want to resolve something. its also not misdirectable.
3) Gush would probably become some other blue draw/search card.
4) i would like to adjust the mana base so its more resilient to bloodmoon
Enough about your mother, on to the report...
There were about 30 people signed up (rather small turn out), most of them consisting of the Hadley crew, the CT crew, and the RI crew. I brought a humungo bag of tostitos chips (which, miraculously, lasted until the end of the tourney) along with usual stuff (trade, notepad, &
The Sock of Wrath). I make a last minute decision to ditch mind twist, board the edict, and cram 1 more wasteland in.
Round 1, Tom playing Void
Great, I'm playing the world's worst mana base and an artifact based combo, and i get to play my first game with your mother against void! Game 1 I get exactly what i need. after i lay a tundra, sol ring and pass, he does a 'swamp go'. i lay a fetch for a volcanic, burning wish for balance, and knock him down to 2 cards in hand and a swamp in play (while i'm holding demonic and a land). he then procedes to hymn me, but it still ruined that early disruption that can take you out of a game, and turned it into a top decking war. he draws into necro, but i draw into future sight, and go off shortly afterwards.
Game 2 after i counter and stp a few threats, he resolves necropotence (which hit all 3 games) and stomped me. Game 3, we get caught in topdeck again, but this time i draw into CoP:black before he finds his necro. time is called with him at 3 life, and my CoP holding back negator and shade. there were a lot of play errors on both sides; tom had just started playing again after a few months, and i'd never played keeper before. if either of us had been more skilled/familiar, that person would have probably taken the match.
0-0-1
Round 2, Kuei playing Super Gro
I was happy to see this deck (partly since its not a bad matchup and partly since i know the deck well). after consideration, though, super gro seems like a good choice in the current metagame; kuei proved this by making it to the finals.
Game 1, The early game is rather even, with him gushing, and me resolving ancestral recall. he lays a dryad and applies pressure. the turning point is where he wins a counter war over armegeddon. however, the next turn i burning wish and balance evening the playing field. i get future sight to resolve, and your mother goes off after 4 turns in a row and 2 huge yawgwills. sol ring and burning wish is my new favorite combo.
Game 2, kuei is able to get an early meddling mage, 2 seal of cleansing, and a powder keg (set at 2), but didn't realize that i converted to regular keeper. i go off shortly after with burning wish abuse and 3 turns in a row of morphling beats. 1-0-1
Round 3, Dave playing Keeper Redux (no red)
Game 1, due to early islands (i ph34r bloodmoon) i play conservatively. after i realize he's not playing mono-u or Ur-phid, i win counter wars getting both ancestral and fact or fiction to resolve. he gets a morphling in play, but i get a future sight in play. your mother. moving on to game 2...
Game 2, again, my opponent doesn't predict me siding in morphlings, and i watch seal of cleansing and powder keg pile up on the other side while i gain card advantage. i was feeling pretty comfortable once i resolved a future sight, when something strange happened: dave resolves a future sight of his own! both libraries with face up cards, the both of us playing spells and dropping lands. tutors going uncountered willy-nilly; it was so much fun. when time was called, my life was dwindling and he had a morphling and a mishra's factory staring down my empty board.
the first of the 5 turns starts with me burning wish for yawgmoths will. i make a brilliant play resolving the will only to discover i've already played a land, and there's no jewelry in the grave. "yawgwill, go" is tech . turn 4 he lays a second mishra and swings for 8 bringing me to 4. on the third turn i burning wish for the yawgwill, cast it, time walk. on turn 2 (my 2nd turn) i get out morphling, drop a wasteland and pass. he swing with all, but i block, waste, and stp his other mishra. we draw the game and i take the match; he was a little disgusted that he couldn't pull out the 2nd game, but was a good sport about it.
2-0-1
Round 4, Nick (billtheduck) playing EBA
I don't think I have ever beat Nick while he's playing EBA. A lot of this has to do with the fact that I always play control and EBA is great at beating control, but he does sort of have this way of always getting exactly what he needs. This round was not that close, though.
Game 1, he gets some early meddling mage beats, but I stp it and drop future sight for the win. it should be mentioned that nick was very gracious in letting me go back and use mana drain mana. it didn't factor too heavily in the win (he was severely mana-screwed), but it was cool of him just the same.
Game 2 was a great game; fought hard on both sides. he gains some card advantage with phid, and then drops a meddling mage naming 'swords to plowshares' (i probably would have said burning wish). i force through a wish and balance away his horde and his hand. he gets out aura fracture and chains of mephistopheles. at first i wasn't bothered by the chains, but then accidentally brainstormed away 3 blue cards. then, for the only time all day, i burning wish for cleansing meditation to clear his s#!t. from there he starts to build up again until he forces through a negator for the win. in this game i mis-use brainstorm putting a reb on top of library and keeping a burning wish in hand (to be duressed) which could have made a difference in the outcome.
Game 3 was less eventful with an early phid and 2 meddling mages beating down for the win. what can i say, your mother doesn't like EBA.
2-1-1
Round 5, Mike playing GAT (thats right, nick, GAT, not gro-a-tog)
I lost to Mike in the T4 of one of Ray's tournaments a few months ago, but couldn't place him until we started playing. He'll make it if we draw, but I won't.
Game 1 he drops a dryad and starts swinging. I make him win counter wars with pitch counters, and eventually I stp the dryad. then there are a series of turns where he plays a threat, and I answer. The closest he comes to victory is when he resolves tog, and i'm able to flashback an edict before he can attack. I resolve future sight, and from there its academic.
He says something about drawing all land and not believing that he lost to keeper as we sideboard. Game 2 is more of the same, but he never can get a creature to stick. He concedes when I resolve morphling, my 2nd yawgwill and have 2 turns of timewalk coming up. Your mother owns GAT (at least today).
***Inserting Personal Gripe***
I have nothing personal against GAT. I think its a good deck and fun to play. I don't think its incredibly dominating, and I have a record of 4-2 against it piloting anything from Emerald Alice, to Oath, to keeper. However, it seems that most of the people who pilot the deck are always whining about how they should be doing better (since GAT is the greatest thing since your mother). It should be clear that GAT does not win 103% vs. anything not playing tangle wire/sphere of resistance. Its good, but quite beatable; especially when played poorly. In short: I think GAT is good, but overrated.***
With my win in the 5th round I get a Top 8 date with...Adam. As in, the Adam that helped me build the damn thing and knows its every card. This is also the Adam who play tested with me the previous night and was the rimjob cowboy to your mother, winning 5 games in a row. To say the least, I was not thrilled about this matchup.
Top 8, Adam playing madness (GRU)
Many of you may not consider this deck good; you are wrong. He is more than capable of dropping 3 fatties on the first turn (and swinging) and then following up with a burn spell and fattie every turn after. The only thing going for me is that i've played it before. Game 1 he gets an early crew, but no mountain for the anger in his grave. i'm able to sol ring, wish balance and save myself an 11 point beating. i tutor for lotus and drop a future sight. from here i'm able to counter/remove threats, and go off the turn before he would have burned me out.
Game 2, i feel comfortable with early mana acceleration, and removal. I resolve future sight, yes! He resolves bloodmoon, . He stomps all over my face.
Game 3 I get the perfect opening hand for his deck: stp, strip(for bazaar), mana drain and burning wish. i slow his initial rush, and while we're stalling i'm able to resolve CoP red and future sight. from there your mother takes four turns in a row and makes poor adam draw 134 cards.
These were all intense games; his deck is always capable of turning around and smacking you when you least expect it. Its always fun playing adam, but it just felt wrong given how much he helped me in putting the deck together. his suggestions of limdul's vault, enlightened tutor, CoPs, and Vindicate were all game breakers at some point during the day.
Top 4, Brian playing Urphid
We played a little the previous night, so I know how bad the matchup is. Both games he gets early phid and early bloodmoon, 2nd game I draw a$$. I wasn't surprised, and Brian went on to win it all, so I don't fell that bad. The only ironic part is I almost played Urphid, but didn't since 1) your mother is more fun and 2) everyone lent me card, and i'd be a schmuck not to use them.
Scott (from RI) and I played for 3rd. He was piloting TnT and bloodmoon owned once again.
Overall a very enjoyable tournament. I wasn't even expecting to have a winning record, much less place. Your mother is so much fun to play with, and even though i expect to see more bloodmoon, I'll probably keep with it for a while.
Props:
Adam, for helping me put your mother together
Brian, Vlad, Nick, for loaning me cards for your mother
Slops:
World Association of GAT players...and their mothers
P.S.
Although I'll be adding a note to the post above about this deck, i'd like any feedback on the build or other player's experiences with similar decks.
Thanks, lada
