Help on my GAT

[BigDCool247]

I have spent a wile now collecting what was needed to play Gat and I am very close I just need 2 underground seas.  I was and to this day am a sligh player and GAT will be very new to me, from reading the forums and gathing opinion on specific card choices this is what I have come up with:

Counter:
2 Stifle
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will

Draw:
4 Ak
4 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Gush
1 Deep Analysis

Tutors:
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Mystical Tutor
3 Cunning Wish
1 Vamp Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor

Creatures:
4 Quiron Dryad's
2 Psychotogs

Disruption/Utility:
1 Mind twist
1 Time Walk
1 Yawgmoths Will
1 Pernicious Deed
3 Duress

Land/Mana Sources:
4 Polluted Delta
2 Islands
1 Swamp
1 Strip Mine
4 Tropical Island
4 Underground Sea
1 Mox Saphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Black Lotus

SB:
2 BEB
1 Berserk
2 Coffin Purge
2 Naturalize
1 Pernicious Deed
1 Smother
1 Diabolic Edict
1 Misdirection
2 Null Rod
1 Oxidize
1 FoF

On another note I have a friend who can sell me drains would they be worth picking up for this deck in place of the couter spells.  Thx in advance for any help.

[Ultima]

Well where to start,

It looks to me like the GAT your gonna play is a control style GAT.
Therefore, my advice is to play it more like a control deck than a aggro deck.  GAT can play either of these two games but if you want to run duress, 2 Togs and bombs like twist, you should be going into every game like the control player then move to aggro when it looks safe.  Your build is more meant for the long game packing MD answers and 3 wish flexability.

Drains are only really necassary for workshop and prison matchs.  For that reason and that workshop is GAT's hardest matchup, I would always recommended drains over counterspell since slavery is so popular right now and prison is steadily showing again.

Your mana base is very light and you need more acceleration.  Old GAT could run with only 3 moxs because it was a aggro-COMBO-control deck.  Your build more reflects a strictly aggro-control style with control being more the more prominent and likely position as a player.  Therefore I recommend more artifact mana for acceleration and a library maybe.  

While I personnally like the 3-color version more, if you see alot of artifact decks, then I highly recommend splashing red for Rack and ruin, Artifact Mutation, fire/ice and red elemental blast.

Hope this helps.

[BigDCool247]

Ultima
 
Thx you very much for you insight into my build.  I was thinking it was very controlish with duress and mindtwist and the 3 wishes.  As for the mana light problem I wanted to address that but I dont know what to cut and what to add.  Also on the LoA in my area the tournies are all 5 proxy so with the power I have in the deck my slots are all taken.  I could drop some of the control elements and add more basics but im not shure that is the right thing to do.

[Aeneas]

One thing that I noticed is that you are very low in the mana producing department.  GAT is a very mana hungry deck and is even more so when running cards like Mind Twist.  17 mana sources will not last you for the long game, which is where it looks like this deck is intended to go.

Edit: To deal with the lack of mana, I would cut the Mind Twist and possibly a few of the card drawers.

Best of luck,
Matt Kent

[eddavatar]

Ok, there are 2 schools of GAT these days, aggro and control oriented. And as ultima pointed out your version is on the control side, which means the mana drains are almost a must.

Since you are playing the control version, i believe that intuition is very needed as a mana drain sink. And since you run deep anal main it's going to be very good in most situation. Full power and Sol Ring are also very necessary. Scepter is also part of the consideration.

Merchant scroll and Vamp Tutor in my opinion are not necessary, but it's your personal preference that dictates it. They are not needed in my opinion and i've not use'em for like months.

If you are going to run those 5 proxy powers, I would truely suggest playing the aggro variety of GAT, which is what i'm currently running. It doesn't need any of the addition that I've talked about while you add a couple volcanic islands and a couple fire/ice and take out maybe duress and mind twist.

Your sideboard however needs a lot of tweaking.

First off annul is definitely bad. Replace it with energy flux.

I wouldn't run more than 1 coffin purge unless your meta has a lot of juicy targets for it.

Don't bother with oxidize since you have naturalize.

Replace one smother with diabolic edict. Sometimes you need the variety (in case someone runs morphling or arrogant wurm or something)

Blue Elemental Blast is VERY CRUCIAL. It kills your mortal enemy's key cards (Blood moon, Welders, Pyrostatic pillar)

And Ultima's suggestion for red splash is absolutely head on as it improves the worst matchup - workshop based decks - by a large degree. Rack and Ruin, Artifact mutation are houses. Fire/Ice does so much it's not even funny. Heck REB itself does a lot of things.

[BigDCool247]

eddavatar

Thx you for your insight into my build.  I have changed the original deck post to reflect some of your advise.  I can't believe that I over looked BEB when I was going over gat builds.  As for Oxidize I think it has a place and you dont always have the mana for naturalize so for now it stays.  I also like coffin purge x2 because I do have alot of spicy targets in my meta I can play some 12 year old with a deck that is less than type one caliber or I can play a game vs Carl Winters the world champ in my meta.  We also have a Welder mud Player and a Slaver Player so I like the side board now.  I have one more question is the mana base too light or can it be played as is should I cut a wish and maybe the deep analysis to add more basics.  Thx again for any help.