[New Deck] Home-School Expulsion: an EBA variant

[Tha Gunslinga]

Home-School Expulsion


Components:


        Blowing stuff up real good:
   4 Swords to Plowshares (best creature removal around)
   3 Hymn to Tourach (brute-force, cheap discard)
   2 Stifle (General utility, best vs Strip effects or vs fetches)
   4 Duress (Black counterspell; wrecks many decks)
   2 Vindicate (Utility.  Cut down from 4)
   2 Disenchant (I needed a MD instant-speed Disenchant effect.  Great vs. Scepter)

   When all else fails:
   2 Absorb (I needed a counter for late-game topdeck situations.  This works for me)

   Getting the good stuff:
   4 Brainstorm (shuffles back extra/useless removal, when used with fetches)
   3 Impulse (4 cards=removal in hand.  Works wonders.  Also good with Chains)
   3 Shadowmage Infiltrator (Fear is tech.  Card-drawing is some good, too)

   Tutors/Brokenness:
   1 Mystical Tutor (Vampiric Tutor is junk late-game when I’m under 3 life.  This is almost as good)
        1 Demonic Tutor
      1 Time Walk
         1 Ancestral Recall
        1 Yawgmoth's Will
       
   The Kill:
    2 Raven Guild Master (3 mana, and it kills fairly quickly.  When I morph them, people think they’re Exalteds)

   Mana:
   1 Black Lotus
          1 Mox Sapphire
        1 Mox Pearl
         1 Mox Jet      
   1 Strip Mine (I cut Sinkholes, but replaced them with the 5 Strip effects)
   4 Wasteland
   2 Polluted Delta
   2 Flooded Strand
   4 Tundra
   4 Scrubland
   4 Underground Sea

Sideboard (for a mixed meta)
SB:  3 Chains of Mephistopheles (Brainstorms go out)
SB:  4 Blue Elemental Blast (Blood Moon)
SB:  3 Contagion (Weenies; general aggro)
SB:  3 Serenity (artifact stuff.  Also good vs Enchantress, which I occasionally see.  These were Disenchants once, then swapped to Dust to Dust)
SB:  2 Stifle




The deck originally started out off an idea I saw on TMD somewhere, maybe 6 months ago, maybe more.  It was utility creatures, with Meddling Mage, Withered Wretch, and True Believer.  I added Edgewalker for cleric acceleration, Mesmeric Fiend for hand destruction, and Mother of Runes for protection.  Unearth pulled creatures back, and a general base of Duress, Vindicate, etc assisted.  

First to go was Edgewalker, since a 3-mana creature that makes my 2-mana creatures easier to cast is useless.  Wretch and True Believer were too hard to cast and too narrow, so they went.  Meddling Mage was a hard choice, but it just wasn’t working.  I’d name one card, and they’d play another.  It was cut for 4x Swords, because I was dying to aggro way too often.  Mesmeric Fiend was too hard to protect, so it was cut for Hymn to Tourach, which hits anything in hand.  By this point Mother of Runes and Unearth were useless, so they got cut.  Future Sight was in there as well, but 5 mana is too much, and it was a “win-more” card.  Sinkholes were in there, but they were totally useless vs aggro, and I cut them for the Strip effects.

I needed some draw, and I needed it bad.  Impulse and Brainstorm work fine for me.  I was running Ophidian, but I remembered Shadowmage, which is strictly better in almost all ways, and replaced the easily-blocked Phid with his scary buddy Finkel.  Disenchants went in, because I was getting wrecked by Scepters.  Stifles went in as general utility.

Absorbs were a difficult call.  I originally wanted to build the deck with no counterspells whatsoever.  However, I was losing games to topdecks, and late-game Fireblasts.  Mana Drain is useless, as I have almost no sinks for it.  Force of Will is card disadvantage (quoting Random-Miser), and I don’t need countering early-game.  Counterspell is too vanilla, and stuff like Mana Leak, Arcane Denial, and Power Sink just plain sucks.  Dismiss, Complicate, and Rewind are all lousy.  Undermine’s effect is useless, as I rarely win through damage.  Absorb, however, is 3 mana which isn’t too bad.  It allows me to counter a spell, and come back from being at 1 or 2 life to a safer 4 or 5.  I was contemplating Zuran Orb for the aggro matchup, but Absorb seems to work better.



In conclusion, I’ve been playing this deck against a fair range of decks over the last 6 months or so, and it’s done pretty well.  I’ve tuned it to what I think is almost an optimal build.  At least, it’s the best version so far.

Thoughts, comments, suggestions, questions, flames?  Go right ahead.

[johnstown713]

I don't understand how you win if your few creatures die.  Can you really rely on yawgmoth's will to save you?  There are only 2 counters???

[Lockdown]

Home-School Expulsion
Thoughts, comments, suggestions, questions, flames?  Go right ahead.

OK... here I go...

 2 Raven Guild Master (3 mana, and it kills fairly quickly. When I morph them, people think they’re Exalteds)

Why do people think they're Exalteds? Because they know that the only morph worth playing is Exalted.  Cut the Guild Masters.  They may be your kill condition, but they're practically useless after the first morph.

The deck originally started out off an idea I saw on TMD somewhere, maybe 6 months ago, maybe more. It was utility creatures, with Meddling Mage, Withered Wretch, and True Believer. I added Edgewalker for cleric acceleration, Mesmeric Fiend for hand destruction, and Mother of Runes for protection. Unearth pulled creatures back, and a general base of Duress, Vindicate, etc assisted.

There was a reason for that creature base (despite the fact that it's horribly out of date).  Meddling Mage is a hoser against basically anything but aggro, a lot of the good T1 decks right now abuse their graveyard so Withered Wretch is very useful, and True Believer is another combo hoser, stopping things like Tendrils of Agony.  None of the cards you added are worth the loss of any of those 3.  The only concern is the manabase when you run UW, BB, and WW creatures, but you have dual lands, fetch lands, and power, so that's less of an issue.  Current listings use a creature base of: Meddling Mages, Exalted Angels, Decree of Justice, Ophidian.  Some use Phyrexian Negator instead.

Absorbs were a difficult call. I originally wanted to build the deck with no counterspells whatsoever. However, I was losing games to topdecks, and late-game Fireblasts. Mana Drain is useless, as I have almost no sinks for it. Force of Will is card disadvantage (quoting Random-Miser), and I don’t need countering early-game. Counterspell is too vanilla, and stuff like Mana Leak, Arcane Denial, and Power Sink just plain sucks. Dismiss, Complicate, and Rewind are all lousy. Undermine’s effect is useless, as I rarely win through damage. Absorb, however, is 3 mana which isn’t too bad. It allows me to counter a spell, and come back from being at 1 or 2 life to a safer 4 or 5. I was contemplating Zuran Orb for the aggro matchup, but Absorb seems to work better.

Never, I repeat, never listen to Random-Miser...  There was a reason he was banned from this site.  The only thing to be worried about when running FoW is your blue spell count.  And if you were playing Exalteds/Decree of Justice, you would have sinks for Mana Drain.

If you really want to play EBA, you can find a current listing here (created by Kerz):

//Counters/Disruption
4 Duress
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will

//Answers
3 Swords to Plowshares
1 Vindicate

//Threats
4 Meddling Mage
2 Exalted Angel
2 Decree of Justice

//Draw
4 Brainstorm
3 Ophidian
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Ancestral Recall

//Tutoring
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor

//Other
1 Time Walk
1 Yawgmoth's Will

//Land/Mana
4 Underground Sea
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Sol Ring
4 Tundra
3 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
3 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
1 Island
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Black Lotus

[firebird365]

I agree, the deck seems too unstable. Is this competetive, or meant to be more towards playing with your friends? If it's the former, then you can't rely solely on proactive defenses to protect yourself. Although the Duress and Hymns are good, they won't stop your opponent from topdecking something nasty while you try to deck them with a easily removed creature. You need some real threats, to be honest.

I would make the following changes to your deck:

-2 Disenchant (see Cunning Wish)
-2 Absorb (You shouldn't get into the habit of trying to topdeck counterspells to slow them down, it means you're on the defensive too much)
-1 Duress (Duress gets worse in the late game; they're much better in your opening hand, so reduce the count by one)
-3 Hymn to Tourach (Honestly, Counterspells will probably do you more good)
-2 Raven Guild Master (Decking won't do you any good, and neither will this 1/1 creature with no evasion)
-3 Impulse (with the Shadowmages and the Brainstorms, you shouldn't have any problems with card drawing)
-1 Mystical Tutor (You don't really have that many bombs that you would need to tutor for)
-1 Vindicate, StP, or Land

+2 Cunning Wish (I'm assuming you thought of this before, but it really is a much more flexible option than MD Disenchants)
+4 Force of Will (Don't quote Random-Miser, and play FoW)
+4 Counterspell or Mana Drain (You need more reactive, so here it is)
+3 Phyrexian Negator (5/5 Tramples are good, despite the drawback)
+2 Exalted Angels (These will help your weak match against aggro)

Hopefully that will help to put you in the right direction, although my card choices are definately up for discussion.


Bah, Lockdown beat me to it.  

[johnstown713]

Off Topic. Deleted.
-- Toad

[firebird365]

Off Topic. Deleted.
-- Toad

[Tha Gunslinga]

You...

- act like an idiot
- use excessive profanity
- spam too much to be of any use

And anything that violates the forum rules.

Random Miser does it by just being himself.


Anyway, the point of this thread is not to get my deck changed to EBA.  I saw the thread up about it, and I know how it works.  This is different.  


Responses:

Raven Guild Master works just fine.  The Morph thing really doesn't matter, since blockers get plowed.  It kills remarkably fast, and I've had very little trouble with it.


This is meant to be a competitive deck.  I've played it against competitive and non-competitive decks both on Apprentice and in real life, and it does quite well.  I'm bringing it to a 5-proxy tourney in 11 days, and I'll post a report here.

Topdecking:  the Absorbs are there to prevent that.  In addition, the mana denial aspect of the deck is fairly strong, and when I go into "Turbo LD mode" I often end up facing a virtually empty board.

Mystical Tutor:  Ancestral Recall.  Time Walk.  Yawgmoth's Will.  To say nothing of Absorb, Vindicate, Stifle, etc.

As to the lack of FoW:  I'm not listening to Random-Miser.  I never envisioned the deck as a counterspell deck, and I don't want it to turn into one.  The manabase is difficult enough without needing UU.

I don't understand how you win if your few creatures die. Can you really rely on yawgmoth's will to save you? There are only 2 counters???

Will has nothing to do with it.  I generally don't win with Shadowmage.  Raven Guild Master only hits play (unless I get some broken first-turn drop with Lotus, which has happened) when I have control, and my opponent has nothing in hand.

[DEA]

h'ok...
i'm waiting for the report

[johnstown713]

Same here.  Good luck but personally I think you should choose a diffrent deck.  What is your metagame like and what deck have you tested against?

[Plainswalker]

Card : Raven Guild Master  
Cost : 1UU  
Type : Creature - Wizard Mutant  
Power : 1/1  
Wording : Whenever Raven Guild Master deals combat damage to a player, that player removes the top ten cards of his or her library from the game. Morph 2UU (You may play this face down as a 2/2 creature for 3. Turn it face up any time for its morph cost.)

Card : Exalted Angel  
Cost : 4WW  
Type : Creature - Angel  
Power : 4/5  
Wording : Flying Whenever Exalted Angel deals damage, you gain that much life. Morph 2WW (You may play this face down as a 2/2 creature for 3. Turn it face up any time for its morph cost.)  

I'm not sure if your just trying to be creative here with a different creature or something, but look at the pros and cons:

They both have the same morph cost essentially (WW and UU) There both going to kill in the same amount of time since your opponent will be of course drawing cards, but will also be taking plinks from fetchlands and shadowmage. Angel though is a huge creature, has evasion and has life gain.
Your using the same flawed argument with swords to plowshare that I used to here all the time with Mana Drain. "I don't want to play that spell because it's a big drain target" If you play carefully you're useally fine, and your opponent is not always gonna have drain in hand. Saying blockers will get plowed is like me saying I have Trinisphere in my deck so I will play it first every game. Sometimes you don't draw it and sometimes they have an answer for it. We don't need to turn this into EBA, but unless your going for some theme, I don't see why using the best creature for the job is out of the question for you.

I think the best route for this deck though may still not be angels, but Negators maybe? I mean it doesn't look like a control deck, it just looks like a Sui-Black deck with horrible creatures. So what I suggest is that you first decide how aggressive you want this deck to be and then work with it from there. With all that discard the deck is just asking for a nice cheap fattie to plop down after you hit them with Duress and Hymn. If it wasn't late at night I could come up with a deck list but I'll just drop some ideas. Maybe do something with the heavy discard you have now, some nice cheap fat and maybe even the Chains of Mephistopheles main deck, depending on what you play against of course. Might work wonders in a Control heavy meta. I don't know what else, getting tired, hope I helped a little.

[Machinus]

Not having drains is different from not having sinks for them. There is no counterspell better than mana drain, unless you want to argue for FoW. Especially not one that costs 3.

[Tha Gunslinga]

Not having drains is different from not having sinks for them. There is no counterspell better than mana drain, unless you want to argue for FoW. Especially not one that costs 3.

No, it's the opposite.  While I own Drains, I don't have any sinks for the mana in this deck.  I rarely, if ever, morph the Guild Master.  The idea about replacing it with Exalted is actually fairly tempting, but I don't like the idea of tapping out for two consecutive turns, which I don't have to do with Guild Master, which can be hardcast for 3 mana.  In addition, some cards in the deck require UU or BB.  I don't need something that costs WW.

Guild Master won't hit unless I can walk it through unharmed.

Decks I've tested against (and beaten):

Goblin Sligh
Sui
Chalice Black
Mask-Naught
Trinistax (not too much, though)
LandStill (UR)
Fish
Yawgmoth's Oath (fairly difficult match)

can't think of any others off the top of my head, and I'm not trying to make this out to be an invincible deck.

[Purple Hat]

a few points about testing:
1) what version of mask-nought did you test against?  theres about 3 or 4 running around right now.  I think all of them would be problematic for your deck.

2) how exactly did you beat Sligh with a deck that plans on winning via Raven Guild Master?  most sligh builds I've played against play enough burn to make this virtually impossible, especially if you're only Main decking 2 counters.

3) saying that you have beaten a deck rarely in testing ie. trinistax is not a validation of you deck, it's a sign that your deck has major problems with the matchup.  any deck wins some games against it's bad matchups.  things like this happen.  at gencon Goblin Sligh beat Rector-Tendrils.  that doesn't mean that rector tendrils isn't a 80-20 favorite in that matchup.  sometimes you get lucky and win, and sometimes your opponents deck hates them.  


don't get me wrong, Raven Guild Master is probably my favorite card from onslought block.  I think he's really cool, but theres no way he can stand up to the likes of psychatog or all the raw fat that decks like TnT and O-Stompy can churn out.  also how do you plan on beating combo without force of will?  it seems like any decent combo deck will go off before you get a chance to do anything with this deck.

[Tha Gunslinga]

What I meant regarding Trinistax was that I only "tested" against it one time, and I only played a couple games.

Sligh:  You just plow creatures, make them discard burn, and get Finkel out there to stop the creatures.  It looks like a bad matchup, but it's like 55/45 or so, maybe more in my favor.   I tested before I added Absorb and before I cut Vamp Tutor, and that helps the matchup a lot.  The thing about Guild Master is that it doesn't hit until it's effectively protected, as the opponent will have no way to stop it.

Masknaught:  It was a comboish version piloted by my buddy Kakeboy07.  Draw-7s, that kind of thing.  He's gone off first-turn with it before; it's pretty sick.  Of course, when I go "Tundra, Swords" it's not quite as effective.

Regarding Rector-Tendrils, this beats that pretty nicely too, with StP and Stifle.

Combo is a tough matchup, and it depends what I draw.  If I can move fast with Duress, Strips, Stifle, and maybe Hymn, I have a good chance.


If any of you doubters have Apprentice, I'd love to play a match or two.

[jpmeyer]

You are planning on winning with a 1/1 creature that costs 3 mana

[VarienTanafres]

You are planning on winning with a 1/1 creature that costs 3 mana

A 1/1 with a deadly ability. Not to mention, if it's morphed, how'll the person know what it is until after it's too late? One hit with him CAN throw the game WAY into your favor.
I'm not supporting the idea fully, but I do see it's potential in some decks. (was considering using 1-2 in his Fish deck)
I see Guild Master as something that puts the opponent under pressure. Much like the negator, the master can be deadly on the field. A few hits and it's game, in a control deck, it's fairly easy to get a few hits in. (as we know with Negator) Draw back to Negator as we all know, sac a perm for each damage dealt to it. draw to to master, 1/1.

[FORCE-OF-WILL]

You are planning on winning with a 1/1 creature that costs 3 mana

Heh, while I agree with you...
I like to win games with a 1/2 creature that costs 3 mana

[jpmeyer]

Raven Guild Master doesn't actually do anything until it kills you.

[johnstown713]

I agree with jpmeyer.  There are a lot of cards in the format to kill it also.  And you can't plan on using swords everytime your opponent plays a creature.  It can be blocked the ability can be stifled and it can be killed easily.  Maybe if you throw in a isochron scepter but it doesn't look good.

[Tha Gunslinga]

You are planning on winning with a 1/1 creature that costs 3 mana

As opposed to what, a 1/2 for 3 mana?



Anyway, I really hate to do this, but the Guild Master is gone.  I'd like to put together some sort of Morph deck in the future, with Guild Master, Exalted, Willbender, and that Morph guy that says "discard 2, then draw 3," but for now Raven Guild Master is gone.


I played a few games against Robert the Swordsman last night, and he beat the hell out of me.  He was playing G/W/B aggro-control, and he had Black and White Knights.  I can't remove Black Knight at all, and White Knight can only be Plowed.  He also had Sphere of Resistance, which slows the hell out of me, and he had Plowshares and Vindicate for my Guild Masters.  The games were fairly close, and I mulled down to 4 for the first game, but I still should have done better.  I'm going to try Exalted in place of Guild Master for a while, and see how that does.

Revised Decklist:

   Home-School Expulsion


Components:


Blowing stuff up real good:
3 Swords to Plowshares (cut one)
3 Hymn to Tourach
2 Stifle
4 Duress
2 Vindicate
2 Disenchant

When all else fails:
3x Mana Drain

Getting the good stuff:
4 Brainstorm
3 Impulse
3 Shadowmage Infiltrator

Tutors/Brokenness:
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Yawgmoth's Will

The Kill:
2x Exalted Angel (cut Guild Masters; we'll see how these fellas work out)

Mana:
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Jet
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
2 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
4 Tundra
4 Scrubland
4 Underground Sea

Sideboard:
SB: 3 Chains of Mephistopheles
SB: 4 Blue Elemental Blast
SB: 3 Contagion
SB: 3 Serenity
SB: 2 Stifle

[johnstown713]

I think you will be a lot happier with the results.

[Tha Gunslinga]

Beat Thissa's Goblin Sligh 2-1.  The loss was due to me keeping a no-blue-mana hand and not drawing blue for too long.  Mana Drain is really helping, and Exalted is pretty cool, though I didn't actually win with it; Thissa conceded.

[johnstown713]

If you are going with the new build then you might want to include force of wills to save your angels at key times.  Also stop threats.

[jpmeyer]

And slowly but surely, you Dojo Drift into EBA...

[Tha Gunslinga]

JP, that's exactly what I want to avoid.  FoW is a good card, but I don't think it's right for this deck.

Anyway, I played 2 games against Lunk42, and went 1-1.  I had to go at that point.  I didn't sideboard, since he didn't have a board.  He was running KoboldPotence with Skullclamp and Carnival of Souls, which is a fairly abusive deck.  Game 1 I went off with a Yawgwill that sealed it.  Game 2 he went off.

[edit]:  Dojo drift?  Haven't heard that one in a looooong time!

[AngryPheldagrif]

As a somewhat general message, having played against Tha Gunslinga using this deck in real life many times, it performs quite well. I personally liked it better with the Guildmasters than with the Angels, but whatever works works. The whole thing with the Guildmasters as opposed to say Negators, is that many control decks take a few hits before stabilizing and topdecking an answer. With Negator that just means low life, whereas with the Guildmaster that is a good chunk of one's deck. And having experienced this playing him with Goblin-Sligh, topdecking can rarely be counted on when you see your burn evaporating into your removed-from-game pile every turn.

Well good luck at the tourney, Ben. Me and my Dreadnoughts look forward to meeting you in the finals