[Deck] Serious Hulksmach's build Review

[Wudil]

After playing NeoGaT builds and after playing this deck for some month ago (when Smenen added Mana Crypt to his list), I should say that I really enjoy this archetype which provided me much satisfaction.

I played it in the Clichy's Tournament some weeks ago where I missed Top8 from nothing, it was really closed but this was maybe due to the build which wasn't enough metagamed well as I was still running some "useless" cards like Duress.

My metagame is composed by many many workshop.dec (I mean by this Slavery, TriniStax, Stacker, Modulars, TnT...), some "Controle" decks like Enslaver, GermBus, Hulksmach, LandStill, Gay/R and really few Combo decks like Dragon or Draw7 and finally some "Aggro" decks like UGr Madness without speaking about TnT, Stacker or Modulars.

In such a metagame, cards like Duress were awful while others like Wastelands were gold.

At this time, I was running this build:

Wudil's HulkSmach - Inspired by Smenen's build

Manabase

1 Library of Alexandria
2 Island
2 Tropical Island
3 Volcanic Island
1 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
4 Underground Sea
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire

Permission:

3 Duress
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain

Drawers:

1 Ancestral Recall
4 Accumulated Knowledge
2 Deep Analysis

Search/Manipulators/Tools:

2 Intuition
3 Cunning Wish
4 Brainstorm
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Gorilla Shaman
1 Pernicious Deed

Brokeness:

1 Mind Twist
1 Time Walk
1 Yawgmoth's Will

Kill:

3 Psychatog

As everyone knows, Duress against any Workshop.dec or "Aggros" build is bad. But more than this, against Combo, this can be useless as you can remove a spell from his hand but that won't disturb him because most of the time he could get his combo out without that card.
I prefer a turn 1 counter I could cast in order to create tempoloss for my opponent while he would cast his spell.
This can apply in Controle matchups but also help in a Counter war in order to resolve or denying Big threat.

This is why I choosed to play Mana Leaks over Duress.

With this card, I am able to counter a T1 "real" threat like a Welder, 3Sphere, Dark Ritual or Black Lotus (against Storm or Belcher) ect ect...
This is helped much by the fact this could be usefull after Turn 1 while I am running some manasource disrupt with Gorilla Shaman which I hadn't cut of course but also with the Wastelands/Stripmine I added to the deck.

This LD via Wasteland/Strip helps soooo much against any Workshop or Bazaar.dec (who already wasted a Workshop under a 3Sphere? There are so many examples here), but this also help against any Controle deck while you deny him some colour.

I made the test many times against GermBus for example with his Black mana sources for his drawers or White for his Angels/Balance and for Red after siding. This can be applied in every circumstances depending of course about your hand, board position ect... I can be with Red sources against Slavery also and so on...

With both Mana Leak replacing Duresses and adding the LD, these cards help much my build to fight against my "worst" matchups that are Dragon, Landstill (wasn't still not great) and of course Slavery.

Here is what my build looks like today:

Wudil's ToG:

Manabase

3 Island
2 Tropical Island
3 Volcanic Island
3 Underground Sea
4 Polluted Delta
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire

Manasources Disrupt:

1 Stripmine
3 Wastelands
1 Gorilla Shaman

Permission:

2 Mana Leaks
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain

Drawers:

1 Ancestral Recall
4 Accumulated Knowledge
2 Deep Analysis

Search/Manipulators/Tools:

3 Intuition
4 Cunning Wish
4 Brainstorm
1 Demonic Tutor

Brokeness:

1 Time Walk
1 Yawgmoth's Will

Kill:

3 Psychatog

As you can understand, I had to remove off colour sources in order to add the Wastelands/Stripmine and Mox Pearl went out of my build (this isn't because I don't own one, I do but I had to remove off colour sources and Mana Crypt was far superior in its place)

I also removed the lone LoA for many reasons.
The first one is of course because it is an off colour source (even if it can produce CA). But also because this card advantage I gain from it quite slow (I am not speaking against workshop.dec where this card is most of the time dead due to its slowness because I want to combo asap).
Against any Controle Matchup where I don't run it, I don't miss it that much because first of all, I can still count on my main drawing engine but also because against an opponent's LoA, with the LD I 've put in my build, I can deny his without problems. This is why I prefered to run 1 more Wasteland in the LoA's slot.

The fact I still run 4 colour in my build more than moving to 3 was in order to get of course the Gorilla Shaman maindeck but in order to get many answers in side to get Artifact Hate. The best of them in tempo is Artifact Mutation, I can also run Rack&Ruin and more Gorilla Shaman which are gold against decks like Slavery for example.
I can also have access to Fire/Ice which is a great removal like for multiple welders, gorillas or xantid swarms but also let me get 1 turn against big fatties while drawing and of course, counter the Maze of Ith if the Wastelands can't take care of them.
Plus the fact that against Controle, Red Blast are really needed for me, their role against the one Xantid Swarms can have is better for, I prefer to be able to counter a given threat than counting on 1 Xantid which I should, or not, protect.
These are the resons I kept the 4c build.

In the maindeck, we can see that I removed the lone Pernicious Deed.
Like others noticed, I must admit that this card, even it was a great Reset button, could be a dead card.
This is why I don't really love it. I thinked and naturaly, it ended to be replaced by the 4th Cunning Wish which let me get more easily answers to given threats but also let me get the combo in an easier way.

I also had to make some space in my build but plus this, Mind Twist is, like Duress, a poor card against any Aggro or Workshop.dec.
This card isn't that great too against Combo as it have to be played as soon as possible, if not the Combo player could go in combo and kill me if I don't have that many counters each threat he has can be.
Finally, I think that Mind Twist is only gold against Controle Matchups.
This is the reasons I cut it from my build.

One last change which can seem strange is the fact I am only running 3 Underground Sea.
This has been made due to the fact that I am running really few black spells in my build and I wanted to be able to fetch or put on the board a turn 1 Island.
This is of course intended to fight against opponent's LD because as every ToG players know, an early land disrupt on your land is most of the time critical for your developpment (to be able to put your draw engine online).

Here is finally an example of the Sideboard I am currently running:

1 Artifact Mutation
1 Rack and Ruin
1 Berserk
1 Fire / Ice
3 Red Elemental Blast
1 Fact or Fiction
2 Blue Blast
1 Pernicious Deed
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Gorilla Shaman
1 Oxidize
1 Snuff Out

Most of these cards had been explained but this is part of my metagame.
We can't fight EVERY matchup and as you can see, I made the dead end on Rector Trix (most of the time) and a bit less on Dragon without any Coffin Purge (Wastelands/Stripmine help me much here).

I also keep one Pernicious Deed in the side in order to fight against Modular where this card and Gorilla Shaman are pure gold and against any random.dec like Elvish or others which can be annoying.

I would like to hear what do you think about my build after testing it.
It is, as I said in the beginning, an attempt to fight some specific decks which are dominating my metagame.

Thanks for the read.

Ps: This is the build I will run at Lyon's Tournament on Sunday the 30th of Mai. I will see for the first time what it will do in a real tournament and not anymore in playtestings on MWS or against IRL friends.

[paradigm]

Understanding and customizing Hulk Smash builds is currently of vital importance to the type one metagame as Hulk is currently one of the decks to beat - maximizing its consistency in matchups and fighting the massive hate.

However I feel this build does not accomplish those ends, and this is why:

1) Underestimating the strength of Duress and overestimating the strength of Mana Leak.

Duress actually plays a large role in the combo matchup - stealing a Draw 7, or even a Brainstorm sets them back considerably and prevents them from seeing enough cards to go off. It is far from useless. The matchups where it is worse is actually the Workshop matchups, namely Slaver which powers through a number of threats - not one significant spell, especially when Shaman is more appreciated anyway. Nevertheless, it is a proactive counter for a single mana.

Addressing Mana Leak, Hulk Smash does not try to counter every spell an opponent plays - merely enough to protect a Tog and swing for lethal damage, while stopping any devastating cards - you don't counter everything (and can't anyway). To play with Mana Leak is to try to force the inevitability of Tog, which is no longer the right way to play this deck - rather to force through draw and ride the advantage into a Tog, not counter spells then drop a Tog. Mana Leak also loses nearly all of its strength going second. You also cannot ensure Mana Leak + Mox in every opening hand. It simply is more spectacular in theory than in practice. Remember also that FOW backup is also a consideration as to adding another redundant counter.

In the Slaver matchups, the early counter wars begins with turns 1-3 (Welders, early TFKs, or in Workshop's case, many more threats), all before double counter magic becomes active - especially since you cut Pearl in your build. If anything Misdirection would serve a greater purpose in trying to win the early counter wars (which I would NOT recommend). Also to solve Welders, Shaman simply works better. Of course it late game counter wars Leak becomes far weaker, and here, as shown, it does not really shine early game either.

Also running Duress is a pseudo-counter, as Menendian noted. It steals a card versus control as well, and is a proactive counterspell. In addition, it makes sideboarding redundant as you'll likely side out leaks for REBs, or weaken the strength of your deck by siding out other things for redundant counters.

The reason why Drain is so good is not only that it counters a spell but that the mana provides tempo advantage - something that Leak cannot do. If you're running the wastes and Strip Mine (which I will later address), it becomes even more difficult to have a Mana Leak up on turn one. If you were to play one turn two, you'd rather have a Mana Drain anyway.

2) Land-D is incorrect.

This was already discussed on TMD, but to reitterate, Wasteland and Strip Mine are meant for 4C which relies more on inevitability. You are trying to accelerate to your card drawing, and Wasteland slows it down. While it can provide spectacular momments, note also that it also has dud momments and screws with your own mana base, as Menendian noted in his "Head to Head, Tog vs TnT" article some time back. Wasteland is a reactive threat, and Tog is becoming more of a proactive deck. Against Workshop there are better answers - Gorilla Shaman (3 total) and Artifact Mutation. For Stax, which you alluded to, they have more mana then you to the point where a Waste on a Workshop doesn't do much - if they play a Shop, they also intend to use it that turn - so they will still benefit off it.

Agaisnt Dragon, double Coffin Purge in the board remains the solid answer, which directly wins the game, as opposed to Wasteland, which slows the game down. As for other Bazaar decks, (mostly Oshawa Stompy), you play the aggro role anyway, therefore Wasteland becomes a worse card as all you want is to drop a Tog and tick it off.

Playing against 4C Control, they can simply acknowledge your Wastes by not breaking fetches, therefore saving mana when you need it. In addition, if you are wasting their lands, you are likely not doing much damage (mid/late-game) or not playing Intuition and Tog, which 4C prefers. As for Slaver, cutting red sources is more difficult then you think , especially since they have a strong draw engine that runs off blue mana. Cutting red is meant to stop Welder action I presume. However Gorilla Shaman provides a much stronger stop to the Welder than Wastelands.

You also have an extra island and one less Underground which dillutes the power of your mana base. With a Blood Moon in play, two islands is enough - not three.

3) Other maindeck

Going up to four Cunning Wishes is not a terrible move. But bear in mind that with your extra sources of mana and Cunning Wish, you have cut Pernicious Deed (the maindeck "OH ****" card which, in a tournament, comes big in rounds one and two, where you don't know what you're going to face, it's serves as a rest in the manner when you're facing something - say 10 land Stompy- that you did not expect. It's an evil, but right now, it's a necessary one. I myself do not enjoy seeing it opening hand either, and do not mind the fourth Cunning - but in a field as wide open as yours, it's something that must be taken into serious consideration.).

Mind Twist and Library are also important. In the Hulk mirror, Slaver matchup, and 4C control, LoA is invaluable and provides enough of an edge to take the matchup - it usually forces the opponent to switch roles - they cannot outcontrol you with a Library in play, and thus puts them in an awkward position. With the set level of mana sources being 23-24, it also shouldn't be enough of a factor contributing to color screw (if you cut the wastes/strip. Especially with your mana base, the fifth fetch is also needed to assist in avoiding mana flood.

As for Mind Twist, it's just a big edge off a Drain, and even casting it for 3-4 also provides devastating effects. What you add in is simply not powerful enough to negate the power of Twist, especially in terms of randomly winning you matchups.

4) Sideboard

You lack purges. The artifact and creature hate becomes redundant (Oxidize is redundant to the other two, and Fire/Ice is also to Snuff Out.). With double BEB to handle Welders, the better option to destroy creatures is Firestorm, which is key in the FCG matchup, which is not in Hulk's favor to begin with. Also, double Shaman sideboard is key in shutting down Welders, making the Slaver matchup much more managable. By posting your exact sideboard plans, you'll find here again that the Leak is worsened, as it will be switched out for REBs most of the time anyway.

Final notes:
When adjusting a top-tier deck, you have to consider several things-

a) Am I making the deck better? How? How am I improving the worst matchups or the most important ones (like here, the Slaver matchup and the mirror are the most important considerations)?
b) Will what I am adding make a significantly better difference? Especially with a big change, like here.
c) Am I keeping the gameplan of the deck in mind? Am I changing it? Is the change for the better?
d) If the options have been explored (like Wasteland was) why was it rejected?

I'm not trying to attack you - rather to gain the best understanding about Hulk Smash. If I feel something will not work, I will point out so, and if you can justify it, then we've helped to improve Tog, if not, at least it addresses a possible concern.

I do hope you bear these comments in mind, to best prepare youself for the tournament.

Good luck building the deck and in the tournament!

EDIT: As an aside, this is something for all deckbuilders to consider. A good deck can survive and still do good with bad cards in it. Tossing in Chimney Imp into Ravager Affinity in type two does not kill the deck, it will still be strong and may evn win a game due to the Imp. However the issues at stake is consistency - can a deck win repeatedly - a factor which you are trying to maximize. Sure such a deck above could win. But not as consistantly as a build like Menendian's which is more finely tuned, (not to say this build is terrible and not tested - it isn't) and that factor will play out over swiss rounds. A game loss here and there can be the difference between X-1-1 and a top eight slow or X-2 and finishing in ninth. Just a consideration.

[Wudil]

The first thing I should say about your comments is that many of them are right, but only in a "ideal" metagame and as I've already said in the begining, this build had been worked for special metagame, not an ideal one.

1) Duress Issue

Yes it can steal a Draw7 against Combo or any other card in his hand, but first of all, most of the current builds run "only" 2 Duress, so the chances to be able to cast one in the first 2 turns in really low. I am also running "only" 2 Leaks in its place but the fact that I can create "tempo loss" from countering this same Draw7 or whatever is needed is too good not to do. If that same player have the 3 more manas available, what is the problem since the spell he would resolve will cost all the mana he needed to get his combo out (of course, it depend upon the spell that is being played, if it's a KEY spell like Y-Win or whatever which is a "must to be counter" card, I would rather prefer to use a Mana Drain or FoW here)
Adressing the Mana Leak issue, first of all, yes Hulksmach doesn't want to counter EVERY spell he meets, he just want to counter every REAL threat he meets and Leak is here for this purpose.
Going second isn't a problem at all as Duress would have the same effect except that I still will be able to counter the next threat that will be caste as no one is keeping 3 "free" manas to play any spell except Controle, right? This is why I told that Leak could be, in this example, be a good card in a counter war, these are the only matchups were Duress could be better than Leak.

2) Mana Leak Issue

I only cut 1 moxen from my build to support the LD and the fact that I am still running 6 0cc mana artifacts with the lands I already run let me play an early Leak without any problem. So a Turn 1 Welder can be fought with it whereas this isn't true with Duress.

I don't see the reason why you tell me Mana Drain is sooo good as I still run them with the Mana Leaks, I only have to choose when I would like to play a Drain like to gain mana and make my Drawing Engine online or when I don't need that extra mana and only want to counter a threat.
When you tell me that I'd prefer to get a turn 2 Mana Drain, this is in most case right, but this is theorical because as you know, there is like 50% of the current decks that also run land disrupt and with this, you couldn't be able to cast a turn 2 Mana Drain as you would have fetched a dual land to get your first turn Duress active.
With the Mana Leaks, I can fetch or put the basic islands I play on the board without being concerned by a color screw option as I don't run many black spells. THIS can let me play a Mana Drain on turn 2 if needed, or just delay it by one turn while disrupting my opponent manabase depending what deck he seems playing, the board and hand position.

3) The Land Disrupt.

As you stated, this was already discussed on TMD and it was some months ago before the release of Darksteel which let us discover decks like Slavery, T1 Modular or 3Sphere decks like TnT or Stax.
Against Workshop.dec, I already run a maindeck Gorilla Shaman and many answers in side via Cunning Wish, but in the first game, this is like "nothing" and lets your opponent lock you so easily that you, most of the time, move to game 2 in order to get a chance to fight for real.
I know that against these decks you have to combo out as soon as possible but this has been proven to me that isn't always the best way to go as certain threat they throw to you are really annoying.
LD let you fight these threats by denying the opponent "dangerous" colour or ludicrous lands like Bazaars and Workshop/Tolarian or LoA.

I already told this in my first message, this build is made to beat my metagame and not an "ideal" metagame this is why I made the dead end on Dragon and Rector Trix but LD is pure gold against Dragon as it deny his player great drawing engine + the possibility in the same time to discard his key spells.
LD plus the counters in backup let me play in the way I only have to fight some threats like Xantid Swarms but the ones who splash Green (not many of them) or Compulsion for example (+ reanimation if my opponent could throw some Dragon in his grave before my LD went on). After game 1, I can side in 2 Blue Blast and still have any cunning wish which can be a Snuff Out and these help me much even if Coffin Purge would be better in addition to 1 Blue Blast for example.

I agree with the fact that running LD to stop red against Slavery is not relevant as this is intended to fight Welders and Gorilla Shamans are better for this but I "only" run 1 maindeck (like most of the builds) and this means you are a bye for them on game 1? No you aren't but with the LD I also run, I'm more than even against them in game 1, I can deny his Workshop in a Slavery Build or Volcanic Island/Shivan Reef in an Enslaver build which lets me be able to fight in an easier way their threats after this.

The LD also make my Leaks better, this wasn't made in this way in the first tries but it is synergistic.

4) 3th Island's place and why.

I already answered about the Islands'place in the deck as I prefer to drop a turn 1 and/or 2 basic Island in order not to be disrupted by my opponent as I can do it without any Duress in MD.
But against Blood Moon or B2B, this one more island is far from useless.
As JP Meyer stated, we can sometime plat around Blood Moon or even B2B because we had enough basics or moxen in play. But this isn't true all the time these threats are played and they are sometime "must be countered" threats which I can still play around.

5) LoA & Mind TwistIssue

LoA is like a Wasteland "lightning conductor" in all the matchups you adressed before and I really prefer being able to stop THEIR LoA and not lose to it because I didn't got mine than hoping I could get mine online enough time to overwhelm my opponent.

You didn't even adressed the Twist issue but I think I'm true on what I've said in the first post which it is a really good card against Controle decks but I do prefer to be able to combo and kill my opponent when I have the board controle (Twist resolves more than most of the time because you controle your opponent except on a BIG turn 1 for example).

6) Loss of Pernicious Deed for a 4th Wish.

I shall admit that I didn't intensivly tested it but I was always upset to see such a card in every matchup I played before.
I mean by this that playing against 10 land Stompy doesn't require, most of the time a Pernicious Deed as you only have to combo out before he can kill you and this is, most of the time quite easy to do.
The Fourth Cunning Wish let me get and answer to this if I really need but it also let me get my combo in an easier way.

7) Sideboard Issue.

On the other hand, I am more and more thinking about adding a Firestorm in my side as this can deal we several threats (critters) in a same time which I am no more able to do without the Pernicious Deed.

I already told you that I run such a build in my metagame, not an ideal one, and with the Blue Blast and Snuff Out, i'm far from a bye to Dragon (+ the LD), it's not true against TenTrix or any Trix outside which is respresented by less than 1% in my current field.

My conclusions:

I do meet like 4 of 6 matches workshop.dec in my current field (for example, just look at the Paris Top8 Tournament Here) and Oxidize is far from a dead card in these matchups as I can wish for it if I don't have enough ressources in order to stop an early threat and this is still a cunning wish target after siding as I let it in my sideboard.
Fire/Ice is maybe not needed right as it can adress the Maze of Ith like my LD already does, Welders like my Blue Blasts can do and so on, I think this will be the place of the Firestorm (even if FCG isn't that represented in my current field, like Trix)

When I adjusted this Archetype, this was of course intented to raise "bad" matchups and this is what I do with it.

I can tell you that my matchup against Slavery (and any "prison" type deck) raised sooooo much. I played many times against it and it is now so easier to beat than before, this is without comparison.
Against Fish or Landstill, this also raised much by the addition I already made.
Against Dragon, this is the same thing except I decreased this in the final as I removed the Purges out of the sideboard but if I meet way more Dragons in my field, I would only have to put 2 or 3 Purges in my SB, not that hard to do.
The only matchup I didn't raise much is FCG but I don't really see how I could do that because how could I raise EVERY defavorable matchups in a same way? This seems impossible to me.

[Wudil]

After playing in the Lyon's Tournament during last Sunday, I feel more and more confident in my build of ToG.

I will make a little report of my Tournament and explain what has been changed in my MD or SB.

There were 22 people with around 66% of the decks which were full powered.

I started on match one against a really bad Mono Black with horrible kill threats like Spirit of the Night (or Drain Life) being played with Dark Rituals and Basal Thrull... Don't have to say I made a 2-0 with a turn 3 kill in the second game.

During the 2nd match, I met Yann Levet who is the 6th French best player (cf DCI), he also finished 2nd during the last Massa in Italy.
He was still playing a Mono Brown Stacker and this was the first time I really enjoyed the changes I made in my ToG's build where Mana Leak and Wastelands+Strip Mine were Gold.I ended this match with a 2-0 result.

For my 3rd match, I was encountering a "basic" ToG's build with Duresses and no LD at all except the lone Gorilla Shaman.
I finished the first game with a really big hand and a ToG on the board but he also had his ToG and a Pernicious Deed which I am not running. Few turns before, I played one of my 4 Wishes to get a ReB thinking about big counter wars but I was saving it in order to have a removal against his ToG, I declared an attack phase with my own ToG, in response played a ReB on his ToG which resolved, he blew his Deed in order to get rid of my ToG but with all DA already played and the AKs stalling in my hand, I could draw another 7 cards hand with another ToG really fast on the board to get the first game. On second one, I made a little mistake which let me lose the whole game as it was really really close (I sided 2 AKs but still got 2 of them too early and couldn't keep them in hand...). We finished the 3rd game with a Draw but I only needed 1 more turn to win the match, this was really close. The LD and Leaks were also awesome in this matchup.

In Match 4, I met a Landstill well played by a friend of mine and even with the Wastelands.
I ended with a Draw and needed 2 more turns to get the win... Was really close but I made some playing errors like forgetting the Firestorm as a wish target which would have let me win the 2nd game and the whole match.

In the 5th Match, I met Damien Levet, Yann's twin and who is a really good deckbuilder (who is the 7th best French player just after his brother) who was playing a new Mono Brown combo deck with Ashnod's Altar + Myr Retriever and  Junk Diver + Genesis Chamber and some disrupt like Duress (which could have been changed for Cabal Therapy on my advice) and 3Sphere. This wasn't an easy match and again, the additions of LD and Leaks were really good here. I ended this match with a 2-1 result.

With 3 Win and 2 Draws, I was 3rd player in the Top8.

I met a weird Mono Blue build played by a really good player which was really annoying (with Arcane Laboratory and Iso Scepter + B2B).
The first game was sooooo long, I ended this one by losing it due to 8 burns made by my 2 Drains in his turn whereas I should have killed him on the turn after his. The game after that one was also close but I tried to change my way of playing this (Controle) by droping turn 1 and 2 2 Togs which killed him. The 3rd and last one was quite easier as I went in combo like in the 5 or 6th turn after being able to play Big AKs protected by ReB and FoW.

In the Semi Finale, I met a TriniStax (played by a member of the Twin's Brothers Levet Team).
In his first turn, my opponent began with 3 moxen + land + Smockestack when I had no FoW in my opening hand, with some wastelands after this, I conceded really fast. On Game 2, Leaks helped me so much without speaking about Wastelands while I let resolved a 3Sphere which was a threat to him (it wasn't expected by him). I put a really fast Tog on board and killed him quite fast. On Game 3, I maybe should have mulliganed my hand in order to try and get a FoW as he began with a first turn Sphere of Resistance which was followed by Strip Mine on my Island and Wasteland on my Underground Sea, I still had a Mana Crypt on the board and Intuition in hand (which I drew on turn 3) but I couldn't get a land and he dropped a really fast Karn, this was the end.

The Finale wasn't played by the TriniStax's player and Yann Levet as they were in the same team, they splitted the Beta Mox Ruby and the second price...

I ended in the 3rd place of this tournament which isn't that bad for a so long travel (thanks to my friend Serge Metz)

I will finally address what I changed to my maindeck and my Sideboard.

I removed a Basic Island to get back the 4th Underground Sea as I thought that the 2 Basic Islands were enough to fight against the opponent's LD. I can't say if this is true to me but I shall make more tests on this.

That's all for the Maindeck.

In the Sideboard, I removed the Artifact Mutation which is often impossible to being played due to the use of 2 splashed colors and added 1 more Rack and Ruin for this slot (was a really good call)

I also removed the F/I for a Firestorm which was in my playtests really good as I don't run the MD Pernicious Deed.

The only cards which wasn't played at all in my SB were Vampiric Tutor (this was the same in Paris'Tournament but I think this can still be really helpful) and the Snuff out as the only GermBus played I knew couldn't come and I didn't met decks like GaT or other Aggro decks.

My current build looks like this:

Wudil's ToG:

Manabase

3 Island
2 Tropical Island
3 Volcanic Island
3 Underground Sea
4 Polluted Delta
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire

Manasources Disrupt:

1 Stripmine
3 Wastelands
1 Gorilla Shaman

Permission:

2 Mana Leaks
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain

Drawers:

1 Ancestral Recall
4 Accumulated Knowledge
2 Deep Analysis

Search/Manipulators/Tools:

3 Intuition
4 Cunning Wish
4 Brainstorm
1 Demonic Tutor

Brokeness:

1 Time Walk
1 Yawgmoth's Will

Kill:

3 Psychatog

Sideboard:

2 Rack and Ruin
1 Berserk
1 Firestorm
3 Red Elemental Blast
1 Fact or Fiction
2 Blue Blast
1 Pernicious Deed
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Gorilla Shaman
1 Oxidize
1 Snuff Out

I hope that people will test my version before telling this is a bad one just because it doesn't seem good in theory to them and will not make other posts with my ideas like Paradigm and my change of the maindeck Pernicious Deed for the 4th Wish (2 days later).

[onelovemachine]

After going to a tournament this weekend for a lotus/ pearl I felt the need to hop on Tmd and look around for anyone who shared a couple of my opinions on the deck I played: Hulk.  I found it  . I don't know if anyone even reads this forum any more but here are my thoughts.

  Now, I don't agree with everything you have here Wudil, but I don't  agree with everything Smennen (sorry if I'm spelling this name wrong) says either... truth is my build looks a little like yours:

Mana//

4x Polluted Delta
4x Underground Sea
3x Volcanic Island
2x Tropical Island
2x Island
1x City of Brass
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Mox Jet
1x Mox Ruby
1x Mox Emerald
1x Sol Ring
1x Black Lotus

*Notice no crypt... and no LoA? am I stupid? maybe.... but I decided that this deck was not designed to combo in the way the more recent tog builds like Smennen's do. I'll explain more later.

A little land destruction//
1x Strip Mine
1x Wasteland

I try harder every day to find room for at least a second waste but I can't justify cutting anything right now.  I realize one is not enough..."it's four or zero."

Counter&Disrupt//
4x Force of Will
4x Mana Drain
2x Duress
1x Mind Twist

Draw&Search//
4x Accumulated Knowledge
4x Brainstorm
2x Intuition
2x Deep Analysis
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Mystical Tutor
3x Cunning Wish

Amazing Goodies//
1x Yawgmoth's Will
1x Gorilla Shaman
1x Pernicious Deed
1x Time Walk

Win//
3x Psychatog

Sideboard//
3x Red Elemental Blast
2x Null Rod
1x Artifact Mutation
1x Rack and Ruin
1x Pernicious Deed
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Blue Elemental Blast
1x Fire/ Ice
1x Coffin Purge
1x Berserk
1x Fact or Fiction
1x Terminate

  There she is and here's my thoughts.  I could never justify cutting mystical; it is restricted for a reason: it gets will and last I heard will was a pretty good card.  I do, however, realize the argument that it isn't good in tog is valid, it does provide some card disadvantage compared with another intuition or a gush.  It is true, I did not play gush.  Gush, 2nd Monkey and 3rd duress were all cards I wanted to play but justified cutting.  I only had 2 intuition because again, I didn't think that the build would be fast enough considering I wanted to play slightly more control than usual and I did not play deep in the board so intuition #3 didn't make it.  The City was an interesting choice that I appreciated a lot.  I was never sad to see it because it is tropical #3, Volcanic #4, and Underground #5 all in one.  

  I tried to metagame heavily for the Hulk Mirror and Exalted Control which is why terminate shows up.  In my testing it was the best card to swat down an exalted save for snuff out.  I just happened to choose terminate because it can hit a tog if need be as well.  I realize that not playing library and metagaming for those decks is an oxymoron, but playing two land destruction cards I was never afraid of seeing an enemy LoA or Maze of Ith.  The land destruction proved to be a better call than LoA against aggro and workshop based decks as well.  Strip mine and wasteland won me games against FCG, Tnt, Slavery and Modular Aggro.

My swiss went 5-0-1 because in the last round my opponent wanted to play it out. Ironically, I knocked him out because of it.  I played against random.dec, Tnt, FCG, Modular Aggro, (ID with the slavery deck I beat later in top 8), and then weird stax/slavery hybridness in that order.  The field consisted of 10 workshop decks including Tnt, Modular, Slavery, and weird slavery Stax; two "keeper" one of which was good 4cc Exalted Control (I expected so many more), one Hulk--Smennen's List, one Belcher Combo and plenty of other type 1 tier 2 decks that you would expect but strangely enough NO draw seven.  Fifty some players in all.

I agree with your statements on the lack of duress's usefulness at times.  It definitely sucks against aggro and slavery, but because it is such a bomb against control, mirror and combo I kept it.  I like the mana leak idea.  It was criticized because it wasn't good on turn 2, but sometimes.... neither is duress.  Duressing first turn is almost equivalent to leaking first turn.  The thing is duress is still good against plenty of decks later in game whereas leak is not necessarily.  It is still an interesting choice and option that I may actually consider in the future.  If another card you think of could fit in this place please reply and let me know.

As far as Land Destruction being the wrong way to go.... It is a frame of reference we are talking about here.  I believe that the reason Land Destruction is understood to be bad is that Hulk is understood to be combo.  Well, the decklists floating around right now ARE combo and don't benefit from land destruction, but I for one agree with that guy Eastman who says he believes Hulk's strength lies in its ability to be both.  My deck is very controllish but it comboed off just fine against FCG in game one.  The funny thing is, Smennen's Hulk list did not top eight because it lost to the same FCG player I beat.  Hulk player's board had an LoA on it in all three games.  Do you know what it did? It made colorless mana.  My waste killed a taiga on turn three bringing my opponent down to a mox and another taiga... winning me the game.  I don't know whether or not that Hulk player was any good because I myself did not play him.... but he looked like he knew what he was doing at least from the few turns I was watching.

I realize you can win with bad cards in a good deck and Hulk is a VERY good deck that can win with terrible cards like mystical tutor in it or even wasteland and strip mine but I would like to hear anyone's thoughts on the deck, good calls, bad calls and matchup analysis.

[cssamerican]

I will start by first posting my build with some comments, so everyone can see what I play and understand where I am coming from. And a lot of the comments will be on card choices that are being discussed here, and some of them are being discussed on other threads as well.

Lands - 17
4 Underground Sea
3 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
2 Volcanic Island
2 Tropical Island
2 Island
1 Library of Alexandria

I run six fetchlands because of their synergy with Brainstorm, the ease of getting the right color mana when I need it, and because the deck doesn't require green or red mana to be available turn after turn. This configuration also makes it quite easy to get a basic Island when needed, which I find important in the 4cControl match and against any deck that runs Blood Moon.

The strip effects can be great; however, I would rather my opponent to be forced to answer me. This is the one reason why I think Hulk-Smash is the best control deck in Type 1. Not only can it control the stack; it also puts immense pressure on your opponents to stop you now. This is why I think playing the Library of Alexandria is better than playing Strip Mine, it forces you opponent to stop you instead of the other way around. Is this always the best strategy? Probably not, but I would argue in most cases it is the better to way to design and play this deck.

Acceleration - 7
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire

Sol Ring wasn't horrible, in fact it was exceptional in those situations with one Mox and a Sol Ring for acceleration; however, in all the other hands its just not that good. On low accelerated hands in just sat in my hand because turn one I would rather play Duress, turn two I wanted to keep two blue mana sources open for Mana Drain. So it didn't hit play until turn three, not bad mind you, but not exactly optimal. With heavy accelerated hands I would have rather it been a draw spell then another form of acceleration. Later in the game mana isn't that big of an issue and I would prefer card draw 99% of the time.

Disruption - 11
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
3 Duress

In testing I really didn't care for the Gorilla Shaman. In most cases I would prefer to use my mana to draw more cards, rather than to disrupt my opponents mana base. Most games, all I found my Mox Monkey doing is beating down for 1 life a turn, hardly deserving of a maindeck slot. However, I do realize its value against Goblin Welder decks, but I'd soon take my chances game one and side in Ground Seal game two.

Mind Twist more or less missed the cut due to space issues, if the maindeck was sixty-one cards Mind Twist would probably be that card. But as it is I choose to run three copies of Duress for added consistency.

Speaking of Duress, I feel that is a superior form of disruption in Hulk-Smash when compared to Mana Leak. While Mana Leak does give you a tempo boost when you opponent walks into it, it doesn't provide you with any else. What I mean is you removed a threatening spell from your opponent's hand, but you have gained absolutely no insight as to what else your opponent is holding. Therefor, your play is going to be less informed and more speculative for the remainder of the game. This is the one aspect of Duress most often forgot for some reason, you get to counter a spell before they play it and you get to see all of the cards they are holding. This lets you play a much better game since you are not playing blind. I believe the saying is “Knowledge is Power�.

The Rest of the Deck - 25
4 Accumulated Knowledge
4 Brainstorm
3 Cunning Wish
3 Intuition
3 Deep Analysis
3 Psychatog
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Gush
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Time Walk

I started running three Deep Analysis in testing after adding the third Intuition and fell in love with them. They are great against control in general, and are utterly amazing in the mirror.

I really don't like Mystical Tutor, you already have four tutors than can get Yawgmoth's Will into your hand, so I believe in a deck this tight that slot can be put to better use.

The only card here that I sometimes find myself sitting on the fence with is Gush. Mainly because a lot of games it just seems like a win more card; however, every once in a while you play a game where Gush is the sole reason why you won, and it is those games that keeps it in my deck.

Sideboard – 15
1 Artifact Mutation
1 Berserk
1 Oxidize
2 Ground Seal
2 Pernicious Deed
1 Coffin Purge
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Terminate
1 Firestorm
2 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Deep Analysis
1 Fact or Fiction

After a lot of testing I believe Deep Analysis is a better strategy to fight other control deck when compared to the Red Elemental Blast strategy. For one it is not conditional, in the 4cControl match-up, Red Elemental Blast suck, because they can't prevent your opponent from drawing cards via Skeletal Scrying. With Deep Analysis your basically looking at your opponent saying lets see if you can draw more cards than me, and in most cases they can't. This leads to you gaining control of the game in which of course leads to you winning the game. And in the mirror match they allow you to draw cards without dropping a bunch of Aks in the yard for your opponent to feed off.

I prefer Ground Seal as a way to combat Goblin Welder based decks rather than Gorilla Shaman because it can also double as Dragon hate. Additionally it has the side effect of making Duress very good in the Slavery match-up, which might be one reason I have a difficult time understanding people malcontent for Duress.

The only other anomaly in my sideboard is Terminate; however, I am wondering how long it will be such a rare occurrence in Hulk sideboards now that 4cControl is gaining in popularity. I would have probably used Snuff Out if I ran Red Elemental Blast in the board, but since I don't I needed a card that took out both Angles and Togs so this seems like the best solution.

Wudil, after looking at your build and reading your comments, I am surprise you just don't play 4cControl. Please don't take that as some type of flame, it just seams like it would fit your play style better than Hulk-Smash. I say this because you seemed much more focused on reacting and stopping your opponents than putting pressure on them. To me that is the quintessential difference between you build and mine, your build is more focused on reacting to what your opponent does, and mine is more focused on making my opponent react to me. And I would say that your build accomplishes the role you designed it for quite well, but at this point I think you have to compare its effectiveness with 4cControl rather than with the more traditional Hulk-Smash deck. And since I don't play 4cControl I can't give a fair evaluation as to which one can play this style of Magic better.