[Deck] Cadav-something

[laughoverlunch]

First of all, I would like to state I'm on no team and my area's metagame is undeveloped, as I live in Florida, and there is virtually no Type 1 scene. So, I present this deck under the pretenses of very little testing of top-tier decks, which is why I bring it to this community. I believe that everyone here could help alot more than those in my area, and even if to say what scrap my deck is. Without further ado:

Cadav-something (60 cards)

// disruption
4 Duress
3 Unmask (just started testing and is a life saver)

// random draw / tutoring
4 Brainstorm
1 Gush
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain
1 Necropotence
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Spiral
1 Timetwister
1 Tinker
1 Memory Jar
1 Enlightened Tutor

// yawg's will
1 Yawgmoth's Will

// win
3 Cadaverous Bloom
3 Orochi Leafcaller
2 Braingeyser

// mana
4 Dark Ritual
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
1 Black Lotus
1 Lion's Eye Diamond
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Diamond
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
2 Swamp
2 Forest
2 Island
3 Underground Sea
3 Polluted Delta
1 Windswept Heath

The premise of the deck is to get a quick Cadaverous Bloom out with an Orochi Leafcaller to effectively make the deck 'tick,' if you will. First, you start drawing cards and the extras (lands, dead combo pieces) to make mana. Using the green or black (whichever you make doesn't matter except you must make green at least once to cycle for blue to keep going.) Keep playing out your draw spells until you have accumulated a sufficient amount of mana, and Braingeyser.

You might think, how is this deck better than other combo? Well, see, thats where I need you guys. I understand that posting this without results from testing is frowned upon, but no matter how many times I play against decks on Apprentice, no matter how much I play it out IRL by myself, I never get a grasp for real life situations that may occur.

I am not going to make up stats, because I know that is also deemed as bad around here. So, onto card choices:

Duress/Unmask: They serve the same purpose, and that is to rid my opponent's hand of anything that can hinder me going off. I originally ran only Duress, but when I saw others running Unmask, I decided to test it, and turned out to be a necessary addition.

Standard draw/tutors: No need for explanation except maybe Enlightened Tutor, Gush, and Memory Jar. The tutor is to get a Bloom if you can't seem to find one, Gush is excellent when tapped out and you need mana AND cards, you can just scoop up two islands and gain 4 mana plus two potentially helpful cards. Otherwise, you scored 8 mana. Memory Jar has finally found a safe place in a deck, as it allows you to dump your previous, ungood hand for mana, and draw 7, which you can then use to draw more cards.

Kill: I always wanted to make a combo deck with Cadaverous Bloom, but I always got stuck with a lot of black mana, and not a lot of good black draw spells. (barring Necro/Bargain) I wanted draw now cards, so I splashed blue, and found the problem of not having enough blue to keep going. When the Orochi was printed, I found an out and used it. This allows me to either win with a huge Braingeyser (my choice) or a drain life spell, such as Consume Spirit.

Mana: Auto-include of certain power cards --5mox (diamond include, ruby exclude), lotus-- and Lion's Eye Diamond, which is synergistic with the deck premise, and rituals. ESG I added for the early game green mana added to my low count of green sources, and they can become 2 green later with Bloom.

Now, enough of that, I'm sure the deck is pretty straight-forward. What I would like: Questions (relevant to the deck), comments, and things I should replace. (I would like what to add and what to remove, as this will help me and my growth) and if the overall deck concept is decent at best / good / bad / etc. I would like to point out that my earliest turn kill was turn 3, and playing the deck at least once will not justify it because it can have sub-optimal draws, and does fairly often. (I would say more than other decks because of the CC of some of the cards, and mostly the combo piece.)

Thanks for whatever you can give me in terms of help, and I don't want to look bad at my first real attempt at making my own deck that might be playable in a metagame stuck on dragon and deathlong.
Sincerely,
lol (laughoverlunch)

[Moxlotus]

One of the first things you must address when making a deck is "why is this better than any other deck to play".  I must ask: Why is this better than Deathlong or TPS?

[atwa2002]

First of all, when you want to play discard spells, why don't you play the best one, Mind Twist. It's restricted for a purpose.

Second, I think you need a more stabile mana-base. I would remove white completly and make the deck 3-colours. Removing white would give you 3 empty slots (including Windswept Heath).

If you also remove 2 forests and a swamp and replace them with 2 tropical island and a underground sea, you can fetch al your land with Polluted Delta.

Gush is a really powerful card, try combining it with Fastbond and it turns into a necropotence witch gives you mana, it works in my deck.

If you are having trouble finding your Cadaverous Bloom, adding one single tutor for it won't solve the problem, try to find the most optimal draw engine for this deck. Try experimenting with: Fact or Fiction, Night's Wisper, Accumulated Knowledge, Deep Analysis or something else, there are many good draw spells available in Vintage.

Replacing a braingeyser for a stroke of genius makes your deck more flexibale, since you can respond with it to your opponent. The extra mana is worth it.

These are my toughts on the deck, I'm not a pro, I don't even play tournaments on a regular basis, but I think at least some of tips can improve your deck. Good luck making it at its best and I hope you enjoy to play it.

Niels

[laughoverlunch]

FIrst of all, I did think about why this deck is and is not better for me to play than TPS or deathlong. I weighed my options, and as much as I like winning, I wanted to play something of my own. That said, I cannot give basis as to why others would play this over other combo; personal preference is my answer.

Now, whether or not this will do as good as those is the question, I cannot answer because of what I have stated before. The little testing I have done has proved in favor of me playing this deck, as it does have amazing game sometimes, and other times, I'm very disappointed.

@atwa2002

I don't want to play discard, and thus why I did not choose Mind Twist. Those 7 discard that I do have are protection for my combo, being cheap and effective, while Mind Twist would be clunky and costly here. I do not have the constant card source to pay for a powerful Twist, and mana to go off.

I had thought of removing white completely, except that it was game in a lot of situations. If I did though, it would only be for 2 cards, as I cannot remove the Heath because it is the only way to search for the needed green land. Making it all dual lands would distort games that feature B2B or Blood Moon. (I understand leaving 2 islands and a swamp is not making it all dual, but if they do remove that green source, I'm w/o it.)

So, here it seems:
-1 Mox Pearl
-1 Enlightened Tutor

+1 Fact or Fiction
+1 random card

Fastbond I did not include because the deck was and is really tight at the moment. Until a finely tuned version is compiled where 2 or 3 cards are interchangable, I cannot add it. Even if I did, I forsee the life loss as being too substantial to take full advantage of fetches, necro/bargain, Night's Whisper, if ever include, and Vamp Tutor. All of which equates to a lot of life loss to begin with.

To think of it, FoF hadn't even occurred to me as I'm only playing with cards I have readily available. Acquiring one probably wouldn't prove difficult, but I just didn't have one here.

I'll probably try a Stroke in place of braingeyser.

I appreciate the comments that have been given, and please, realize that with this deck and what I gain from your comments, I use it all and better myself for a real Type 1 scene, someday. Again I say, help a true deck-building newbie out.
-lol (laughoverlunch)

[theorigamist]

FIrst of all, I did think about why this deck is and is not better for me to play than TPS or deathlong. I weighed my options, and as much as I like winning, I wanted to play something of my own. That said, I cannot give basis as to why others would play this over other combo; personal preference is my answer.

As long as you post new decks here, people are going to ask you why you think your deck is better than a similar existing deck.  If what you answered here is ever your answer, you should have posted your deck in the casual forums.

[Necrologia]

Would it help if you replaced the maindeck braingeysers with Cunning Wish, holding a Stroke in the SB? You'll have a little more versatility early game, and once you're going off you have near infinite mana so the extra 2U shouldn't matter.

I don't think the Leafcallers are really needed for color fixing. If you're worried about the first few turns, try Chromatic Sphere. It digs you a card deeper and is a bit more durable than a 1/1 body.