Strange Synergy

[Jacob Orlove]

This deck began as a bunch of old mirage cards (granger guildmage, wildfire emissary), plus Thornscape Battlemages. Whenever I build causla decks, then tend to be a billion colors, which means a lot of duals. To compensate, I'm running the mirage fetchlands. Also, instead of running "unfair" moxes, I'm running additional Sol Rings. No one seems to mind. Eventually, I added Isochron Scepters, because they were just sitting around, and I wanted to play them in something. I started replacing the bad creatures with cool ones, and added stuff like mystic snake to the deck. Then, I remembered suggesting Crystal Shard to Windfall, for his Fleetfoot Panther deck (as a replacement for the Erratic Portal that I also suggested). He reported positive results with the card, so I added it myself. I refined the card mix, but the deck was still missing something. With the addition of Eternal Witness in fifth dawn, though, I think it's time to play some fun games:

Strange Synergy (because that game is so much fun)
4 Thornscape Battlemage
3 Eternal Witness
2 Mystic Snake
1 Thunderscape Battlemage
1 Duplicant
2 Crystal Shard

3 Raise the Alarm
4 Fire/Ice
3 Impulse
1 Eladamri's Call
2 Swords to Plowshares
3 Isochron Scepter

2 Sylvan Library
2 Pulse of the Fields
1 Savage Twister (savage tech)
1 Bringer of the Blue Dawn (just for fun)

3 Sol Ring
3 City of Brass
2 Flood Plain
2 Grasslands
1 Mountain Valley
3 Tundra
3 Tropical Island
2 Savannah
2 Taiga
1 Bayou
1 Volcanic Island
1 Plateau

That leaves one open slot, which could just be another Eladamri's Call. There might be something else better out there, though--maybe something to help out in the first few turns.

Anyway, it's a blast to play, so I thought I'd share.

[Kowal]

You know what's not in that deck?  Wildfire Emmisary.  h8.

[Jacob Orlove]

You know what's not in that deck?  Wildfire Emmisary.  h8.

Emissary just doesn't do enough, especially when Shard and Scepter start hogging all my mana.

[Ephraim]

It seems to me that the deck may be missing a long term beating. Slith Predator looks like it might fit well into your mana curve. Get it out second turn and then go into control mode for the rest of the game. If you can keep their side of the board clear, which Fire & Ice and Swords to Plowshares are particularly good at doing, you ought to end up with a very large Slith fairly early.

[Jacob Orlove]

Okay, I've decided to adapt this deck to highlander. Unfortunately, that means I'm adding my power cards. Here's an initial skeleton:

Creatures:
1 Thornscape Battlemage
1 Eternal Witness
1 Thunderscape Battlemage
1 Uktabi Orangutan
1 Mystic Snake
1 Gorilla Shaman
1 Exalted Angel

As you can see, all these creatures do more than just attack; they're all card advantage machines. The first 5 have excellent CIP abilities (and can be reused with Crystal Shard) and the last two are capable of neutralizing many of your opponent's cards. You'll notice that I focus on artifact destruction more heavily than anything else--this is because I suspect the highlander metagame will be full of artifacts. Nevertheless, the creatures provide answers to almost any threat, while also beign threats themselves. Still, they will take a few turns to actually win, so I'm considering adding a few more cards to actuall kill the opponent (perhaps a Decree of Justice).

Draw/search:
1 Brainstorm
1 Impulse
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Serum Visions
1 Time Walk
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Night's Whisper
1 Skeletal Scrying

These are pretty much all the good card drawing and filtering spells available (tutors are a separate category). Scry is surprisingly good in highlander, because the cards are so inconsistent. These cards help me refine my draws for greater effectiveness, and to get both enough "bigger" cards and enough lands to cast them. Generally, I'll play at least one of these cards by turn 2.

Answers:
1 Raise the Alarm
1 Fire/Ice
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Force of Will
1 Magma Jet
1 Balance
1 Savage Twister

Since I also have creatures to answer threats, these cards don't need to be so focused--they can serve multiple functions, and, again, often generate card or tempo advantage. Several make excellent scepter targets.

Tutors:
1 Eladamri's Call
1 Tinker
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Cunning Wish
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Living Wish
1 Vampiric Tutor

Seven tutors ensures that I can generally get what I need when I need it--either ancestral early, or a potent spell later on. Eladamri's call is worth it because I have a variety of useful creatures, and it's an instant. Tinker has just enough targets in the next category for me to run it, although it's marginal. The wishes are both great, as I have plenty of SB targets for each.

Bombs:
1 Isochron Scepter
1 Crystal Shard
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Mind's Eye
1 Sylvan Library

These spells all let me generate potentially game-swinging effects--either reusing some particular creature or spell each turn, drawing a lot of cards, or just going broken. The Mind's Eye is a great tinker target, but the Shard or Scepter might be a better call against certain opponents, if you have the right instant or creature. Tinkering out a scepter is hideous card disadvantage, though, so you really have to need it--generally you'll just play scepter when you draw it, as you'll generally have a useful instant to imprint: magma jet, fire/ice, impulse, brainstorm, or raise the alarm are probably the best choices.

Mana:

1 Library of Alexandria
1 Sol Ring
5 Mox
1 Black Lotus
1 Strip Mine
1 Mishra's Factory

1 City of Brass
1 Flooded Strand
1 Polluted Delta
1 Windswept Heath
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Tundra
1 Tropical Island
1 Underground Sea
1 Savannah
1 Taiga
1 Bayou
1 Volcanic Island
1 Island
1 Adarkar Wastes
1 Yavimaya Coast
1 Mirrodin's Core

My two worries with the current mana base are getting WW for exalted angel, and being able to support 3-4 more red/black spells after game one.

SB:
Cunning Wish Targets:
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Artifact Mutation
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Pyroblast
1 Annul
1 Coffin Purge
1 Firestorm
1 Rack and Ruin

I'm not sure so much artifact hate is actually necessary, but I wasn't sure what else to include. Rack and Ruin might be cut for some anti-combo spell, but I don't know what.

Lands:
1 Wasteland
1 Volrath's Stronghold

Being able to remove specific lands is important, but difficult. Both of these can be fetched with Living Wish, but might also be sided in.

Creatures:
1 Cabal Interrogator
1 Masticore
1 Flamtongue Kavu
1 Plaguebearer

These are the rest of the Living Wish targets, and again, all are strong SB choices after game 1.

Other:
1 Chalice of the Void

I'm concerned about combo, since draw7/TPS builds tend to be based mostly on restricted cards anyway--although important elements, like Ritual and Brainstorm, do get minimized when shifted to highlander. Still, combo is the one real weakness of this deck, as most of my cards are focused on board control, rather than reactive permission based control. I'd like more cards here, but I'm not sure what to add or to cut.

[Shabbaman]

Maybe you could add some extra land destruction to slow combo down? Nightscape Battlemage fits the theme, dwarven miner seems good too. Instead of the battlemages you could look into morph creatures with morph triggers.

[Jacob Orlove]

Dwarven Miner seems like a possibility, but Nightscape Battlemage is just too expensive. Maybe I'll SB the Miner and a Blastminer, though.

Morph triggers are just way too expensive to be worth it--morph is only useful in constructed when it lets you cheat on mana costs to gain tempo, and the morph triggers just cost too much for that to happen.

[CCClark]

Man-O-War   heh, I would throw one in just for laughs.   "You didn't like that?  Let's do it again!"

[Jacob Orlove]

New Version! Yeah, I'm playing this in the invitational, but decklists are going public in a  few days anyway, and this is different enough from most stuff that I'm not worried about metagaming.

Strange Synergy
(Highlander)

Creatures (9):
1 Thornscape Battlemage
1 Eternal Witness
1 Thunderscape Battlemage
1 Uktabi Orangutan
1 Mystic Snake
1 Exalted Angel
1 Trinket Mage
1 Wall of Blossoms
1 Wood Elves

Draw/search (8):
1 Brainstorm
1 Impulse
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Serum Visions
1 Time Walk
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Night's Whisper
1 Skeletal Scrying

Answers (7):
1 Raise the Alarm
1 Fire/Ice
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Force of Will
1 Magma Jet
1 Savage Twister
1 Pulse of the Fields

Tutors (7):
1 Eladamri's Call
1 Tinker
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Living Wish
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Burning Wish

Bombs (5):
1 Isochron Scepter
1 Crystal Shard
1 Mind's Eye
1 Sylvan Library
1 Erratic Portal

Mana (24):

1 Library of Alexandria
1 Sol Ring
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Black Lotus
1 Strip Mine
1 Mishra's Factory

1 City of Brass
1 Flooded Strand
1 Polluted Delta
1 Windswept Heath
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Tundra
1 Tropical Island
1 Underground Sea
1 Savannah
1 Taiga
1 Bayou
1 Volcanic Island
1 Island


SB:
Misc:
1 Artifact Mutation
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Pyroblast
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Rack and Ruin
1 Tainted Pact

Burning Wish Targets:
1 Decree of Justice
1 Balance
1 Hull Breach

Living Wish Targets:
1 Wasteland
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Cabal Interrogator
1 Duplicant
1 Flamtongue Kavu
1 Gorilla Shaman

[Matt]

Who the HELL is going to metagame against that?

[Jacob Orlove]

New non-highlander version:

Strange Synergy
4 Thornscape Battlemage
3 Eternal Witness
1 Thunderscape Battlemage
2 Trinket Mage
2 Crystal Shard

2 Impulse
4 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Fire/Ice
2 Swords to Plowshares
1 Vampiric Tutor
3 Isochron Scepter

1 Time Walk
1 Demonic Tutor
4 Force of Will
1 Phyrexian Furnace
1 Burning Wish

Burning Wish Targets:
1 Decree of Justice
1 Balance
1 Hull Breach
1 Timetwister
1 Savage Twister

Mana:
7 Solomox
1 Flooded Strand
2 Polluted Delta
2 Wooded Foothills
1 Windswept Heath
1 Island
1 Tundra
4 Tropical Island
1 Savannah
1 Taiga
1 Bayou
1 Volcanic Island
1 Underground Sea

[rvs]

Oh man, at the next Castricum I should play that deck

*digs through crap-pile of cards*

[Jacob Orlove]

I haven't tested that build yet. I'll probably play a few fun games with it, just to make sure the manabase works. There might be room for a basic forest.