Budget Doomsday (more budget than Meandeck Doomsday)

[Ephraim]

Before I even post the decklist, I will preface the discussion by preemptively answering the question, "How could a deck be more budget than Meandeck's build?" Simply put, Meandeck's build contained Underground Seas. I only own one of them and they're beyond my grasp, at present. If you're of the opinion that a Vintage deck cannot be considered competetive without dual lands, I encourage your to stop reading and to look elsewhere.

This deck is essentially a hybrid of some of the new ideas that have arisen since Doomsday was unrestricted and some of the old ideas that were proposed in the discussion about Easter Tendrils, another budget deck that used Helm of Awakening with  Odyssey's "eggs", Chromatic Sphere, and Conjurer's Bauble to set up a large chain of draws and free card plays to generate a lethal storm count. That deck failed because the infrastructure required far too many of the "easter eggs" to include any sort of protection, in the form of Force of Will or Duress. Furthermore, it was incredibly prone to stalling. It was not, however, a total waste of time. The deck was not good enough, but nor was the principle behind it entirely incorrect.

Shortly after Doomsday was unrestricted, I noticed a deck called "Doom Bauble," which proposed to win by setting up an "infinite" cycle of Conjurer's Baubles (possible with Helm of Awakening, if they're the only two cards left in the library) in the presence of Disciple of the Vault. At the time, it didn't even occur to me to match this infinite cycle with Tendrils of Agony. Recently, however, after the infamous Beacon of Destruction kill was created, I noticed this interaction and started devision a deck that would utilize this stack, instead (top to bottom):

Ancestral Recall
Black Lotus
Tendrils of Agony
Conjurer's Bauble
Conjurer's Bauble[/list:u]Of course, this stack would only work if there were already a Helm of Awakening on the table -- a weakness of this deck that I'll address in a moment.

The resulting decklist is actually very similar to that proposed by Smmenen, with a few key differences that I will discuss. (Note that this deck was developed without having previously seen any other full Doomsday build)

Win Conditions (2)
1 Beacon of Destruction
1 Tendrils of Agony

Miscellaneous Brokenness (2)
1 Mind's Desire
1 Yawgmoth's Will

Disruption (4)
4 Duress

Draw / Tutor (15)
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Brainstorm
3 Night's Whisper

1 Demonic Tutor
4 Doomsday
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor

Easter Eggs (11)
4 Chromatic Sphere
4 Conjurer's Bauble
3 Darkwater Egg

Mana Acceleration (14)
1 Black Lotus
2 Cabal Ritual
4 Dark Ritual
4 Helm of Awakening
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring

Land (12)
2 Ancient Tomb
4 Gemstone Mine
4 Glimmervoid
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Undergound Sea

Advantages (This vs. Meandeck Doomsday)

1. Eight 5-lands make possible a diverse sideboard (obviously, I've not yet built the sideboard, but Xantid Swarm is probable)
2. Eleven "easter eggs" make it relatively easy to draw into Ancestral Recall on the same turn one casts Doomsday
3. Tendrils of Agony win condition does not require Tendrils to be in the Library -- if Doomsday is cast with Beacon of Destruction in hand, it is necessary to use Brainstorm to put it back into the Library, where Mind's Desire can get at it.
4. Having Dark Rituals, Cabal Rituals, excess mana, and/or Conjurer's Bauble in play/hand allows one to substitute Duress for Black Lotus or Conjurer's Bauble, providing protection even after casting Doomsday. Beacon build can do this too, but all of the cards in its stack are singletons with no replacements in the deck.
5. This deck can win, or at least provide itself with more time, without Doomsday.[/list:u]

Disadvantages (This vs. Meandeck Doomsday)

1. This build is much lighter on disruption. Meandeck Doomsday packs 4 Duress, 4 Unmask, and 4 Force of Will
2. This build requires more infrastructure to execute. It's dead without Helm of Awakening.
3. This deck is susceptible to more hate. Null Rod, graveyard removal, and timely counters all beat it.[/list:u]

[That0neguy]

If the only problem is that you do not have underground seas/only have 1 run more fetchlands ive been considering dropping 2-3 seas from mine for 2-3 more basics for more mana stability(however im probably just going to leave it at 3-4).

But if the duals are the only problem throw in more fetches.  Don't go to a completly different deck that is worse.

EDIT:  do that or throw in a couple underground river as well they are ussually around 5 dollars but might be slightly inflated currently due to the ext season going on right now (but still resonan=ble probably)

[Ephraim]

With only one Underground Sea in the deck, any fetchlands are risky, simply because after I get the Sea, the fetchlands become pretty useless. You are correct that I could run basic lands and still uses fetches. However, I am not unhappy with the mana base -- I've merely noted that if it is unusual, it is the product of my lack of Underground Sea. I like that I will be able to run solutions of any colour in my sideboard and aside from the deck thinning that fetchlands generate, there's nothing bad about my selection of lands. In playtesting (which has been, I admit, somewhat limited), I've never had the life cost of Ancient Tomb cost me a game or a Gemstone Mine run out prematurely.

Furthermore, I'd like some justification that Meandeck Doomsday is all that much better than my build. I'm not saying that it is or is not. If it is, however, I'd like somebody to refute the advantages I posted or at least to discuss why the disadvantages are much more significant than the advantages.

[That0neguy]

What i would do is run these lands if i only had 1 sea

1 sea
4 polluted
4 mire
2 island
3 swamp

thats inreplace of the fetch lands and such  The tomb will slow you down a turn since you are slower to get a doomsday down w/o ritual.

[Ephraim]

It probably would have behooved me to go through my list and clarify my choices for some of the less mainstream cards. Ancient Tomb allows me to cast and activate the numerous artifacts in the deck without tapping into my coloured-mana sources. It is inconsequential that it prevents me from casting Doomsday without a Ritual because in playtesting I have never cast Doomsday except with a Ritual. In particular, it allows me to cast a first-turn Helm of Awakening. Now, I concede that first-turn Helm can hurt me more than it helps me in Vintage -- especially against other combo decks. On the other hand, it is one play that can really increase this deck's chances at a second-turn victory. Any egg-like artifacts in my hand become free card draws on the following turn, it turns Cabal Ritual into a better Dark Ritual, and Night's Whisper draws two cards for .

Now, it would still be possible to keep two Ancient Tombs and replace the remaining ten lands with

1 Underground Sea (2 if I use my remaining proxy slot)
4 Polluted Delta
1 Bloodstained Mire
2 Swamp
1 Island (2 if I don't use my remaining proxy slot on Undgerground Sea)[/list:u](Note that you suggested fourteen lands, where my deck only has space set aside for twelve. If you have a suggestion for what I ought to remove to make room for the additional lands, I'd like to hear that, too.) The basic lands would, presumably, give me stronger matchups versus Wasteland and Back to Basics, but I am concerned that the lack of multi-colour functionality would hinder the deck significantly. Obviously, acquiring Underground Sea is the optimal solution, but at present, I am not certain that it benefits the deck to switch to basic lands. (Note that using Underground River, which I possess, would only be appropriate if I found myself consistently depleting my Gemstone Mines, which I do not.)

[LotusHead]

Other than the Doomsday angle (I don't own any), this build is very close to my "Dumb Storm" deck, originally designed as a place to keep all of my type 1 goodies that were not in my real T1 deck.  

Land-10
4 Underground Sea
4 Polluted Delta
2 Gemstone Mines

Waycool Accellerents-7
4 Dark Ritual
3 Cabal Ritual

More Budget Accellerants-7
1 Lion's Eye Diamond (weak)
1 Lotus Petal
1 Grim Monolith
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
1 Mox Diamond
1 Chrome Mox

Easter Eggs-9
4 Darkwater Eggs
3 Chromatic Spheres
2 Conjuerer's Baubles

Broken, even in budget:- 4
Yawgmoth's Will
Mind's Desire
Necropotence
Yawgmoth's Bargain

Kill-4
4 Tendrils of Agony (I'm a wuss. 4 Maindeck.)

Stuff that makes winning without a plan easier: 4
4 Helm of Awakening

More T1 Dumb Stuff-6
4 Brainstorm
2 Serum Visions (no real power in this deck, so Serum Visions for now)*

Even more Restricted T1 Dumb Stuff-9
Demonic Consultation (YES! 4 Tendrils/Rituals/Brainstorm Maindeck!)
Demonic Tutor
Gush
Wheel of Fortune
Vampiric Tutor
Diminishing Returns (lost me 1 game out of maybe 50)
Deep Analysis (a common? weird.)
Windfall (weak, but great after a Draw 7)
Time Spiral (uhh... I own one, so it's in the deck)

Sideboard:
3 Xantid Swarms
12 other cards

* Serum Visions is actually quite good in this deck, considering that most card say Draw a Card or Three, or Put Mana in your pool; That, and the Scrye for 2 with ll the cantrips.  I use this deck (of leftover cool cards, hence not Moxen etc) as a training deck for the local players (they love Kobolds too...).  Basically, the point is, when it comes to cantripping, the moniker is "who knows WHAT you will topdeck". Usually, the topdecked card says draw a card or get some mana.

This build can win turn 1, without Helm of Awakening.

The point?

Well, showing this list in Newbie, and...

Serum Visions may be better than Night's Whisper (or Mystical Tutor) in your build.

Good Luck!

[Ifflejink]

Considering all of this decks weaknesses, 4 Duress simply doesn't seem like adequate disruption. A control deck may well be able to draw into two disruptive cards, and then there's always the omnipresent Trinisphere from Workshop decks. Even other combo decks have more disruption than you. The decks succeptability to disruption, I think, is it's biggest weakness, and one that needs to be shored up.

[Ephraim]

If the deck requires more disruption, I can look into the possibility of adding 3-4 counters to the deck. I will probably be attempting to use Memory Lapse or Mana Leak. I definitely don't have enough blue cards in the deck to justify using Force of Will myself. If my opponent is using Force of Will, there's a good likelihood he or she doesn't have available, which makes Mana Leak favourable. On the other hand, Memory Lapse can buy me a turn no matter how much mana my opponent has. In any case, I would opt for one of those rather than for Counterspell proper, because both of them cost just under Helm of Awakening.

I have to identify which cards in the deck are most expendable. Mystical Tutor can definitely be pulled and three copies of Brainstorm is probably sufficient (in the absence of Fetchlands, it is good, but not absurdly so.) I think the next best card to remove is probably Darkwater Egg.
Summary:
-1 Mystical Tutor
-1 Brainstorm
-1 Darkwater Egg

+3 Mana Leak OR Memory Lapse

That said, having looked over the deck, I have realized that I don't actually have all that many blue cards. One of them, at least, is critical, but it may be possible for me to change the manabase a little bit to give myself some basic lands and some Fetchlands. Instead of what I currently have, the following might adequately meet my mana requirements, while giving me the "tightness" that fetchlands provide. If I were to use this manabase, however, I may wish to reconsider removing a copy of Brainstorm, above.

2 Ancient Tomb
2 Underground Sea
4 Polluted Delta
3 Swamp
1 Island

[Bakes]

Meandeck Doomsdeck used the FoW, Duress's, and Unmask's to protect their spells, without them this deck is flat-they are a need.

[giddygorgon]

The problem with this deck is that if they go Shop mox Jugz, you completely lose.  They will thank you for casting doomsday and then just beat you down for 2 turns for the win.  Just something to consider.

[Ephraim]

That isn't strictly true. I'm definitely more afraid of Shop, Trinisphere (or even Sphere of Resistance). Fast aggro is an annoyance but because this deck can execute a win on the same turn that it casts Doomsday, I'm not particularly afraid of strategies that count on me passing the turn in order to beat a Doomsday deck. If I have a Chromatic Sphere on the table and one mana of any colour available to me (and Helm of Awakening in play, obviously), I can pop the Sphere for , draw Ancestral and go off. That, by the way, is another advantage this deck has over other Doomsday builds. If I've set up my Helm of Awakening beforehand, I don't need anything except that first blue mana to go off. The rest of the stacK: Black Lotus, Tendrils of Agony, Conjurer's Bauble, Conjurer's Bauble pays for itself.