[Deck] Blue Balls FTL (built for SCG Richmond)

[thorme]

I recently discovered that due to personal reasons, I will not be attending the Star City Power 9 tournament in Richmond this weekend.  Therefore, I'm posting my decklist which I had prepared specifically for this event.


Decklist is coming, but first a very brief background.  Last year, while Meandeck was working on their Tendrils deck, Short Bus was working on a similar deck (in fairness, ours never was a finely tuned).  However, during this era, 3Sphere was dominating all events in Richmond, and Workshops were always big here.  Shortbus's tendrils deck, despite having a good percentage of turn 1 kills, and a great percentage of turn 2's, rolled over and died to prison and control decks packing chalice.  To combat this, I came up with a combo deck based on basic lands, virtual immunity to artifact prison components, and that contained FoW.  In today's metagame, with prison once again widely-played, and workshops as strong as ever in Richmond, I was planning to play to following deck this weekend.


Blue Balls FTL
========
4 Force of Will

3 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Rebuild
4 Vedalken Archmage
1 Brain Freeze
2 Cunning Wish

4 Chromatic Sphere
4 Conjurer's Bauble
3 Thoughtcast
1 Mind's Desire
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Timetwister
1 Memory Jar
1 Tinker
1 Gush
1 Frantic Search

1 Crop Rotation

7 Solomoxen
1 Lotus Petal
1 Chrome Mox
1 Mox Diamond
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Grim Monolith

2 Tropical Island
4 Fetch
4 Island
1 Tolarian Academy


Sideboard:

1 Rebuild
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Disrupting Shoals
1 Stifle
1 Echoing Truth
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Brain Freeze
2 Mystic Remora
2 Tormod's Crypt
4 Xantid Swarm



Yes, that is Vedalken Archmage in there (don't let it throw you, Sensei Sensei was built around a card costing 1 more that doesn't have as powerful an immediate game-winning impact as this little fella).

The deck is a blast to play.  Once Archmage is in play, winning is simple.  With him out, the H. Recall acts as a Dark Ritual + Super Ancestral in one.  You'll draw your whole deck, Bauble the Ancestral back to the last card and have it ready in case playing against Oath, then Brain Freeze (or wish for the brain freeze if its inaccessible).  Don't forget the Crop Rotation / Academy trick, as it comes up a lot.  If you already have an Academy in play and draw the Crop Rotation, assuming you have a Bauble out, you can get a bunch of mana.  Tap the Academy for blue, play Crop Rotation saccing Academy.  While CR is on the stack, activate bauble targeting Academy....this resolves and puts Academy on bottom, then CR resolves and you get a fresh, untapped Academy into play.

This is a turn 3 to 3 1/2 kill deck.  Not recommeded in a field of control (although you do have game...particularly due to turn 1 Xantid out of the board - also modern control relies heavily on Colossus, which you have a bunch of answers to that they must deal with while also keeping you from going off), but this thing owns Workshops.  It poops out permanents, can sit back and build up and watch as Workshop plays Spheres, Tangle Wires, Smokestacks, Chalices, etc...then simply H. Recall them at their end step and go off during your turn.  Opposing combo decks will need to deal with your Brain Freezes, Stifle, Remoras, FoWs, possibly Crypts, etc.

A couple of cards are up to personal taste.  I spent a lot of time testing out Brainstorm vs Thoughtcast for those 3 spots...both have advantages, and either is acceptable.  The second Cunning Wish could turn into a maindeck bounce spell if you so desire.  The Disrupting Shoals in the board could just as easily be a Misdirection (but again, usually not so hot vs Workshops).


Anyway, thats it.  I've goldfished the deck infinite times, and played a lot of games against Workshops.  Its a ton of fun, has a bunch of suprise value, and is really strong in the right meta.  Enjoy!!

[Grand Inquisitor]

Interesting list.  CTthespian was working on a similar build that ran components of the Sensei engine.  He splashed black for tutors and will, I'm not sure if he had green.  He also had 4x sensei, and at least 1 helm.  They made the deck absolutely crazy with archmage out.  There'd be sequences where he'd drop a sensei's top as his last card, and chain it into drawing his whole deck.  I'm not sure why it never got into a big tournament, but part of it was that you had to expend a lot of your artifact drops in order to power out the archmage.  This list seems to cirvumvent that some, but I think Sensei may deserve a few slots taken by bauble.

[thorme]

I actually had Tops in my initial list and wasn't very impressed.  However, that was many iterations ago, and the list has changed quite a bit, so you're right, its probably time to give them another go.  I'd start with taking out Tinker/Jar and a Bauble for 3 Tops for testing.

The current list doesn't have a problem winning once the archmage is out - as explosive and fun as helm is, I can't see putting it in a combo deck that is built for turn 3.