3 color donate / illusions

[Fubar]

Never, ever use city of brass in a deck that lives to abuse bargain.  Each life point you waste is equal to a card, that can lose you many games.  You don't need pernacious deed, or any cool enchantment really, because your gameplan is to win the same way every time, Bargain or illusions.  Adding other cool enchantments (ie. humility, form of the dragon, etc.) dilutes your strategy and will prolong games.
What ive found optimul is:
4 deltas
4 strands
4 seas
4 scrubs
1 tundra
3 - 4 gemstones
1 academy
You have to avoid painlands as much as possible, but the 8 fetches grab you ANY dual you want.  Remember, your first turn play 90% of the time wants a black mana, this is evident by finding that lotus is cracked for black the majority of times.  And you need easy access to white for rector.  The blue spells, while powerful, are there only to assist BW.  While it is true that you will only need white for one purpose, rector, that one purpose is more important to your game than any other.

[LordHomerCat]

Never, ever use city of brass in a deck that lives to abuse bargain.  Each life point you waste is equal to a card, that can lose you many games. 

Ever played Grimlong, or really and 5Color Long variant?  City of Brass is the best 5 color land.  If that is the manabase you desire, City is the best one.

[Purple Hat]

Ever played Grimlong, or really and 5Color Long variant?  City of Brass is the best 5 color land.  If that is the manabase you desire, City is the best one.

this is clearly not true in all decks....while it is true in long variants and a few other places it is, for example clearly false in 5 color dragon or in trix where any card that costs you life points decreases your chances of winning....additionally 21-22 land is clearly way to many in a deck that wants to run rituals, 8-10 artifact mana and other cards...at that point you've only got 24-25 slots to build your deck, and after you include rectors, bargain, therapies and necro you're down to 14 all of which have to be blue in order to ever have any hope of casting force of will or you can scrap force in a combo deck that loses to graveyard hate, enchantment hate, reb, and in many cases life gain.  I think a mana base thats more like:
15 land
4 ritual
8-10 artifacts
is better for this deck as it gives you 31 slots in which to play your engine, tutors, kill and protection and will make the deck run more smoothly and be more explosive.

[chrissss]

I think its going to be like this, although its not final.

mana : 16
4 Gemstone Mine
2 Scrubland
2 Underground Sea
2 tundra
1 Tolarian Academy
4 fetches
1 strip mine

artifacts/rituals: 11

4 Dark Ritual
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
1 Mana Crypt
1 Chrome Mox
1 Mox Diamond
1 Lotus Petal
1 lions eye diamond

combo: 11

4 Academy Rector
3 Illusions of Grandeur
2 Donate
1 Necropotence
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain

disruption: 13

1 Rushing River
4 Force of Will
2 Duress
4 Cabal Therapy
2 stifle
1 balance

drawing: 9

1 ancestral recall
4 Brainstorm
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will


I only have 6 artifacts though, I was hoping for a few more...

once I test it, i will update it here.

[LordHomerCat]

Ever played Grimlong, or really and 5Color Long variant?  City of Brass is the best 5 color land.  If that is the manabase you desire, City is the best one.

this is clearly not true in all decks....while it is true in long variants and a few other places it is, for example clearly false in 5 color dragon or in trix where any card that costs you life points decreases your chances of winning....additionally 21-22 land is clearly way to many in a deck that wants to run rituals, 8-10 artifact mana and other cards...at that point you've only got 24-25 slots to build your deck, and after you include rectors, bargain, therapies and necro you're down to 14 all of which have to be blue in order to ever have any hope of casting force of will or you can scrap force in a combo deck that loses to graveyard hate, enchantment hate, reb, and in many cases life gain.  I think a mana base thats more like:
15 land
4 ritual
8-10 artifacts
is better for this deck as it gives you 31 slots in which to play your engine, tutors, kill and protection and will make the deck run more smoothly and be more explosive.

Dragon is hardly a good example, as it is such a strange situation.  I will concede that City of Brass as your only (red/black/white/etc.) source when you are trying to win is pretty awful.

[chrissss]

I will test it with a lot of veriations of lands.

duals and fetches only, gemstones and duals,bras and duals etc etc etc.

[Fubar]

Purplehat got it right.  This deck can't just be lumped with grimlong, etc.  Every ping will cost you a card in 9X% cases.  When you get into real tight games, you have to carefully manage your fetches + FOW pings as well.  But gemstone is perfect, because when you decide to drop it, you should see yourself going for the kill before three turns are up.  I also caution against using yank like LED & card disadvantage moxes.  This deck performs quite differently unpowered.  You won't see it perform as well as a budget deck.  About half the time when a bargain is on the table you wan't to just drop mad acceleration mox/mox/ritual/etc. and go for the tendrills kill.  Even if you can't kill with tendrills, you gain crazy mad life = crazy number of cards.  Tendrills gives you important lifegain/cards in addition to being a win condition.
Btw, I always run with 4duress for disruption (amazing with the therapies) but how does 2duress/2 stifle perform?

[chrissss]

the 2 duress I lack are annoying when I have a therapy/stifle/rector draw. but it is great against seal of removal, wastelands, strip mines, fetches and so many others.

I am still testing, but stifle has saved my life many times.

and the reason why I dont have the tendrils, is because of lack of Power 9. without the moxen/lotus, tendrils isnt that good anymore. once I get back into playing, ( jo time now during exams) I will test verious of T1 decks, I will see which deck is right for me, and the cards I have.

[Fubar]

But even say, mystical tutor - crap mox - ritual - ritual - tendrills will net you 10 life/cards.
The problem I had with stifle (it found a home in the boards) is that you have to keep mana open.  I found your first plays to be proactive and to be the discarding onslaught, thus requiring black mana on your main phase.  Besides stifle's value drops immensly outside of the early game. 
But yeah, stifling an early fetch is pretty disruptive.

[chrissss]

the stifles can be disruptive in the beginning, and defensive later on. thats why I love them. first turn fetch wich is stifled, and your opponent wont like it. you destroyed a land for .

also, I might try adding 1 or 2 tendrils to my deck, and test with it. see how it is in combo.

[Purple Hat]

This is the most recent successful trix list I could find, I think it was reasonably close to optomal at the time.   I would tend to disagree with the timetwister and possibly the futuresight I also think the lotus petal vs mox diamond debate can get interesting in this deck, one clearly belongs IMO but which one is kind of an open question.  Anyway, I think it was from the march 05 waterbury, but might have been before that.

Brian Phelon
7th Place
Playing Rector Trix

4 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
3 Underground Sea
2 Scrubland
1 Tundra
1 Tolarian Academy
7 SoLoMoxen
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
4 Dark Ritual
1 Lotus Petal
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Force of Will
1 Rushing River
3 Illusions of Grandeur
2 Donate
4 Academy Rector
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain
1 Necropotence
1 Future Sight
1 Timetwister
1 Yawgmoth's Will
4 Brainstorm
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall

Sideboard:
2 Serenity
1 Abeyance
3 Damping Matrix
3 Hurkyl?s Recall
1 Darksteel Colossus
2 Seal of Cleansing
1 Balance
1 Form of the Dragon
1 Tinker

[chrissss]

cheers.

thing is, if I had those cards, I wouldnt be playing trix.
its because of the lack of P9 cards that I choose trix.

so this deck minus the 5 moxen and time walk

is about the deck I will make. I might try future sight, I used to have it in my trix, but the UUU was too much, and now with the reactor its not that bad anymore.

I will try time twister also, since its the only other p9 card I have.

[Fubar]

That list obviously has no duresses.  As for petal vs. diamond, I prefer the petal for setting up my will turn & upping storm.

[Purple Hat]

without power I'd certainly play both diamond and petal...I see trix as a fun deck for non serious tournament play.  Basically it's cool and when it works it's powerful, but it's pretty inconsistent...it's another deck that I might break out for fun at one of the gencon tournaments.

I think not running duress is a good idea.  I wouldn't run stifle either.  I feel like 12 disruption slots is too many and I can get by with 8.

[chrissss]

I got my academy reactors today (god bless ebay) so I can start making the deck.

wont be able to test it for another motnh though.... (stupid town with no magic shops)

btw, without duress and stifle, I have like 4 slots over, what would you recomend?

the good thing about stifle is, that when the combo goes wrong, you can always stifle the "when illusions leaves play, lose 20 life"

thats like 2 cards, 5 mana, 20 life.

[Fubar]

The only reason I would bring the deck to a tournament is the fact that it has the complete sets of duress, therapy, FOW.  The massive amounts of disruption is it's main selling point. 
I don't know if you can stifle the illusions effect.  That is a really, really good question.  Could one of you post the question in the rules forum?  Or search up an answer from archives & show the link.  I know some things like pyhrexian dreadnought can't be stifled. 
I've been playing rector trix for over two years now, that couold change many things for me.

[chrissss]

It can definately be stifled.


I asked it on other forums, and they all said it could.

its not a replacement ability, so its possible. thats why I want stifles in my deck, if the donate would get countered, or I cant find a donate, the stifle is the saviour.


http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=28589.msg420925#msg420925

[Purple Hat]

illusions loses to:
REB
Enchantment hate
Stifle

rector can be stopped by:
stifle
graveyard hate
swords/duplicant

with the bargain when you try to win the game you'll have something like 30 cards in hand....if someone manages to counter donate you've got bigger issues...

also....countering donate is such a bad way to stop trix that it has actually become a common metaphor for doing irrelevant things to slow down a combo deck.

I wouldn't play trix in a tournament with the expectation of winning and I wouldn't play duress because I find the deck to be inconsistent so I'd rather be playing tutors/draw in those slots to make the deck run smoother.

[Fubar]

and I wouldn't play duress because I find the deck to be inconsistent so I'd rather be playing tutors/draw in those slots to make the deck run smoother.

But pounding the opponent with maximum discard is the best feature of the deck.  It is what gives it a chance.  And the standard decklists use all tutors, except maybe imperial seal.
You wouldn't want to stifle the CIP abillity, because that's what you want.  The stifle would to be on the cumulative upkeep no?

[Purple Hat]

you stilfe the leaves play.

the deck has a chance because of it plays 4x moat, which it plans to drop on turn 2, it only ever has to resolve 1 spell to make winning a formality and it has the ability to put the bargain down on turn 1 or two.  incidentally, show and tell is interesting here because sometimes you'll have a hand with the bargain and show and tell in it and in the words of ben kowal "who's gonna show somethign better than the bargain?"

You can completely decimate your opponent's hand with therapy, and you PLAN to cast it at least twice in every game, this suggests to me that you're going to decimate your opponent's hand anyway so why play duress when you could play draw/tutors/alternate wins?

[Fubar]

The duress isn't necessary, only good.  By all means don't use it if say, your expecting much aggro.  When i'm not using the duresses, I usually prefer to load in more acceleration, ie. diamond, crypt.  Or tuck in a tink/coll in a couple of the slots. 
BTW I run mystical, vamp & demonic.  Imperial seal is the only other option I can see in RectorTrix. 
Sorry dude, I just can't see show + tell  in any capacity.  The only good idea is Bargain, and that is a 1/60.  What else would be worth it?  You could bump into an angel, trike, or any other sort of garbage.  Leave the show+tells for the sneak attack decks.

[Purple Hat]

if you show turn one bargain and they don't show turn 1 posessed portal the game ends and you win....if with your entire deck in your hand you can't find a way to deal with angel or trike you built your deck wrong.

[Fubar]

But because you only have one bargain, you'll end up seeing show+tell more often than the bargain.  You would need something else that benefits from the card.  Rector is the only thing I could see that would work.  Artifact acceleration makes no sense, Illusions without the donate is horrible, and everything else is instant/sorcery.  Maybe if the deck had a Memory Jar.  Most shop decks will take you to town with a show+tell. 
Besides, don't be that concerned with having a first turn bargain.  When you play the deck millions of times you get a feel for how many times you get ritual > necro.

To throw out a new idea, i'm going to try testing Phyrexian Tower in the deck.  I hate using a colourless land in RectorTrix, but since i've cut balance to the board, I miss my extra sac. outlet.  Besides, two B mana when bargain joins the party might be a grand idea.