Tyrant Blue Top8's at ELD's

[Harlequin]

Tyrant Blue ----
Proving you don't need Oath of Druids to Unmake the world in his immage

6 Islands
2 Trops
5 Fetches
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Tolarian Academy
5 Moxen
3 Lotus, Crypt, Sol Ring

4 Brainstorm
4 Mystic Remora
4 Meditate
2 Repeal
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Timewalk
1 Jace Baladaewierhasd..

4 Force of Will
4 Misdirrection
3 Mana Drain

2 Show and Tell
1 Tinker
1 Brainfreeze

3 Tidespout Tyrant
1 Dark Steel Colosus
1 Mindslaver

-------------------
Sideboard:
4 Oath of Druids
2 Vedalken Shackles
3 Spell Snares
3 Hurkyls Recall
1 Platinum Angel
2 Tormod's Crypt


Ok here is the quick and dirty Tourny report:

Round 1 -- Ichorid
I get hosed 2 games in a row.  Game 1 I have no hope.
 Out-> all my creatures, some meditates, and 1 remora.
 In -> Crypts, Oaths, Plats, Vedalken Shackles
Game 2 - I don't see any sideboard cards in my 7 or 6 hand.  I opt to keep my 6 hand and lose.

Round 2 -- Stephan with Grow a Goyf.
This match was certainly entertaining. Stephan tells me about how hes just getting over being sick, and how he is in no shape to be playing magic.  He draws his hand and looks at it, and says something to the effect of "When I look at my hand, I don't even know if its good - Its like I don't even know how I did well with this deck .... Keep" 
Game 1: I have an early remora down, and have no problem hitting mox and land drops.  Stephen can't believe I'm playing this deck and comments about how its like hes dreaming.  I EOT repeal my Remora, replay it on my turn, and play Jace.   With remora down, I can safely build up a mighty Jace with the +2 ability.  I think my misdirrection convinses Stephan to Ancestral me.  I drain a Yawg, and go to my turn.  With my drain mana I hardcast slaver, feeding Stephan's insanity.  Next turn I play a fresh remora, kick Jace up another +2 and slave him.  I have him play down his fastbond, gush a ton of times, find DT for Yawg and he scoops... AT this point I have almost 20 cards in hand thanks to remora.

Game2:  I stay in control for a while, in the early~ish game, he Emptys the Warrens for 10, I have shackles in and I steal 1 goblin... but thats not enough to keep me in the game.

Game3:  Stephan decides to keep a no land hand... I start with a good amount of mana and a remora.  I draw into a 2nd remora, let the first die and plant the second and Meditate.  Stephan draws and discards twice.  Next turn I pay for remora and lay tolarian and mediate again.  Soon after I have Jace.  I drain a merchant scroll and hardcast Tyrant.  I repeal a mox, and go infinite with Darksteel and Mindslaver in hand.... Stephan's mind is blown.

Round 3 -- I don't remeber that much.  I think it was Gush-Drain tendrils.  I'm fairly sure he gets a game but I win 2-1. 

Round 4 -- Counterbalance, Confidant, Tarmo, tempo-beats?
Game 1: We fight a few counter battles and I let him duress me.  He has an early confidant + top so he is able to keep up with remora.  He get a 5/6 Goyf down when I'm at 18. I take a hit and 13.  Next turn I fetch and go to 12 and repeal his Goyf.  He replays it.  I brainstorm into Tinker and put DSC back into my deck, his had is mostly depleated.  I tinker in DSC at 12 life facing a 5/6 Goyf.  He can't swing into the DSC so he passes, I can survive the beats so I go ahead and swing for 11.  He draws a card, tops and concedes.
Game 2: He leads with a confidant that resolves, and follows up with a 2nd that I spell snare.  I think this game I lay down an early oath and he counters it, or he duresses it away.  I take some hits for 2, and a combination of counterspells and good luck with his topdecks keep him on the ropes.  With 5 mana up, I use my 2nd main to cast show and tell.  He Forces and I drain.  Tyrant comes in, but I have no mana to do anything but pass the turn.  I have still have a playable force in hand.  He does some top/fetch fun and finds/has his E-truth to bounce my Tyrant.  He duresses away all my cards accept for Brainfreeze.  I draw repeal, and hardcast Tyrant with my 5 colorless from last turn... repeal a mox boucing his only untapped manasource, and win with infinite brainfreeze.

Round 5 -- Oath
I have probably the most insane opener I've ever had with the deck.
It starts off not so great... I have Lotus, Sapphire, Crypt Jace and Mystic Remora no land.  I also have force, MisD and a blue card... either drain or 2nd-MisD.  I keep and play Jace turn 1 and draw a card, It's Medidate.   I cast Meditate, and draw into my land drop play it and drop Remora... passing the double turn with 6 cards in hand 3 of which are pitch-counters and a Remora who will be well fed with mana, and Jace.  He cannot get out from under the mountain of countermagic and I win with Show and Tell for Tyrant, bounce my sapphire, draw my deck with Jace and brainfreeze. 
Game2:  I Don't have an amazing start but Remora keeps me going.  In the mid game he has an oath down but no orchard.  I have remora active at like 3 counters and enough mana to tinker for slaver and activate it if I choose to let remora go.  The turn he finds his orchard I let remora go, and tinker-slave him, and replay a 2nd remora.  Interestly enough he has 2 oaths in play.  I could have double oathed him but I was a fool, and only had him oath once.  He has only jet in play, and draws ponder, no flash of insight.  He ponders, and gets merchant scroll, scrolls for Gush, plays gush and has like 13 cards in hand (after bouncing both his oaths and his tyrant).  I have him play the mox, and hardcast force it, and then end his turn discarding the oaths and the tyrant.  I go to my turn with about 12 cards in hand thanks to remora.  Show and tell for my Tyrant goes in, but I have no playable spells other than 1 Jet (I have like 3 drains and pitch counters.  I opt to hold onto it, incase he trys to cast an oath.. then I'll just play jet and bounce it on my turn.  Tyrant gets in for 5 dmg a turn for next few turns and I win. 

Round 6 - ID into top 8 at X-1-1

Top 8 - Ichorid - craptastic!
Blatently lose game 1... no help from the deck.
Game 2 I have a turn 2 oath (with only plats in my deck), and a turn 3 Shackles.  He has Arbor in play.  I consider that If I can steel his Arbor with shackles then he won't be able to Silence my Oath.  I decide that even though he probably has Silence, I can't afford to wait until turn 3 to play shackles and turn 4 to play oath, and turn 5 to not die... So I drop the oath on my 2nd turn - on the prayer that he doesn't have silence in hand.  He does, Oath gets hosed, and I lose.

So I end the day with 2 loses, both to ichorid, and I have a slew of 2-0 wins in the matches I won.

Final thoughts about the deck:

I need more repeals.  Repeal was absolute gold every time I drew it.  EOT bounce on Remora that is about to die is really really good.  Also I bounced oath, and goyfs, and enabled a starter to my tyrant combo as a playable spell.  I'm considering cutting Timewalk for Repeal.  More testing to come.

If your opponent is playing a control-combo deck... The deck is nearly unbeatable - even on the draw!  Every game I felt rock-solid.  Anything that resolved only resolved because I let it.  I was always looking at a fist full of counters.  I was actually disapointed sometimes because I planed out a big counterwar; played show and tell and it just resolved! With the deck running so many 4-ofs It's consistantly drawing the same solid hands every game.

I need more Ichorid Hate.  And probably less creature hate.  Shackles along with 1 oath will probably become something more graveyard-hate focused... not sure what yet.  More ichorid testing to follow.  The problem however is that so many maindeck cards are actually bad against creature based aggro decks.  So I'm not sure how to balance creature hate and Ichorid hate in the 6-8 slots I can devote to those decks.  Powder Keg is an option here as well, as it can clear zombies, or be put in against a stompy style deck.

[slighguy]

Hey, I like this deck alot, it was good playing you in the Top 8, i was the Ichorid deck you faced. hope to play you again in future tournaments, and hopefully top 8's

[T00L]

Yeah I was so sick that morning I had the worst headache and it was so hard to think far to hard to be playing magic. I was planning on scooping to you anyway even if I had beaten you round 2 hence the no land keep for kicks gj top 8ing

[The Atog Lord]

Thanks for the write-up. This looks like a very interesting deck.

I think that your deck might be two cards short.

[Harlequin]

Yes, Library and Tolarian are the two cards I missed... I will add them to list now.

[sundering jerk]

How was Jace?

Would you cut Jace for a repeal?

Also would you consider running 3 Meditate to fit the other repeal?

What is your plan against a deck like workshop aggro?

[Shock Wave]

This deck is absolute awesome sauce. It seems similiar to a deck I've been playing, in the sense that it has both potentials to go broken and to control the game. This is a fresh idea that I will certainly test. Well done!

[TopSecret]

This deck looks sweet. I'd thought of some of the synergies before, but you actually made them work.
Meditate is a stroke of genius!
Kudos to you for your hard work and victory!

If you're considering focusing more on Ichorid and less on creatures, and your thinking about adding more Repeals,
why don't you add a Trinket Mage toolbox sideboard and take out the Oaths?

You could change your board:

-1 Platinum
-4 Oath
+4 Trinket Mages
+1 Sensei's Divining Top/Pithing Needle/Tormod's Crypt/MEEKSTONE

That way you can board in 2 Crypts and four Trinket Mages against Ichorid (and possibly a Needle).
Then against aggro, you can board in 4 Trinket Mages (MEEKSTONE?!) to stall the board,
and/or find you a Lotus to hardcast Tyrant. Playing a Trinket Mage, finding something, blocking, then Repealing and replaying the Trinket Mage is brutal.
I have been pwnd at Myriad by Charles using this tactic.

If you're considering more maindeck Repeals, Sensei's Top has some merit maindeck,
since you can tap the top and Repeal it in response to draw cards.

Hopefully, I'll see you at Myriad some time, and we can face each other in the Swiss while both playing crazy decks.

[SyntheticAngel]

I fucking love Mystic Remora I have been trying to break that damn card for months now, but you beat me to the punch very cool deck list! And congratz on the finish, Ichorid is balls for pretty much any deck.

Brennen

[Harlequin]

Jace was decent when I had him.  A few times I pitched him to force/MisD ... But he's still good.  I think I would sooner cut Timewalk than Jace.  Timewalk basically has no synergy in the deck.  I have no way to tutor for it, and It generally will cost me 4 or 5 mana because of Remora.  There was one time when I brainstormed it away because I had a remora on the board... I had the mana to cast it too - I just didn't want to grow my remora to basically net 0 card advantage and end up with basically the same amount of lands tapped. 

In many ways, Jace is my Timewalk.  He lets me draw that extra card for zero cost.  I've never used timewalk to get an extra relevant attack step durring testing or at the tournement.

@Top, and Needle:
I don't either of these cards are the right dirrection.  I debated Needle with Jer on the ride home, and I think it is inferior to Powder keg.  Needle will buy me 2-3 turns at best assuming I am on the draw.  The deck is simply to slow to hope to win durring those turns.  I lose to 4 zombies on the board basically.  I think Tormods and Keg are the right answers to Ichorid.

Top is not really the best dirrection for deck either.  In this deck, past turn 4 brainstorm is a terribly weak card.  Often it's not even worth the 1 mana to cast it.  In many cases, if the deck is working as intended #1 it needs all of its mana, and #2 if you are spending your mana you are generally drawing cards faster than looking at them would be relevant (I'm not sure that makes any sense...)  Meaning, spending a mana to see the top 3 cards is highly irrelevent when you are drawing on average 3+ cards a turn.  The deck is rarely ever searching for options.

Oath is actaully the best anti-creature deck enchantment I could find.  Originally I was thinking cards like Control Magic, or Propaganda ... but really nothing says: GG-Agro better than Oath.  I already run a "huge oathable creatures" package so theres really no beter anti-aggro plan that I could think of.  And this deck can have trouble with creature based aggro decks.  Remora is weak, and Meditate can be deadly... I mean, imagine your goblins - which would you rather see: Trinketmage for spellbomb/meekstone or Oath of druids?

[ELD]

Good report Jeff.  Congrats on the Top 8, and doing well with another of your creations.  Mystic Remora seems like a Vintage version of Standstill.  It costs less and allows you to play the game Standstill lets you do in other formats.  Of course, Ichorid has such a negative effect on this gameplan, so it would make sense to work hard on that match up.  Hope to see you at my next event - with a solution to Ichorid. 

[Nehptis]

This deck is very cool. I don't have the confidence yet to play it in a tourney..sticking with Oath.

Last night vs Atog Lord he was wrecking Oath with Tyrant Blue.  Remora was the key card, which I initially dismissed.  An early Remora feels like you are playing against a Standstill that won't go away.  Here's why:

1st I tried to play thru the Remora.  The result was that Atog just sat there with a hand of counters / more draw cards.  He was always +3 or more cards ahead of me while he continued to drop lands.  It was a matter of time till he would Tyrant FTW.  I couldn't push thru my spells thru his full hand of draw and counters.

2nd attempt I tried to play more controllish and not let Atog reap the benefits of Remora.  This was a bit better, but still not great.  Because with his high mana count he could drop mana and keep the Remora active.  Eventually, I had to play something because as soon as Tyrant Blue reaches 8 mana the Djinn is coming out with pitch counter backup.  Then it’s enter scoop phase.
Meditate is sick.  Giving me 2 turns made no difference because he would be holding a hand of counters usually with a Remora in play that could net him even more.

A combo deck or a combo/aggro deck like Oath with few perms on the board is in trouble against Tyrant Blue.  I can see a fast aggro with multiple targets being a problem, especially decks like Ichorid.

After the next tourney I'm going to do some serious testing of Tyrant Blue.  As stated above it really avoids the traditional problems of Tyrant Oath.

[SyntheticAngel]

I was proxying this deck up for a little testing later on tonight, and I got to wondering about Guile in this deck? Do you have any opinions of Guile. He seems pretty good being able to steal spells that are countered and have a fat guy that can't be chump blocked?

Brennen

[Harlequin]

The other power of remora that people have been flirting with but havent dirrectly said is that it is a 1 sided standstill that doesn't die.... you can drop your mox, and maybe even sneak in an early brainstorm.  You develope your board, while they cannot.

[Nehptis]

The other power of remora that people have been flirting with but havent dirrectly said is that it is a 1 sided standstill that doesn't die.... you can drop your mox, and maybe even sneak in an early brainstorm.  You develope your board, while they cannot.

Hey, I thought I said that above!  Remora's too powerful, Restrict it!  Seriously, though just when I thought we tapped out the blue drawing resources you guys find another.  I'll stop here and continue the deck discussions in the Tyrant blue thread.

[bait_bludgeon]

comments on the sideboard for tyrantblue.... try running leyline of the void and leyline of singularity. they both pwn ichorid and flash along with some other combo decks.