Sphinx of Jwar Isle and Predict in Vintage (with a sample deck pre-Zendikar)

[Cavius The Great]

I originally concieved a monoblue control like deck that abused Soldevi Excavations and Predict and I was pretty satisfied with the results.



I named the deck Blueberry Pinto and the original list looked like this. Note that this was before Sphinx was printed.

// Lands
    2  Tolaria West
    1  Tolarian Academy
    3  Soldevi Excavations
    1  Strip Mine
    2  Wasteland
    1  Library of Alexandria
    7  Island
    1  Academy Ruins

// Creatures
    1  Masticore
    4  Esperzoa

// Spells
    4  Teferi's Response
    1  Time Walk
    1  Brainstorm
    1  Ponder
    1  Merchant Scroll
    4  Predict
    4  Force of Will
    1  Ancestral Recall
    4  Nevinyrral's Disk
    1  Chain of Vapor
    1  Hatching Plans
    4  Mana Drain
    2  Crucible of Worlds
    1  Mox Jet
    1 [JGC] Sol Ring
    1  Mox Ruby
    1  Mox Emerald
    1  Mox Sapphire
    1  Mox Pearl
    1  Black Lotus
    1  Mana Crypt

// Sideboard
SB: 4  Tormod's Crypt
SB: 4  Relic of Progenitus
SB: 3  Razormane Masticore
SB: 2  Echoing Truth
SB: 2  Wipe Away


The gameplan was to basically generate massive amounts of card advantage with Predict and Soldevi Excavations as well as Teferi's Response, which basically added to the card advantage as well as protected Excavations itself. Then this card got printed and became an auto-include.





I thought to myself how good this card was with Predict and I instantly threw in 2 copies of it in the list.

The current list basically looks like

-1 Masticore
-1 Esperzoa

+2 Sphinx of Jwar Isle

I think after printing this card Predict might actually be a staple in Vintage, what do you guys think?

P.S. - Sorry for the underlines this forum isn't letting me type properly and is going ballistic on me.

[BruiZar]

I'm thinking Field of Dreams / Sindbad is a much more cost effective engine with predict. Blast from the Past ftw!

[Harlequin]

Yeah, or Arcanis the Omnipotent.  For the same cost as Sphinx he draws you +3 cards a turn for 0 mana.

[Cavius The Great]

Sphinx is an effective beater with shroud, the actual Predict combo is just a bonus.

Card advantage wins games and so does redundancy when regarding combos.

C'mon guys, let's get a serious discussion going here.

This deck plays extremely smoothly. The mana acceleration as well as library manipulation that Soldevi Excavations provides are two significant bonuses. Mana Drain allows you to cast a large percentage of your deck. Now that mana burn no longer exists this deck has a definite edge. The main focus of the deck is Nevinyrral's Disk, which can singelhandedly swing games in your favor.

This deck is pretty cut and dry without need of much explanation. It actually plays pretty consistently and doesn't rely on any specific combo just synergistic cards that work well together.

You guys must not understand that I had this deck built before Sphinx even saw print.

[The Atog Lord]

C'mon guys, let's get a serious discussion going here.

You can't seriously propose a deck based around a terrible blue win condition and call for a serious discussion. For six mana, you get a four turn clock which may help you draw one or two extra cards in conjunction with predict. For much less mana, you can Tinker into a much faster win condition. And if you want to play a large creature, you can play Tarmogoyf for one third the mana of this Sphinx. And if you want to be able to look at the top card of your library while attacking, you can play Magus of the Future.

Then there's Teferi's Response. For a "serious discussion," I'll point out that the majority of popular Vintage decks have no way of triggering this card. I understand that it would be awesome if someone tried to Rishadan Port your land and you got to three-for-one them with Response. But that's not going to happen. And even hitting a Wasteland would be a rarity since Tezzeret doesn't bother targeting your lands.

So, your deck has an overcosted, slow win condition that is much worse than several other available options. And you are running four of a card that is Evermind in most matchups. That's my input for a serious discussion of this deck.

[the boogie man]

Perhaps instead of the sphinx, magus of the future and sensei's divining top could be abused with the predict engine, which would be a little more efficient. And atog lord is right, teferi's response is pretty bad.

Have you considered powder keg instead of the disk? it would kill a shiton of fish dudes as long as they don't have rod, and would keep your win conditions around. If you aren't playing with vault key, maybe you could adopt rods yourself. that,

and repeal would be a good way to bounce stuff and keep your card advantage up. I'd say dump the hatching plans, but add some spell snares. Confidants, goyfs, drains, teeg, chalice @ 1, and a host of other things that give you fits are all taken care of by this card. with back to basics, that could be a pretty solid speed bump.

[Cavius The Great]

This build I presented isn't designed to win as soon as possible, it's a slow control deck similiar to MUC in the sense that, you basically want to win at your leisure after establishing board control.

The main role that this deck plays, is to get a Nevinyrral's Disk out ASAP, constantly recur it with Ruins when necessary, and get down a beater after generating a good amount of card advantage once your opponent is in a state of submission. Any other threats that I feel that Disk cannot deal with are met with counterspells. This deck does not need to win fast and it wasn't designed to, making a six mana shroud creature appropriate to run.

I initially wanted all artifact creatures so that I could recur them with Academy Ruins if one ever got caught within the grasp of a Nevinyrral's Disk, but the synergy that Sphinx has with the theme of the deck makes it an auto-include in my opinion regardless.

[BruiZar]

You must assume that every non vault non combo non dredge deck plays null rod.

[SadDubs]

how has your testing been? I am interested in the deck, but is it truelly competitive?

[Anusien]

This build I presented isn't designed to win as soon as possible, it's a slow control deck similiar to MUC in the sense that, you basically want to win at your leisure after establishing board control.

Modern tournament results have suggested that this is a terrible idea.  Good control decks gain a substantial board advantage (usually by clearing the board and following with a durable threat) and then just protecting that threat at all costs. 

Oscar Tan's excellent article on why MUC is not optimal

[Mr. Scragglesworthington]

Hey Cavius, this deck reminds me of a mono-U control deck I was playtesting extensively before the restriction of Merchant Scroll and Brainstorm (said restrictions unfortunately killed the deck).  It seemed decent overall and appeared to have good game against Gro and Stax.  I'll preface my further remarks by saying that I can't comment whether the Mono-U style of control is viable in Vintage now.

I think 3 Excavations is too many.  It just exposes you too much to Wasteland-effects and the possibility of double Excavation draws.  Countering this with 4(!) maindeck Teferi's response is just giving you cards that, on the flipside, will be dead in too many matchups, as was noted earlier in this thread.  Your deck shouldn't absolutely rely on Excavations, but simply have it has a nice addition to your overall strategy; 2 is plenty and I'd consider cutting it to 1.  Which brings me to:

I'd cut the Predicts, or go to maybe a couple at most.  They can be nice with an Excavation, but if you rely on them you then need to up your library-peek effects to unmanageable levels, IMO.  The only thing that keeps them at the "could be playable" level is that you can nuke topdeck tutors with 'em, and they cycle.

Finally:  Thawing Glaciers.  This card gives you a steady (albeit slow) form of card advantage on its own, combos well with the Excavations, and doesn't care too much if they get Wastelanded as this doesn't negate the lands they've already played, and they aren't invested 2-for-1 like the Excavations.

Hope this helps.  Again, I have no idea if this style of deck is viable in the current T1 environment.