[Deck Analysis and Discussion - Blue Based Control] The CHaPuZaS Solution

[covetousrat]

Very interesting deck and well done on the performance. It reminds me very much of the DECK. I've played a few games with this deck and it performs beyond my expectation. Its very good and strong to those people who doesn't believe in it. Intuition is a must counter. I would prefer a 3rd Intuition in the main.

Would you mind sharing your sideboard tips and options? It seems that I sb out Fastbond+Zuran Orb every game. I am not totally sold on these 2 cards. Most of the time, they don't do anything early in the game. I wish they were something else. If you manage to get both of these cards, wouldn't you be at the same position of winning with other cards? They are just a win more for me.

Roar of the Wurm wins me the game nearly all the time. Reaching 7 mana is not a problem. This deck is build to control and find a solution for everything your opponent cast.

I don't find the need for a basic Island/Underground Sea and I think the manabase is very well done. Running 18 lands is good. To quote someone said this before in one of the old Turboland threats 'If your opponent Wasteland your land, did they just wasteland you or you just wasteland them?'

[CHaPuZaS]

What I can say, is that both deck performerd well in the first and second games of the round, and the last game of the videos, I kept a decent hand but drew 7 mana sources, so there's nothing any deck can do with that...

The decks linked are two different, Tezzcast and Chapuzas Solution, so I don't really understand what you mean...

- Top 8, 5º Torneo LMV3 - No Top8 can be found in Internet
- 67º, 5-2-2, Bazaar of Moxen 4 You'll find my deck among the Bazaar Control in the General Analysis and an special explanation in the New/Creative Decks Point.
- Top 4, 8º Open Valladolid - No Top8 can be found in Internet
- Top 8, Vintage@MTG Barato

Since I got my iPhone I've been Covering Live Online all the tournaments I´ve played, almost all of them with the decklist, and also with a minireport of each round, with my opponent's name, deck and most important plays.

This link will take you to my results history, just scroll down to the 2010 Season.

[xouman]

Mana curve is high, but this deck has

-Loam and Crucible to recover fetchlands and stripped lands.

-8 nosolomoxen plus fastbond in order to accelerate

-Grudges maindeck in order to destroy null rods.

How many decks play loam, crucible, fastbond and grudges? Having 3 mana usually means access to those engines.

My main concern is how to put RotW in the graveyard (assuming it is not played mostly from hand) without loam :/

As I said in other forums, it seems a great deck

[CHaPuZaS]

@Xouman: See, the only decks against which you want a quick RotW in the graveyard are the most aggresive or Fish. Against these decks Intuition fits the role, as there are some piles (Roar + 2 Deep) that will earn you card advantage and you will play Roar from your hand, and twice.

In the primigenial versions of the deck I played Entomb, and it's a maindeck possibility again in the last weeks.

[ishmoks]

I'm a big fan of this deck.

@Chapuzas- I was wondering what are the key cards/ key plays in the first few turns of this deck to combat aggro control decks like Fish decks. I lost 1-5 against a mono blue merfolk deck. I was using an unpowered version except one ancestral recall.

Here's the changes I did due to lack of card availability and budget plus some metagame tweaks

Mana
3 City of Brass
3 Flooded Strand
3 Tropical Islands
2 Islands
1 Volcanic Island
1 Underground Sea
3 Waste Land
1 Strip Mine
1 Barbarian Ring
1 Darksteel citadel
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana vault
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Lotus Petal

Draw/Tutor
1 Ancestral Recall
2 Deep Analysis
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Demonic Tutor
2 Inuition
1 Gifts Ungiven
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Regrowth
1 Brainstorm
1 Fact or Fiction

Disruption
4 Force of Will
3 mana Drain
3 Spell Pierce
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Ancient Grudge
1 pithing needle
1 rushing river

Kill Cards
1 Tinker
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Fastbond
1 Zuran Orb
1Crucible of worlds
1 Life from the loam

Creatures
1 Goblin Welder
1 Platinum Angel
1 Sundering Titan
1 Roar of the Wurm


Note: Jace is too expensive for type 2 card (waiting for price to normalize in the future), and hard to find Sphinx of steelwind in my area(using platz as substitute). Using Titan and welder to add to mana denial. ( i have extra slots since no time walk and jace)


For the first 4 turns, I was wondering what would be the game plan to combat aggro-control decks like fish. I can beat powered bomberman, sometimes aggroworkshop deck, goblins, but Fish decks killed my deck so many times it seems like a bad matchup.

Aside from deck being slower since it lacks mana accelleration of moxen black lotus, what else Do i need to do to improve chances against aggro-control?

[xouman]

This deck needs P9 It has high mana curve, and needs acces to quick mana in order to play those all cards that it is supposed to draw. Also ancestral and time walk are perfect in this deck. Also cards like tinker or tolaria get really bad

I'm trying an unpowered Ug deck with loam, based on faeries (spellstutter, cloud of faeries, vendillion, mutavault), intuition and loam, with lots of counters and null rods. The idea is to play instants and flash creatures in order to stay untapped most of the time. My main concern is if I should add tarmos in the maindeck (it was my first choice) or add black (bitterblossom, tutors and will, maybe confidants). The problem is that it becomes a fish deck very dependant on loam, so resolving intuition is a must.

Btw Chapuzas, have you played this deck lately? Did you change any cards?

[CHaPuZaS]

I'm playing a more copies of Jace in the Slots of the infinite combo, and not using Cunning Wish, instead Negate or Mana Drains. Tolarian Academy has been removed to became an additional Underground Sea.

So far, that version performed incredibly bad, so I'm looking forward to test new versions.

[OmniStrife_101]

@Cesar

I have been wanting to play this deck for a while now, and I might have the resources to pull it off ( I actually was missing 1 Roar of the Wurm).

I have a couple of cards in mind that I want to test, I just want thoughts on them being the deck's father..
Raven's Crime
Flame Jab

I really believe that retrace cards can be utilized well, though it would still warrant lots of testing. 

I made the following revisions main deck:
-2 Cunning Wish (not really a fan of Cunning Wish)
+1 Intuition (I was testing sample hands with your list and I almost wanted to have Intuition ASAP)
+ 2 Mana Drain
-1 Spell Pierce ( I tried to match the counter set up I am comfortable with when playing with "the deck"

[conboy31]

In Eternal Central we are releasing the videos that were recorded during the MTG Barato tournament in Valencia. First match is between César Fernández (Chapuzas) and Guillem Ragull. So far there's only game 1, where César can't really do much against Guillem, but I promise you guys game 2 is a bit more entertaining

César Fernández (Chapuzas Solution) Vs Guillem Ragull (Repeach Tendrils) G1: http://www.eternal-central.com/?p=291

I just watched games 1, 2, and 3.  When the opponent scooped g2 after you tutored up and played yawgwill off the black lotus, what were you going to do during that yawg will turn?  You would have had trop, volcanic and 3 mana off the lotus.  With a GY of what looked to be intuition, arecall, dtutor, and time walk. No land was played that turn, but I don't think there was a fetch in the GY.

[CHaPuZaS]

In Eternal Central we are releasing the videos that were recorded during the MTG Barato tournament in Valencia. First match is between César Fernández (Chapuzas) and Guillem Ragull. So far there's only game 1, where César can't really do much against Guillem, but I promise you guys game 2 is a bit more entertaining

César Fernández (Chapuzas Solution) Vs Guillem Ragull (Repeach Tendrils) G1: http://www.eternal-central.com/?p=291

I just watched games 1, 2, and 3.  When the opponent scooped g2 after you tutored up and played yawgwill off the black lotus, what were you going to do during that yawg will turn?  You would have had trop, volcanic and 3 mana off the lotus.  With a GY of what looked to be intuition, arecall, dtutor, and time walk. No land was played that turn, but I don't think there was a fetch in the GY.

I don't really remind that game now, but I think he jsut said that was too much card advantage for him, and he didn't have anything else to outplay me.

@Cesar

I have been wanting to play this deck for a while now, and I might have the resources to pull it off ( I actually was missing 1 Roar of the Wurm).

I have a couple of cards in mind that I want to test, I just want thoughts on them being the deck's father..
Raven's Crime
Flame Jab

I really believe that retrace cards can be utilized well, though it would still warrant lots of testing. 

I made the following revisions main deck:
-2 Cunning Wish (not really a fan of Cunning Wish)
+1 Intuition (I was testing sample hands with your list and I almost wanted to have Intuition ASAP)
+ 2 Mana Drain
-1 Spell Pierce ( I tried to match the counter set up I am comfortable with when playing with "the deck"

the Cunning Wish case is difficult, as I didn't love'em too. Retrace cards where tested and as Flame Jab passed the exam, Raven's Crime didn't. Flame Jab wasn't too much necessary two months ago, but I think that now it will be OK.

[MISTERTREK]

@Cesar

I ran the deck at the Blue Bell Game Day #9 in Pennsylvania today. There were 46 players. The BB Meta is very competitive, where many of the top east coast players show up. Now, given that I only built the deck 2 hours before playing, I can add the following observations:

1. I do feel that 1 Underground Sea is needed. The Polluted Delta needs that black target.
2. I liked the Cunning Wishes in game 1. It allowed me to go for an answer. I often went for a Lightning Bolt to take care of a Bob/Predator/Painter etc. or the traps
    for Dredge. I would then board them out and the sideboard cards in game 2.
3. Spell Pierce is great early, but weaker mid/late. -1/-2 and +1/+2 Mana Drain came to mind when I often needed a hard counter.
4. A basic land or two would have been nice against Magus of the Moon/Wasteland, but I'm not sure how much they see play. May have been another rogue deck.

I loved the "feel" of the deck, and look forward to trying it again. I am by no way a good Magic player, and often migrate towards non-mainstream decks. You are right that the deck is fun to play! I often feel that todays Magic players forget that fun should be part of playing. And perhaps the high entry costs for high stake prizes has led to this, and has pushed many players to the tried and true mainstream decks.

What are your thoughts with the changes to Gush & Frantic Search and the new Mirrodin set? Do you have an updated decklist? Thanks again for the thread!!

[Appletree]

Wouldn't Trinisphere be a really good addition to the denial-plan? It's a useful tool to tutor/Tinker for and could also be part of a "game ending" combo (LftL/Crucible + Strip + Trini).
It's sometimes really impressive how much time a tinkered for Trinisphere buys you after some Wasteland/Grudge action...

   

[CHaPuZaS]

@Cesar

I ran the deck at the Blue Bell Game Day #9 in Pennsylvania today. There were 46 players. The BB Meta is very competitive, where many of the top east coast players show up. Now, given that I only built the deck 2 hours before playing, I can add the following observations:

1. I do feel that 1 Underground Sea is needed. The Polluted Delta needs that black target.
2. I liked the Cunning Wishes in game 1. It allowed me to go for an answer. I often went for a Lightning Bolt to take care of a Bob/Predator/Painter etc. or the traps
    for Dredge. I would then board them out and the sideboard cards in game 2.
3. Spell Pierce is great early, but weaker mid/late. -1/-2 and +1/+2 Mana Drain came to mind when I often needed a hard counter.
4. A basic land or two would have been nice against Magus of the Moon/Wasteland, but I'm not sure how much they see play. May have been another rogue deck.

I loved the "feel" of the deck, and look forward to trying it again. I am by no way a good Magic player, and often migrate towards non-mainstream decks. You are right that the deck is fun to play! I often feel that todays Magic players forget that fun should be part of playing. And perhaps the high entry costs for high stake prizes has led to this, and has pushed many players to the tried and true mainstream decks.

What are your thoughts with the changes to Gush & Frantic Search and the new Mirrodin set? Do you have an updated decklist? Thanks again for the thread!!

Hello Mike!

1. I already corrected that. Tolarian was removed in favor of one USea.
2. That's just what I used to do. I think it's the way to go.
3. Yes, but early game is when the deck is weaker, so I really feel like it's needed to perform well until turn 3 or 4. Anyway, you can try!
4. Magus of the Moon can be a problem, but it's not heavily played, so I don't think there's a reason to take care of them. _WAsteland is the best opposing card I can find. Wastelanding the Solution is as if they are doing our job the vast majority of times, so that's not anything to care of.

I also think is fun to play! It's really important to have a good time playing.

I don't have an updated version of this deck since the release of SoM because Tezzcast (My favourite creation) was pushed just too much with Mox Opal. I wn a high level tournament yesterday with it, running Dark Confindat along with Thoughtcasts, FoW, Jace... I'll post it this week or next.

Wouldn't Trinisphere be a really good addition to the denial-plan? It's a useful tool to tutor/Tinker for and could also be part of a "game ending" combo (LftL/Crucible + Strip + Trini).
It's sometimes really impressive how much time a tinkered for Trinisphere buys you after some Wasteland/Grudge action...

I really love Trinisphere, even though I have tested it, I always find if I can TRinisphere the game I am not able to shut it, while the extra disruption card will close effectively the game of my opponent.

[Qube]

I don't have an updated version of this deck since the release of SoM because Tezzcast (My favourite creation) was pushed just too much with Mox Opal. I wn a high level tournament yesterday with it, running Dark Confindat along with Thoughtcasts, FoW, Jace... I'll post it this week or next.

Once again Tezzcast, I was sure, that you're going to bring this back I thought also about thoughtcasts again.

congratz to win again with it.