Probe-A-Fiend: A New Potential Gro Deck

[Stormanimagus]

Hey everyone,

I don't frequent these boards anymore, but I wanted to post a deck list for discussion based on a list posted by Smemmenen in his Gush primer. The deck revolves around pumping Kiln Fiend, but now I think it has received a significant boost in Gitaxian Probe. This is my first rough draft, but tell me what you think. Am I going in the right direction with design of the deck?


Probe-A-Fiend

Land (14):
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Polluted Delta
1 Flooded Strand
3 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island
1 Tropical Island
1 Island

Artifacts (6):
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mana Crypt

Artifact Creatures (1):
1 Blightsteel Colossus

Enchantments (1):
1 Fastbond

Creatures (4):
4 Kiln Fiend

Sorceries (20):
4 Gitaxian Probe
3 Thoughtseize
3 Duress
1 Ponder
3 Preordain
1 Time Walk
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Tinker
1 Regrowth
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Yawgmoth’s Will

Instants (14):
4 Force Of Will
4 Gush
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Steel Sabotage


SB
3 Steel Sabotage
2 Hurkyl’s Recall
2 Surgical Extraction
4 Leyline Of The Void
2 Red Elemental Blast
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Mountain

[bisamratte]

Hi Storm.

My first thoughts to your deck concept were:
- Tinker+BSC with only for Moxes to sac?
- I don't like Regrowth in a speed Deck without a bunch of colorless a-mana. It's only good if you want to go off with Gush. I'd rather play the full playset of Preordain.
- Fiend > Dryad is discussable, but I think you have reasons to play Fiend
- Ever thought of Lightning Bolts? 6 Damage with Fiend, or burning away a blocker, or burning your opponent if he's able to handle Fiend at low life, or all the other situations, where you'd like to have a Bolt...

Greets

[Stormanimagus]

Hi Storm.

My first thoughts to your deck concept were:
- Tinker+BSC with only for Moxes to sac?
- I don't like Regrowth in a speed Deck without a bunch of colorless a-mana. It's only good if you want to go off with Gush. I'd rather play the full playset of Preordain.
- Fiend > Dryad is discussable, but I think you have reasons to play Fiend
- Ever thought of Lightning Bolts? 6 Damage with Fiend, or burning away a blocker, or burning your opponent if he's able to handle Fiend at low life, or all the other situations, where you'd like to have a Bolt...

Greets

I do play 1 MD bolt +1 in the SB. Perhaps I could squeeze in 1 more, but it would be competing with a Beast Within Slot. I think Tinker would be fine if I added Mana Crypt so that might be the way to go there. Trust me when I say that I used to think as you do regarding Tinker and it has been shown to me that you don't need every single artifact accelerant to warrant the inclusion of Tinker/Bot. But yes, thanks for the suggestions.

-Storm

[AmbivalentDuck]

Is Bolt significantly better than Lava Dart and/or Snap?

[Beralt]

If you agree on the slowness of Regrowth, then consider Noxious Revival, it's less mana intensive (could be free), an instant, has other uses and can feed your Gush engine.

[brokenbacon]

This is a pretty cool concept. I think you are correct in saying Gitaxian Probe makes this deck a lot more viable. But I agree with bisamratte in that 4 Moxes are not enough for Tinker and that 3-4 Preordain is correct. At least drop the Regrowth and hit 3 Preordain. If you want to keep Tinker you should probably add Mana Crypt and Sol Ring.
Also drop a couple Duress/Thoughtseize. Against MUD these cards are way terrible.
What's your rationale behind putting in Beast Within? It seems pretty weak in a non-Oath deck for 2G.

Possible revision:
Land (14):
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Polluted Delta
1 Flooded Strand
3 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island
1 Tropical Island
1 Island

Artifacts (7):
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby

Artifact Creatures (1):
1 Blightsteel Colossus

Enchantments (1):
1 Fastbond

Creatures (4):
4 Kiln Fiend

Sorceries (18):
4 Gitaxian Probe
3 Thoughtseize
2 Duress
1 Ponder
3 Preordain
1 Time Walk
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Tinker
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Yawgmoth’s Will

Instants (15):
4 Force Of Will
4 Gush
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Lightning Bolt
2 Hurkyl's Recall

SB
2 Duress
1 Steel Sabotage
2 Hurkyl’s Recall
2 Surgical Extraction
4 Leyline Of The Void
2 Red Elemental Blast
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Mountain



In closing, consider this: more than likely, the opponent will be lower 19 life (Fetches Force what have you). This means that you will have to cast 6 or less spells for a Kiln Fiend to be lethal. That's pretty damn good, and it kicks the shit out of Empty the Warrens, IMO. Consider and test against your weaker matchups/discover what those are, and cater to them as necessary. But I think against Blue.dec you will have an easy game, and against MUD you can win pretty fast (EOT Hurks win.) Noble Fish might be a little rough as your only win cons are creatures.....
Anyway the deck is really cool, I think I will make time to test this.

[Adan]

Is Bolt significantly better than Lava Dart and/or Snap?

I'd love to see the "Intuition -> 3 Lava Dart"-tech again. That would be awesome. But I guess Lava Darts and Gush are quite a nonbo.

[Dr_Tongue]

Needs more Wee Dragonauts, takes more spells but has better evasion and it pitches to FoW, lolz. That said I'm not sure that the loss of Merchant Scroll can be revived with worse creatures and Gitaxian Probe. I'm thinking Fire/Ice over Bolt as well, multiple targets it could effect, option of tapping phat down a turn, Scroll-able so any Tutor gets it, and ..it pitches,thee.

I think you want Duress (all) in the board, not both Seize/Duress as 4x colors mana base looks stretched beyond an untimely Wastelands repair.

[doggue]

I also love Kiln Fiend and I assume its great in a control heavy metagame. Another interesting guy is "Storm Entity". But as far as I testet, Fiend is the best grow creature.

A few points on your list:
-I really dont think probe is an update. I'd much rather run 4 Duress & 4 Thoughtseize
-Gushdecks almost need 4 Preordains. I'd never cut them.
-My Fiend.deck is currently running 2 Lightning Bolts MD and 1 SB. I think I need them, especially if confidant sees alot of play. Fire/Ice may be good but I want to be able to kill Jace's and Lodestone / Precursor Golems.

I like the deck but I still have serious problems with MUD's. It's just the worst matchup if you play Gushdecks. Controllists with fewer basics and confidant's have alot easier games against our metalfriends

About your Sideboard:
-IMHO shattering spree and ancient grudge are far supperior to steel sabotage. Especially in a list, which wants a high spellcount!

Nice to see other people who like the Grow a Fiend idea.

Best,
Doggue