Bosh Senior

[rozetta]

Introducing some new tech from Helsinki. Two of us played this deck today in the monthly Helsinki Type 1 event (25+ people, a lot more than 50% powered decks) and both made top 8 (Goos made top 8 and I split in the finals). We both agreed with each other that we played badly (the deck is only a week old and we've not had a lot of time to practice with it or tune it yet). The deck is pretty complex to play at times, juggling greaves around, knowing what to cast and when and when to thirst, etc. I'll post a tournament report sometime soon when I have time to write it.

The deck itself was designed by another friend - Joel, so props to him. We are tentatively calling it Bosh Senior, since it resembled the extended G.W. Bosh deck.

//Cheating 11
4 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Timetwister
1 Tinker
1 Time Walk
1 Stroke of Genius
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Memory Jar

//Tricks 14
4 Tangle Wire
4 Sphere of Resistance
3 Chalice of the Void
2 Lightning Greaves
1 Mindslaver

//Critters 10
1 Bosh, Iron Golem
1 Triskelion
4 Metalworker
4 Goblin Welder

//Manas 25
1 Sol Ring
1 Black lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mana Vault
1 Grim Monolith
4 Volcanic Island
4 Polluted Delta
4 Mishra's Workshop
2 Ancient Tomb
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Island

//Sideboard
3 Rack and Ruin
3 Red Elemental Blast
3 Tormod's Crypt
2 Smokestack
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Chalice of the Void
1 Triskelion
1 Mindslaver

A few things we were in agreement about changing after the tournament were:
- the maindeck stroke wasn't worth it - we'll replace it with something else, possibly Fact or Fiction
- there should be more than 2 smokestack in the sideboard - 3 or maybe 4
- tormod's crypt was useless, but there was no dragon.dec and I never faced tog so maybe I'm just biased

Our builds differed by only a few cards. The other build ran a maindeck Great Furnace which was apparently excellent (I bottled out and replaced mine with Ancient Tomb since a lot of people here play Null Rod).

A few notes about playing it:
The deck wins most of the time like a combo deck - cast, tinker or weld in a jar and use the lightning greaves to haste metalworkers and welders to continue the chain. This can happen as early as turn 3. You can also win quickly with Bosh and greaves by attacking and flinging him (total 14 damage) meaning you only need a few more hits from welders/metalworkers/triskelions earlier to get the lethal damage. The third way to win is to recur mindslaver and ruin your opponent until you draw enough other threats. The extra trisk comes in versus aggro and the stacks/slavers, etc against control. Obviously the extra chalice comes in versus sligh or combo. Lightning greaves comes in against things like keeper which pack a lot of creature removal. Rack and ruins against mirror and anything that might bring in null rod. I think the rest should be pretty self-explanatory.

Sorry I don't have time to mention more right now. I just wanted to get this out there for discussion in case someone's visiting a tournament in the US today and want something new to try.

I'm interested in hearing comments, suggestions, etc. Finally a new deck to discuss (since it seems we've not had anything in months). Have fun!\n\n

[Ultima]

Basically then this is a type 1 version of extended tinker stax, yes.

I don't know if smokestack is even necassary for this style though, has the stack really helped alot?

[rozetta]

I found myself missing the Smokestack sometimes. Basically, the deck can easily clog up the early game, but then sometimes does nothing (if you don't draw more gas) while the tangle wires run out and the opponent drops more land to get out of the sphere lock. I have missed the stacks on occasions, and sided them in against control decks and other permanent-light decks. We've been discussing winter orbs and other components to keep the lock more solid (without turning it into straight stax or wMUD). One problem is that if the opponent get's some control on the situation, the deck lacks solid threats to keep it going. This is an issue we're trying to work on, too.

[Montana_Gamer]

Have you tried thoughtcast over thirst for knowledge? Or maybe even both in this deck. It would provide a way for you to discard bosh and triskilion so you can weld them back.


:edit: I got thoughtcast and thirst for knowledge mized up in my post, I thought that thoughtcast was the one where you draw 3 and then discard an artifact. :/edit:\n\n

[Goos]

Quote
Have you tried thoughtcast over thirst for knowledge? Or maybe even both in this deck. It would provide a way for you to discard bosh and triskilion so you can weld them back.

Thirst already lets you discard and meditate would be much better than thoughtcast. I have already put meditate in my own version that i am testing. Going with 4 thirst and 2 meditates, I will post my version later if testing shows its better.

[Eastman]

4 thirst and 2 meditates?
That's 6 blue spells!

Bring on the Force of Will's!!

[rozetta]

After realizing that the deck lacked enough threats, I tried a more aggro version for fun (which I posted in the casual forum). It contained no lock components, but things like sculpting steel for copying large creatures such as Clockwork Dragon. Funnily enough, it was actually pretty good - better than I thought.

I went back to test it some more, thinking that the straight aggro version I had posted in the casual forum suffered some definite weaknesses. So I modified it a bit, trying different cards such as myr enforcers and then again more lock parts and back and forth for a while.

I have finally settled on this build for the meantime, which I consider to be fairly competitive. I have removed all of the lock components except for Mindslaver and Chalice of the Void, opting for more speed via extra card draw and mana acceleration. The aggro aspects exist from my previous builds, but not in as plentiful amounts as back then. Now the deck has a higher threat density coming from Chalice, Mindslaver and some larger creatures. Here's the list:

//Lock: 5
2 Mindslaver
3 Chalice of the Void

//Aggro: 5
1 Bosh, Iron Golem
1 Clockwork Dragon
1 Platinum Angel
2 Triskelion

//Drawing; 12
4 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Timetwister
1 Tinker
1 Memory Jar
1 Windfall
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Fact or Fiction

//Tricks: 13
1 Voltaic Key
1 Gilded Lotus
3 Lightning Greaves
4 Metalworker
4 Goblin Welder

//Mana: 25
1 Sol Ring
1 Black lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Grim Monolith
1 Lotus Petal
4 Volcanic Island
3 Polluted Delta
4 Mishra's Workshop
2 Ancient Tomb
1 Tolarian Academy

//Sideboard: 15
4 Red Elemental Blast
3 Rack and Ruin
3 Tormod's Crypt
4 Sphere of Resistance
1 Chalice of the Void

This new build has pros and cons versus the previous one.

It has a better game versus most aggro and budget decks game 1 - simply drop a large creature such as Triskelion or Platinum Angel, greaves it and race them. You also have 3 chalice maindeck which allows you to effectively shut down suicide and perhaps sligh.

It also has a good game against prison decks - this deck not only generates many permanents, but it has greaves to protect it's welders and 2 triskelion for theirs. The fact that you have more fatties than them is also a big plus, since you can easily race their lock.

Against Academy an long-style combo, you can bring in the 4th Chalice and 4 spheres for games 2 and 3, improving your chances. Remember this deck operates fine in slow mode under sphere. I'm not sure how the dragon matchup goes, but there are 3 crypts to bring in.

Against control, things look difficult, depending on how many FoWs they draw. The more card drawing you can draw into, the better off you'll be, and a resolved welder should make it possible for you to mindslaver them for the win. There are plenty of must-counter threats, starting from Metalworker and Welder, ranging through the card drawing spells and ending with mindslaver and bosh. Game 2, you'll get 4 REB.

I posted some sample hands for this deck in the "Affinity" thread on this forum, but the deck has changed since posting those. I think that they're interesting, as they give an insight into how "combo" the deck plays and how the interactions between greaves/metalworker/welder work. I can post some for this new build if people are interested.