[Deck Discussion] - TPS' Primer

[MaxxMatt]

Our Article

Discuss it!

MAxx MAtt

[BreathWeapon]

There was absolutely no mention of Death Wish anywhere, have any of you playtested TPS builds with 4 Death Wish in Italy or Europe?

[Methuselahn]

There was absolutely no mention of Death Wish anywhere, have any of you playtested TPS builds with 4 Death Wish in Italy or Europe?

Death Wish seems bad with such cards as Duress + Force.  If you added Death Wish, wouldn't you just be headed down the road towards a 3+ color Long style combo deck?    This is a totally different philosophy, meant to be executed alot faster than TPS.

[BreathWeapon]

I'm well aware of how TPS plays, and no adding Death Wish doesn't bring you to Death Long by proxy.

How is Death Wish "bad" with Force of Will and Duress in your deck? IMO, the general absence of this card in TPS shows a total lack of Lateral Thinking with the deck. The card is perfectly suited to TPS, I'm baffled that none of the Italians have picked up on it yet.

[Corndog]

It appears the deck list needs 4 dark rituals... as it seems it's 4 cards short. It was a very nice read. Nice work.

[Methuselahn]

I'm well aware of how TPS plays, and no adding Death Wish doesn't bring you to Death Long by proxy.

How is Death Wish "bad" with Force of Will and Duress in your deck? IMO, the general absence of this card in TPS shows a total lack of Lateral Thinking with the deck. The card is perfectly suited to TPS, I'm baffled that none of the Italians have picked up on it yet.

Well, by nature the deck is controlling and doesn't always want to go off as fast as like Long decks would.  Death Wish is mana intensive.  When you Death Wish, you had best be going off right now.  Cunning wish lets you eot fetch for Mis-D, or draw, or bounce, another solution.  There is none of this end-of-turn advantages with the sorcery Death Wish.

What exactly are you going to Death Wish for?  An instant?  Why not use Cunning Wish instead?  What type of Sorcery, Enchantment, Land, Artifact or Creature are you going to Death Wish for?  Most likely is Yawg's Will.  If so, wouldn't you just play Deathlong instead?

[MaxxMatt]

@Corndog. List fixed. Thanks.

@BreathWeapon.

There was absolutely no mention of Death Wish anywhere, have any of you playtested TPS builds with 4 Death Wish in Italy or Europe?

Mathuselahn wrote really well some of my feelings about DeathWishes.
I read all your possible lists of a deck based on Death Wish, some discussions ago. It is "Fast&Furious" as usually appeared to be a deck with a Y.Will in side with 5 cards to search for it.

Even in those past discussions, you are advocating a possible conjunction about TPS and a DeathWish.dec.

I appreciate a lot your work but even if there are a lot of similar elements in our builds, I cannot see any final common point for the 2 decks without transmuting one into the other.

I'm not saying that I dind't talk and try DeathWish and CabalRituals in this deck. I tried to fit them as much as I can but I found not being able to resolve some of this problems:

1) Adding 3 or 4 Cabal Rituals you lose a lot of consistency in the mana base.
2) Adding Death Wishes ( I tried 3 and then 4 ) you have to change a lot not only your game plans but your entire approach to the match. ALL your key spells are sorceries and they have to be resolved in your mainphase without too many tricks available to you.
3) Sadly Cabal Rituals aren't LED.
4) Rituals and DeathWishes are far more mana and spell intensve than any other engines now integrated in TPS

I would like if you trust in me when I say that every players among my teammates, after a lot of tests with that DeathWish.dec, came back to play TPS because its better stability and the larger spread of "different approaches" to the game.  

My personal tests underlined that I safely cannot escape from the route DeathWish --> Y.Will --> Win so many times. In your deck, I realized that the presence of Death Wishes, as the best path to victory, "forced" me to win with it. Sometimes it isn't the best way to win. It could be faster and maybe cooler but a lot of decks ( Hulk, 4C-C, other combos, hate decks ) would appreciate a lot the fact that countering Death Wish really would assure them a victory.

I'm sure that a good point to really value some elements in the TPS proposed, is the good mix of Istants and Sorcery bombs. I would like to instill into my opponent the fear that something nasty could happen both in my mainphase and his EOT at any time. It leave me a lot of subtle advantages that a good player can always capitalize into a victory.


I think that the single change DeathWish for Cunning Wish did not change a lot the deck, so if you like it and it fits your playstile, I suggest to play it because i think that is strong.

Adding more Rituals and more Wishes, would change not only the deck but especially the strategies involved on winnng  too much to be considered TPS yet.

[Stupid_Newb]

The decklist you posted is great. I've done some testing with it, and it's a blast to play.

A lot of the cards in italics are really good ideas. I've always liked Time Spiral and Frantic Search. Resolving a Time Spiral really does a lot more than one would expect. And when combined with a Tolarian Academy, both cards can help generate some serious mana.

Darksteel Colossus in sideboard is wonderful. I like it so much, I would even consider putting one Colossus maindeck instead of sideboard. It makes games so much easier if you can resolve the Tinker.

The one problem though, is I sometimes find myself stuck with the single Cunning Wish, because there's nothing that I need to get. As a solution, one could put additional card-drawers or tutors in the board, because they're something the deck can almost always use.

My changes:

-1 Chain of Vapor, -1 Darksteel Colossus (sideboard), -1 Hydroblast (sideboard)

+1 Darksteel Colossus, +1 Skeletal Scrying (sideboard), +1 Fact or Fiction (sideboard.

[BreathWeapon]

Actually, I'm playing an extremely different version of Death Wish TPS, after playing with Steve's Death Long. I realized I was going about it all wrong,  and my build was too impatient. Once I learned to slow down with my Death Wishes and take my time, the more consistant and powerful they became. I dropped Cabal Ritual entirely, for the same reasons you mentioned above. The Wishes can function solely off Dark Ritual.

Here is my current pile, just for reference. I'm positive Death Wish in TPS will work, I just don't have the spare time to get out and prove it.  I don't meen to undermine your work, I love Italian TPS, but no mention of Death Wish at all just isn't right. The card has too much potential to ignore.

Blue (17)
4xForce of Will
4xBrainstorm
1xHurkyl's Recall
1xChain of Vapor
1xTime Walk
1xAncestral Recall
1xTinker
1xMystical Tutor
1xTimetwister
1xWindfall
1xMind's Desire

Black (14)
1xTendrils of Agony
1xYawgmoth's Bargain
1xNecropotence
4xDeath Wish
4xDuress
1xDemonic Tutor
1xVampiric Tutor
1xDemonic Consultation

Tinker Targets (2)
1xDarksteel Colossus
1xMemory Jar

Mana (27)
5xFetch Lands
4xPolluted Delta
2xIsland
2xSwamp
1xTolarian Academy
4xDark Ritual
1xSol Ring
1xBlack Lotus
1xLotus Petal
1xMox Saphire
1xMox Emerald
1xMox Pearl
1xMox Ruby
1xMox Jet
1xMana Crypt

You can play around with the # of Duress and Bounce in the MD, or you can board the Colossus. I only play 14 Land, and it seems to work just fine. Mana Vault got "The Axe" for either Chain of Vapor or Demonic Consultation, because both of them serve the same purpose with greater versatility.

I really wish, no pun intended, that Steve would write an article on his Top 8 with Death Long, which is much more impressive than his success with Mono U permission, to give the masses a better understanding of how Death Wish functions in Storm Combo.