The What Goes Up Must Come Down U/Art.dec

Okay, off an idea I had for a turn one Tendrils of Agony deck, I redesigned my Brain Freeze deck. So far, it has pretty consistent storms of 16 around turn four.

Here is the decklist with explanations below as well as cards I plan on putting in when acquired. Let me know what you guys think.

//Mana
5 Island
1 Volcanic Island
1 Wooded Foothills
4 B/U Pain Search(I forget the name, but my friend has 4 I can use)
1 Lotus Petal
1 Chrome Mox
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Black Lotus

//Fodder
4 Ornithopter
4 Engineered Explosives
4 Spellbook
2 Orochi Hatchery
1 Tormod's Crypt

//Spells
4 Retract
4 High Tide
4 Thoughtcast
3 Brain Freeze
1 Sleight of Hand
1 Ancestral Recall
2 Careful Study
2 Future Sight
4 Snap
1 Standstill
1 Brainstorm
2 Impulse

//SB
4 Counterspell
4 Arcane Denial
4 Echoing Truth
3 Broodstar

Okay, as for some of the cards...well, Tormod's Crypt should be an obvious card to use with all of the decktypes that rely on their graveyard for Goblin Welder's and/or Yawgmoth's Will. It also ensures that whatever I grind with my Brain Freeze stays out of the way.

The Thoughtcast's are in there as a means to draw two cards for 1U, as the high number of free artifacts almost guarentee a turn one Thoughtcast. It's my poor man's version of Ancestral Recall.

For a while, I was running a Mox Daimond in here, for triple use as a free artifact, a multi-colored mana source for Engineered Explosives(Sunburst), and also as mana accelleration on turn one. However, it became to much of a hindrance.

Eventually, I would like to put in the following:

1 Mox Sapphire(Added)
1 Black Lotus(Added)
1 Time Walk(Added)
1 Ancestral Recall(Added)

So, what do you guys think?

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Goldfish/Playtest Results

Down at the shop today, I tested the deck in three different formats, against a multitude of decks.

In the format where five players face off using mono color decks against their opposing colors(I forget the actual name of the format), my deck lost to a speedy Goblin deck. I was able to keep most of the hate off the board, but Piledriver's became an issue along with a Skirk Fire Marshall around turn five. In a typical tournament match-up, I would have used the counter/control in my sideboard in place of some of the card draw and artifacts. Most of the saving grace for my deck came from it's lack of actual creatures, as the mono-black deck next to me cast an early game Innocent Blood, eliminating the Goblin Lackey staring at me, and then a Teferi's Puzzlebox the next round clearing one of the two Piledrivers out of my opponent's hand. In the end, I survived long enough to deck him, but I chose to leave him alive as a buffer so that the white deck didn't get an auto-win. The red deck player decided to give green victory with a Goblin Grenade to my head.

In chaos, between a group of four and a group of six, the deck performed beautifully every time, resulting in single turn decking of all opponents usually around turn four or five. I just now added in the Black Lotus, so a turn one Future Sight shouldn't be that much of a problem as I only need two other mana sources. However, the thought of switching to a Tendrils of Agony win does seem probable, as it can eliminate an opponent in multi-player and enable me to survive long enough to storm again. Dark Rituals can also help power out an early Future Sight, using Chromatic Sphere's to fix the mana. The decks I faced in multi-player ran no Counterspells, so I didn't get to try baiting.

In a single-player match-up, the deck did just as well as in multi-player, if not faster. The only thing that could have stopped the deck would be a Counter/Control deck, and then a Stifle or Squelch would become a true threat to my win strategy.

All in all, I really enjoy how the deck is turning out and hopefully it can be rated as competative to the current power-decks of the Vintage scene.