Wicked cool kid w/GAT

[the boogie man]

3 tropical island
2 underground sea
3 island
2 swamp
4 polluted delta
1 flooded strand
1 strip mine

4 quirion dryad
3 psychatog

1 black lotus
3 on-color mox
1 mox ruby

4 force of will
3 miscalculation
2 duress
2 daze
1 naturalize
1 pernicious deed

4 brainstorm
4 nights whisper
3 cunning wish
1 ancestral recall
1 mystical tutor
1 merchant scroll
1 demonic tutor
1 demonic consultation
1 gush

1 time walk
1 yawgmoths will

side:
2 hydroblast// better than BEB in this deck due to the any target, just in case you need to grow the dryad 1 more
3 groundseal// really good against dragon and control slaver
1 oxidize
1 ghastly demise// is this better than smother or snuff out?
1 ebony charm// vs. coffin purge
1 diabolic edict
1 berserk
1 annul// vs. tranquil domain or another naturalize
1 echoing truth
1 huryls recall
1 misdirection
1 stifle

     For any one that doesn't know, the point of this deck is to drop an early creature and beat to death with it.
   With the dryad, you generally beat over the course of a few turns and play a lot of cantrips to grow it.
     The tog generally only attacks once, but you have to make sure that you have a cunning wish and counter magic (when available). give ie +9/+9 and then have it berserk over for the game.

What I need to know is if any of these cards are less optimal than they can be, and need guidance.

One thing that I don't feel is needed in this deck is the mana drains. Yes, they power out a ton of cool high cc cads, but there really aren't that many cards w/ even a 2 in the mana cost. all I did was burn for a bunch of mana and die a lot sooner, sometimes losing the game just for that.

I know that the difference between paying 2 and paying three is big, but is the cycling ability of miscalculation useful enough to include it over the prestigous mana leak?  I like it because you can cycle under a 3sphere.\

and about pernicious deed. Sometimes i love it, sometimes I hate it. When I am facing workshop or randomn aggro, they really shine. but they are bad draws when I have a dryad out, or more moxen than the oponent. I am not sure that engineered explsives are better, tell you the truth, I think that they would be worse, but I don't know what to do with this thing.

some other cards that I have thought about including include :

trade routes. this protects lands from wastelands, dries up mana floods, and cycles through a lot of cards (possibly). the only thing is that it is really mana intensive, and that it really doesn't provide any cad advantage. is the utility worth the inclusion?

another card is tainted pact. I think that the ability to EOT tutor for anyhting near the top of the deck, usually just for a force of will or random restricted card. This has ups and downs over the demonic consultation. While consultation may remove your deck from the game, it is cheaper, and if your looking for a specific card, it is moe likely to find it, but the pact is cool because you can grab anything off the top. I could run both, but is it worth it to, since this one isn't any card advantage either.

The last one that I thought f would be 2-3 waterfront bouncer. My matchup with oath is less than spectacular, and god knows that workshop is bad too, so these could prove useful in sending juggies and akromas back to their owner's hands, and make it difficult to swarm me. They also pitch force, which is cool.

and the nights whisperers are really good, but are some impulses or sleight of hands wirth the inclusion, or serum visions?

the mox ruby is in there over a mana crypt because the crypt hurts a lot and I mana burn anyway, and it has the duel purpose in making people think that I may be playing red, which I dont.

I know that this is a wicked rushed post, but does anyone have any insight?

[Ape]

When playing with Drains, you might want to try the Intuition/AK engine over the Night's Whispers. While the Night's Whispers might be a 'better engine', I just feel that this deck needs Mana Drains in order to protect itself, instead of Miscalculations or something like that. Otherwise you can play only 2 Drains + 2 other counters. Off course this won't be optimal, but it might solve your problem. You will receive less damage from mana burning from the Drains, and zero damage from the Night's Whispers.

I agree with you for 100% on the Deeds. I have the same problem as you.
I don't see how you are going to abuse (or just use ) Tainted Pact. Could you explain that to me?

I do think actually that Trade Routes is a good card for GAT. Your can return your land to your hand at any time, whick gives Tog "1: Psychatog gets +1/+1 until end of turn." When you don't have Tog into your hand you can trade your lands for good cards, and growing your GY for a lethal Tog or somethink like that.

[Grand Inquisitor]

I don't mean to toot my own horn, but I think the version I ran at the September Waterbury is probably still close to optimal for certain metagames.

http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=19620

(9th place deck)

The deck performs well against combo and control slaver, and can handle most other blue based decks, with the exception of Oath.  Just be prepared to lose badly to Workshops.

The differences are that miscalculation really isn't a hard counter.  Often you'll be playing control matches where they have 2 open for mana drain, and miscalc just doesn't help you.

I don't maindeck the duress because I hate fetching out sea and having it wasted.  Games 2&3 against non-wasting control and combo they're a bomb of course.

Although Psychatog is a great creature, the deck really wants to drop dryad, and in most matchups (i.e. non aggro) I only want the tog when I'm going off with Yawgwill and need to win.

Tinker->X is completely broken, and will win a lot of games while taking up minimal space in your deck.

The maindeck naturalize and pernicious deed look overly defensive.  The wishes should keep you out of trouble enough game 1.

Demonic Consultation looks unnecessarily risky.  The deck is relatively redundant, and it doesn't have any single card that says "i win" besides yawgwill and maybe tinker, neither of which you want to consult for regularly.

In general you'll notice I run a lot more restricted cards.  I feel that building these around an aggressive game plan and lots of early countermagic will win you games before your opponent knows what hits them.

The sideboard would obviously be tweaked quite a bit, but groundseals and energy flux would definitely stay.

The big X factor is that I really never tested this against Oath, since where I play Oath came out when workshops were popular, and I'd never play this deck in a workshop heavy metagame.

Hopefully this is helpful.  Enjoy playing this truly fun and broken deck.

[the boogie man]

The thing is that so many decks can abuse intuition AK better, and it is a little bit of a tempo loss to pay 3 then the ak to have control slaver or Tog get 4 for 1.

And that may prove useful, an Ak in the side as a wish target. and at least the nights whispers are abusable in singles, the ak's often won't get you any card advantage for a whilet they are instants and they are blue. Is it time to switch back?

what about serum visions? are they worth a slot?

but do you have any thoughts on the inclusions of the other 2 cads?
and what about energy flux? is it worth it to include this without the mana drains? it helps a lot against workshop.

and you can abuse the pact as demonic tutor 2-x and it finds rstricted cads much better than demonic consultation.

[/code]

[the boogie man]

demonic consultation really isn't that risky when you play it for things like force of will and nights whispers, but the vampiric tutor looks like it may prevail over the restricted one.

and the and I might remove one ground seal in the side for a null rod and im still looking for something to cut for the energy fluxes (2).

one thing that I'm unsure of is the tinker-->collosus. I don't think that this is a reliable win condition. with not much else to tinker in, and the low amount of artifact makes it kind of dificult to to use.. not to mention, the crucible isn't super useful in this deck.

but the other card that I really don't like in this deck is the fastbond. The only way to really abuse this  is when you use gush. other than that, it usually just sits there.

and about duress. One of the reasons that I cut the drains is that you can fetch out a basic swamp, duress, and then turn two fetch oput an island and  use a mana leak. I decided to switch for the mana leak because the reasons you explained.

what are your thought on pernicious deed in the main? I like how they ae so good against workshops, but are they worth it?

and the naturalize main. I could cut that and  put it in the side fo a annul. but what should go for the two energy flux? and in the slot that the naturalize was in, I cfouold put in serum visions or another pernicious deed. which one, though? what about trade routes?

and why didn't you have hurkyl's recall in the side?and what abou tthe oxidize that I'm running? is it worth it,  could I remove that and put in one of the energy flux. I like this idea, because the oxidize usually was just semi-useful . the energy flux levels the field a little more. what else could I cut? the closest thing to being cut is the echoing truth, but that is super tech against oath. . Anything on the water front bouncer?

Just to beat the dying horse, what else am I going to intuition for, though? I guess togs and dryads, but what about in the control match when you need the card advantage?

      Also, what are your thoughts on removing nights whispers and serum visions and side boarding 4 chains of mephistopheles? you could side out brainstorms when needed, and switch to sleight of hand and impulse. is this viable? with that, I wouldn't need to use that intuition/ak thang, and the only draw that I would have left would be gush and ancestral, and possibly the inclusion of fact or fiction. this would also raise th blue count.

     And yes I stole this from the guy who won 6h place