Sensei, Sensei deck. For your consideration.

[elias]

For your consideration

Sensei, sensei
[gas]22
1 Strip Mine
1 Underground Sea
1 Sol Ring
1 Mox Diamond
1 Chrome Mox
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Vault
13 Islands
2 Seat of the Synod
[kill]13
4 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Helm of Awakening
4 Brain Freeze
1 Future Sight
[draw]14
1 Tinker
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Mystical Tutor
4 Brainstorm
4 Accumulated Knowledge
1 Intuition
2 Thirst for Knowledge
[control]11
4 Arcane Denial
4 Force of Will
3 Mana Leak

Ok. This is the deck I have now. I want to make this mono blue as much as possible (I'm using the underground sea since I have one). I'm working on getting wastelands which i feel is a must for mono-color control decks. I'm working on getting stifles to fight oath (targeting gaea's blessing)

I play in an environment where most people are playing oath/2 land belcher/stax, welder mud, slaver/TPS/dragon. Rarely does power ever show up except for the rare one-of Mox or Ancestral Recall. I don't plan on getting power anytime soon since I'd rather spend money on other things and even if I had money, I'd be hard-pressed to find even a dint of power.

I'm not making anything revolutionary here. I just want a deck that wins a lot. A deck with the ability to consistently pull
off kills on turns 3-5 without power and the slight probability of a goldfish on turn 2. Dragon might do this, but IMHO
dragon will be hard pressed without aggressive mulligans. Frankly I'm not confident in my magic IQ to be able to make such decisions yet. So i stick with Sensei, Sensei.

Card choices:

AK: I'm looking for Impluses to replace these. If the switch is a bad idea, please do tell me.
Arcane Denial: I cut counterspell for this with the mentality that I NEED the extra draw. I'm a combo deck who kills fast.
Counter-based control rarely rears its ugly head in our meta anyways. It also costs less when Helm is in play
Mana Leak: I'm really not comfortable with counterspell. Especially if I'm going to put in 3-4 wastelands (which have become hard to find recently). Plus it gets the bonus when Helm of awakening is in play.
Intuition: I originally had 2. However I found that I rarely needed to use it. In such cases I just really needed to fish through my deck better. That's why I have 2 TfK's

Future additions?

Wasteland (3-4):
Tolarian academy: I'm still debating wether this will be useful. I only have a few artifacts in my deck
STIFLE (3-4): this is a definite addition. Very versatile. It can net me some tempo advantage by stopping fetchlands, welders AND the all-important Gaea's Blessing

FUTURE SIDEBOARD::

3 Back to Basics
3 Chill
3 Scrabbling Claws
3 Echoing Truth (for random matchups)
3 ???

This is my first post so... I'm very much a nooB :p

-Elias

[Space_Stormy]

Sensei, sensei
[gas]22
1 Strip Mine
1 Underground Sea
1 Sol Ring
1 Mox Diamond
1 Chrome Mox
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Vault
13 Islands
2 Seat of the Synod[?]
[kill]13
4 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Helm of Awakening
4 Brain Freeze
1 Future Sight
[draw]14
1 Tinker
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Mystical Tutor
4 Brainstorm
4 Accumulated Knowledge
1 Intuition
2 Thirst for Knowledge
[control]11
4 Arcane Denial
4 Force of Will
3 Mana Leak

Ok, it seems soild, but it needs a lot of work.(ones in bold are the bad cards) First of all, if the combo is Top+Helm+Sight, why do you run only one Future Sight? Plus, 4 Freezes are a terrible idea.  I suggest this decklist:

1 Strip Mine
1 Sol Ring
1 Mox Diamond
1 Chrome Mox
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Vault
16 Island

4 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Helm of Awakening
3 Future Sight
1 Brain Freeze
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Mystical Tutor
4 Brainstorm
4 Accumulated Knowledge
2 Intuition (Intution for 3 AKs= 3 cards for 5 mana at instant speed)
3 Cunning Wish
4 Counterspell
4 Force of Will
3 Mana Leak

Sb:

1 Brain Freeze
1 Misdirection
1 Echoing Truth
3 Hurkyl's Recall
3 Phyrexian Furnace (Common that is better than claws)
1 Intution
1 Annul
1 Stifle
3 Chalice of the Void

For more help, take a look here:

http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/event/9026.html

[elias]

1 Strip Mine
1 Sol Ring
1 Mox Diamond
1 Chrome Mox
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Vault
16 Island

4 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Helm of Awakening
3 Future Sight
1 Brain Freeze
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Mystical Tutor
4 Brainstorm
4 Accumulated Knowledge
2 Intuition (Intution for 3 AKs= 3 cards for 5 mana at instant speed)
3 Cunning Wish
4 Counterspell
4 Force of Will
3 Mana Leak

Sb:

1 Brain Freeze
1 Misdirection
1 Echoing Truth
3 Hurkyl's Recall
3 Phyrexian Furnace (Common that is better than claws)
1 Intution
1 Annul
1 Stifle
3 Chalice of the Void

For more help, take a look here:

http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/event/9026.html

I had thought about cunning wish but I thought it was a bit too slow... I am aware that I only have 1 future sight. However... 2 tops are enough to win the game. You can place one on top of the deck and draw it using the second top. with the helm in play, this goes infinite. Of course you can't draw your whole deck this way. :p

It's quicker too and I don't have to build up 4-5 mana to get it going. MisD is something I'll look into. Phyrexian Furnace is something I don't!have yet whereas I have 3 claws already. I'll try to look for them.

I really feel that wastelands are the only good thing about going mono-color...

anyways, thanks for the help.

-elias

[Mixing Mike]

The problem with cards like Wasteland/Strip Mine, Mana Leak, maindeck kill cards (espically 4 of them), Arcane Denial is simple; they all keep you from comboing off quickly.

The main goal of Sensei is NOT to stop your opponent's spell from resolving, it's to get your spells to resolve.  Hence why cards such as Wasteland and Mana Leak and Arcane Denial are bad.  The deck runs Force of Will because it will get your turn 2/3 Future Sight to resolve.  The deck runs Mana Drain because it uses the card more for the accelerant moreso than it uses Mana Drain to counter your opponents spells (though it is quite good at doing so).  Most of the time once I have UU up, I'm looking at the CC of a spell my opponent plays more often than I look at the effect the card does for my opponent.  Running maindeck kills cards like 4 Freeze is just bad.  It's 4 dead cards in your deck, and there's no other way to put it.

I would not reccomend playing Sensei without cards like Tolarian Academy, Lotus, the 5 Moxen, and Mana Drains.  The deck loses it's strongest focus point; mana acceleration.  Also, by not running Tolarian Academy, you're missing your biggest acclerant in the deck.  You also cannot justify the inclusion of Frantic Search.  By not running Black for DT, Vamp, and Y. Will, you lose a very large portion of the deck's overall power.

With that being said, I need to ask you where the hell your Deep Analysis are, and why on earth are you running Tinker?  What do you get with Tinker?  A Top, perhaps a Helm?  Back to Deep Analysis, the thing is AMAZING under one Helm, and get's unfair under 2 or more Helms.  The initial cost of DA with one Helm out is 2U, with a flashback cost of U and a loss of 3 Life.  Can you see that it's 4 mana for 4 cards.  That's pretty damn good.

With all that said, I've been told that my Sensei Primer should be up sometime this week on StarCity Games, probably around Thursday/Friday.  I highly suggestyou read it, as it will help you greatly with the deck.

[elias]

It's not that I don't want to play the moxen... I just don't have the power. And neither do the majority of players in my country. That's why i'm putting this thread in the newbie area.

I see your point about the maindeck freezes. They'll stay in the MD until I get cunning wishes. The Deep Analysis is something I'm looking forward to putting in, but should I take out the brainstorms for them?

I'll see about getting them future sights.

Should I run daze if I want to combo early? It seems to me I'd rarely have the mana up to cast Counterspell if I want to combo on turns 2-3. Daze or Foil? MisD's are hard to find but I'll be getting them eventually.

Tolarian is a sure addition. But should I get the Kamigawa land that untaps legendary permanents to help tolarian out. It doesn't come into play tapped and it can tap for blue. The only drawback is that it's nonbasic.

Mana Drains... le big sigh...

anyways, thank you for your time. i'll check out that primer when it's released. Is it under premium?

[balthamel]

I play semi-budget sensei combo myself (Mox Sapphire, Ancestral Recall and Drains), but it's not optimal. However, you might want to consider:

...Something to Tinker for, like Memory Jar or Darksteel Colossus, both of which can win you the game.
...Duress. I really like it in my list, but I see you like to keep it blue. If you get more seas though, add Duress, Will and Tutors, they do great work even on a budget.
...Reducing the number of each of Helm and Top to three, which seems to be enough, at least in my list.
...Impulse. It seems better than AK with only one Intuition around, but I may be wrong on this, as I haven't tested.
...Removing Arcane Denial. You may need the draw, but for each potential win condition it gives you, it gives your opponent two potential Counterspells.

Also, against Gaea's blessing, Extract feels better than Stifle, at least if the Oath build is running two Blessings.
I'm not certain if Wastelands are that good in a deck that wants to win fast, but feel free to try them.


I wish you luck

My first post too

[xrizzo]

What do you get with Tinker?  A Top, perhaps a Helm?

I run tinker in my build so I can fetch the last combo piece.  I also run Darksteel Colossus as an alternate 'oops, I win' option.  I would recommend adding in the Colossus because it is really helps if you get one of your combo pieces shut down.  (Null Rod maybe)

Mike, I look forward to your primer -- I have been experimenting with a lot of options recently and hope you shed light on what you have been developing.

[elias]

The colossus is a sure addition then.

3 helms, 4 tops (since I use the dual top/helm path a lot)
arcane denial is something I still have to playtest. But I may just plug in counterspells. extract could be fatal to oath AND it doesn't need to sit around in your hand for a long time. Plus you can force it through on turn one with FoW backup. Nice.

Tinker is for the last combo piece. I'm thinking of putting in powder kegs against artifact lands and random aggro. is this a good move? MD or SB?

[elias]

of course you cast brain freeze or tendrils. I want to try and push the Snesei deck to Mono blue so I'm passing up the tendrils kill.

Which forces me to consider the Oath matchup as a very unfavorable one because of one (in some cases two) Gaea's Blessings present in their deck...

The Sensei Primer by MixingMike (who told us he was going to post it): http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/9794.html

I learned a lot from it. I'm still going mono-blue, but I'm sticking with colossus>tinker since our metagame is so diverse. A lot of strong random control decks show up as well as good aggro decks so... I figue I'd need a list which is forgiving of mistakes and very versatile. I may consider putting rushing river in the MD.