(Deck/Report) dXm

[policehq]

Last night a "local" (aka 1 hour away, the minimum distance I have to drive for tournaments) card store called The Arena hosted its second tournament in a series of events giving FBB dual land play sets to the winner. I won 4 FBB Underground Seas at the first tournament, and I wanted the 4 FBB Taiga given last night.

Since I have a fetish with MaskNought, I built this new list that I believe should define traditional MaskNought in the future (not Ninja Mask). I wanted to abuse Artificer's Intuition as much as possible, and use it to tutor up 2 Phyrexian Dreadnoughts before attacking on my turn. Its synnergy with Sensei's Divining Top is also incredible. Here's the deck:

// Lands
4  Seat of the Synod
1  Tolarian Academy
4  Underground Sea
2  Vault of Whispers

// Creatures
1  Darksteel Colossus
3  Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
4  Phyrexian Dreadnought

// Spells
1  Black Lotus
1  Chrome Mox
1  Lotus Petal
1  Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1  Mox Emerald
1  Mox Jet
1  Mox Pearl
1  Mox Ruby
1  Mox Sapphire
1  Sol Ring
1  Engineered Explosives
1 Ancestral Recall
4  Artificer's Intuition
1  Demonic Tutor
1  Mystical Tutor
4  Thoughtcast
1  Time Walk
1  Tinker
1  Vampiric Tutor
3  Duress
4  Force of Will
1  Misdirection
4 Illusionary Mask
3  Sensei's Divining Top

// Sideboard
SB: 1  Engineered Explosives
SB: 4  Blue Elemental Blast
SB: 2  Echoing Truth
SB: 3  Chains of Mephistopheles
SB: 2  Chill
SB: 3  Chalice of the Void

Let me just explain a few things.

Cards that are awesome in this deck:
-Sensei's Divining Top
-The Cards in this deck.

Thanks to my good buddy Matt for loaning me the Kira, Great Glass-Spinners and the blue Power 9. Poor guy couldn't play his fish deck.

Apparently the last tournament garnered a lot of attention and prestige, so we gathered quite the large crowd. There were going to be seven rounds before the Top 8.

Round 1 was against Alex, who must be about 14 years old. He's one of those kids that says he plays guitar, and can play "Stairway to Heaven" and maybe one Hendrix song. -That's it.- I don't really like him. Plus he's playing Meandeck Gifts, so I pretty much know how to take him down.

Game 1: I get the early Darksteel Colossus blocker and Artificer's Intuition. I pick up a Sensei's Divining Top with something like a Chrome Mox and make sure I always have a Force of Will ready for something like Rebuild. Kira takes it all the way home, because I didn't want to over-extend with two more Dreadnoughts.

Sideboarding: I looked through my sideboard for a while and realized there were some interesting possibilities, but I finally went with this rather dumpy change:
-1 Engineered Explosives
+1 Chains of Mephistopheles

This is probably a bad idea game 2 when people sideboard in Pithing Needle, I realized later.

Game 2: Chains of Mephistopheles never shows up, which is good because I was able to power out early Thoughtcasts and win the card advantage race, but then the worst thing happened:

He Mana Drained my Thoughtcast. If I play it for 1, it should give him 1 mana.

I don't have anything to block Darksteel Colossus, and he goes Gifts all over me.

Game 3: I first turn Duress a Rebuild and play a Sensei's Divining Top. Neither of us are really doing anything since I'm digging around trying to get Illusionary Mask. I do, and play the 2 Dreadnoughts in my hand with Force of Will back-up, and play Time Walk.

1-0-0

Round 2: I don't remember his name, and he played R/G beats.

Thank you Wizards for creating Equipment, Aether Vial, and Chalice of the Void. Thank you aggro players for believing this is better than playing Null Rod.

Game 1: He plays an early Chalice for zero, and I sigh in relief. It is disruptive, but nothing stopped me from playing two 12/12s and casting Time Walk.

Sideboarding: I don't really want Goblin Welder to mess with my goodies, I don't want Rack and Ruin cast, and I definitely don't want him siding in Null Rod. So I bring in a ton of stuff:
+2 Chill
+2 Blue Elemental Blast
+2 Echoing Truth

-3 Duress
-1 Engineered Explosives
-1 Chrome Mox
-1 Lotus Petal

Normally, a sideboard change in six cards is really unheard of with me.

Game 2: This is when I learned that siding out Engineered Explosives is a bad idea. I did the Artificer's Intuition/Sensei's Divining Top thing, shuffling my library and looking for an Echoing Truth or Tinker, and he beats me down with Rancored apes and snakes.

So out go 2 Chill and in come 2 Engineered Explosives.

Game 3: He Pithing Needled, naming Mask, so I Artificer's Intuition for Engineered Explosives, played it for one, and waited til I got an Illusionary Mask. It didn't take long, and I played 2 Dreadnoughts and passed him to his last turn.

2-0-0

Round 3: Every tournament report in Vintage has something broken like this:
Game 1: First turn Tinker for Darksteel Colossus. Force of Will back-up.
Game 2: First turn Illusionary Mask. Second turn Tolarian Academy, Artificer's Intuition, dump 2 artifacts for Dreadnoughts, play them, pass.

Thank goodness, because that match-up was Stax, and I hadn't practiced it at all.

3-0-0

[Break for Red Bull]

Round 4: Jeremy with a deck that he and I made that casts Intuition for Fastbond, Revive, Regrowth/Eternal Witness and wins with Stroke of Genius after playing Crucible of Worlds and Zuran Orb or a Wasteland. It's like Animal Farm except you don't have to resolve Engineered Explosives to win because it doesn't have the Horn of Greed engine.

Since he's my friend, I offer to ID, but he wanted to see my new deck.

Game 1: I race for a Force of Will to counter Fastbond, but it's in vain as he has Mana Drains, Dazes, and Force of Will. He goes off unfettered, but at least I lost with a hand chock full of good stuff.

Game 2: This time it's my turn, and Mask resolves first turn before he gets Mana Drain online, then all of my creatures go uncountered. Zuran Orb has nothing on 12/12s.

Game 3: I play a turn 1 Engineered Explosives for 1 and wait. Meanwhile I also get Mask out, but can't find Artificer's Intuition or a dreadnought. Finally I get a Top and a Tutor, and I go off. He has one turn left, and after Merchant Scrolling and Ancestral Recalling and Brainstorming and playing a fetch and Brainstorming again he couldn't find an answer.

4-0-0

Round 5: This round was against Aaron who is playing my deck, Disco Ball. It's basically white weenie in type 1 that has Chalice, Null Rod, Glowrider, Sphere of Resistance, and a bunch of other very nasty hateful cards.

With 4 Swords to Plowshares and 4 Seal of Cleansing running against me, this is also the round where I was happy I included Kira, Great Glass-Spinner.

Game 1: He plays first, and lays a Mox Diamond and a plains, then casts Null Rod. I truly hate Disco Ball. I try to find Tinker for a Colossus, but I'm stuck with Tolarian Academy as my only usable mana-source. Then he plays Tolarian Academy.

"Wait, that wasn't in my deck list."
"I know; it's my new tech for things like this."
"Well I think it sucks."

Then I take Exalted Angel beatings while I can't do anything.

Game 2: I side in Echoing Truth for Null Rods and hate myself for not splashing red and green for things like Oxidize and Rack and Ruin.

I know I have to have a good opening hand since I'm on the play, and I got quite a good one, that allowed for a first turn Illusionary Mask->Dreadnought and second turn Kira. Aaron can't do anything about that.

Game 3: Pretty much the same as Game 1 except this time I have a Mystical Tutor in hand for Tinker/Colossus and an Underground Sea (yay for non-artifact lands). I also get a Tolarian Academy and cast some useless cogs (Moxen) and Illusionary Mask to ramp up mana. Tinker ended up costing 6 mana because of 2 Glowriders and a Sphere of Resistance, but I cast it and a 4-mana Kira for the win.

[Break for Red Bull. One left, and these breaks are becoming more frequent.]

Round 6: I concede and don't show my deck to anyone.

[Break for Red Bull. STUPID. I should've saved it for finals.]

Round 7: Same thing. I know I'm in the top 8.

Top 8:
There are three Dragon lists, a Stax, two Fish decks, an Affinity, and Jeremy with his Animal Farm-ish deck.

First match is me versus a Dragon deck. This deck is pretty much mono-black with Spoils of the Vault, Dark Rituals, etc. for really quick wins.

Game 1: He beats me on turn 1.
Game 2: I obliterate his board with a Blue Elemental Blast.
Game 3: He Spoils down to 7 for a Bazaar on the turn before I swing with a Dreadnought.

Second match is Dragon again, but this is good Dragon with Deeds and a lot of 5-color lands, Caller of the Claw, and 2-3 Stifles (why aren't more dragon players using these?).

Game 1: He's searching for stuff with Squees and Bazaars; I'm searching for stuff with Artificer's Intuition and Sensei's Divining Top. He counters my first Illusionary Mask, so I dig around for more off-color artifacts to pitch then view the top 3 cards of my library. Basically this is how it works:

Artificer's Intuition/Sensei's Divining Top

U: Discard an artifact, go get a Mox that will pay for Sensei's Divining Top's activation and look at 3 new cards after shuffling.

So I find Illusionary Mask easily and it resolves. He can't find an Animate spell, so I bring out 2 Dreadnoughts and cast Time Walk.

Game 2: I bring in the Blue Elemental Blasts, and he proves that Stifles are good. Then he casts Pernicious Deed on my Masks and 1 Dreadnought (I knew since he was playing Deed not to over-extend. I Misdirect an animate spell to Caller of the Claw. It takes a while for me to bring him down to 10 with a Dreadnought, but then he goes off with Caller of the Claw in the graveyard thanks to his block against my 12/12.

Game 3: Another quick boring win with 2 Dreadnoughts thanks to an in-hand Illusionary Mask and Artificer's Intuition.

The next match is against U/G/W fish. All I have to say is read what I wrote thanking Wizards and being happy with putting Kira in the deck. I win pretty easily.

4 FBB Taiga for me! Next tournament is for 4 FBB Tropical Islands, and I dare not lose a game in that tourney.

Barry

[Rico Suave]

I Misdirect an animate spell to Caller of the Claw.

If it is something like Animate Dead or Necromancy, which I would assume it would be considering it is Dragon, you cannot misdirect them because they do not target when they're waiting to resolve.

Good jorb, and wow I haven't seen anybody play MaskNaught in a long while.

[Mantis]

Good job indeed!
How were the Artificer's Intuition working out for you? Since they can't fetch your entire combo, wouldn't TFK or something in that direction, be a better pick? I see you have a lot of 0-1 cc artifacts in the deck though, but are they worth the A. Intuition?

[policehq]

Good job indeed!
How were the Artificer's Intuition working out for you? Since they can't fetch your entire combo, wouldn't TFK or something in that direction, be a better pick? I see you have a lot of 0-1 cc artifacts in the deck though, but are they worth the A. Intuition?

Thirst for Knowledge lets you see, and possibly work with the top three cards of your deck. Sensei's Divining Top does this as well at a lower (and colorless) cost, and not only does the re-shuffling ability from Artificer's Intuition allow you to see various sets of three cards, but also Artificer's Intuition will fetch the Sensei's Divining Top.

Artificer's Intuition and Sensei's Divining Top is the main combo. When you side answers in, the combo is what helps you find them, and it helps you find Illusionary Mask or Tinker if that's what you need. The only problem is that it's very blue-mana hungry, and if it weren't for the Thoughtcasts I would take the Vault of Whispers out for Polluted Deltas/Islands/Gemstone Mines, and I would love Crop Rotation in here to fetch Tolarian Academy.

If it is something like Animate Dead or Necromancy, which I would assume it would be considering it is Dragon, you cannot misdirect them because they do not target when they're waiting to resolve.

Wow, thanks for that. The Dragon player didn't even catch it, and no judges were involved. Fortunately, though, he won that game anyway.

Barry

[alban]

why not play Aether spellbomb in the echoing truth slot? It's fetchable with A. Intuition, and it's never dead.
congratz with the win.

[policehq]

Aether Spellbomb doesn't work against Null Rod in so many ways.

Barry

[NCM]

EDIT:  Sorry, I didn't realize you were just complaining.

Congratulations on winning the Taigas!

[b-tings]

Very cool deck. I always wanted Artificer's Intuition to work, and you got the job done.

[policehq]

He Mana Drained my Thoughtcast. If I play it for 1, it should give him 1 mana.

No, he still gets 5.  Affinity changes the cost of what you would pay for it, not the mana cost itself.

Congratulations on winning the Taigas!

No, I know he gets the converted mana cost; it was just a little whining because not only was I robbed of two cards for one mana, but also he got five mana in his pool to go wild with Gifts Ungiven.

Barry

[Komatteru]

No, I know he gets the converted mana cost; it was just a little whining because not only was I robbed of two cards for one mana, but also he got five mana in his pool to go wild with Gifts Ungiven.

Mana Drain is good like that.

[forests failed you]

Mana Draining cards in an Affinity deck is INSANE!   Just think of all the nasty things Gifts or Slaver can do after Draining a Myr Enforcer... Oh God, that is a spicy meatball.

[NWI Team_Zilla]

You can't Misdirect the Animate Dead, but you can Misdirect Dance of the Dead, and Necromancy, so it is just more likely that he played one of the latter two and you didn't remember it.  Nice job at the Tourny, I wish the prizes where I play were that good, around me the guy who runs the Shop/Tourny rips everyone off and gives people like boosters and not nearly as many as is deserving of the # of people that showed up/$10 fee/he gets boosters at less than $2 each. So just feel happy that you have somewhere to play that doesn't completely suck...even if it is an hour away.

[Sagath]

You can't Misdirect the Animate Dead, but you can Misdirect Dance of the Dead, and Necromancy, so it is just more likely that he played one of the latter two and you didn't remember it.

Just to reiterate, this is incorrect, all of the 'animate' type spells are not misdirectable. Here is the wording that all animate-esque spells follow. I'm using Animate for clarity as it doesnt have any extras (necromancies instant, and dances untap) but other then these differances, the wording is the same;

When ~this~ comes into play, if it’s in play, it becomes an Aura with enchant creature. Put target creature card from a graveyard into play under your control and attach Animate Dead to it.
When ~this~ leaves play, destroy enchanted creature. It can’t be regenerated.

# Oct 4, 2004 - A "creature card" is a Creature card or Artifact Creature card. Older cards of type Summon are also Creature cards.
# Oct 4, 2004 - This is a targeted ability. Note that cards in the graveyard do not have Protection from Color abilities, but the comes into play ability may be countered if the target creature card is removed from the graveyard before the spell resolves. If the ability is countered, then this card stays an Enchantment and stays in play.
# Oct 4, 2004 - When putting a card into play that requires a definition for its value or some other choice, you do what is needed to define the value or make the choice.
# Oct 4, 2004 - In general, an animated creature comes out as if it were just played. Any X in the mana cost is zero.
# Aug 1, 2005 - Enters play as a global enchantment and then becomes an Enchant Creature Aura as a triggered ability upon entering play. It follows all the rules for Auras from then on.

Therefore the animates ability is a triggered ability when it comes into play, and the target is chosen when it comes into play also.

[Carthain]

If you want to change the target of Animate Dead/Dance of the Dead/Necromancy, then you can only use Willbender -- which, btw, works rather well with Illusionary Mask.

[b-tings]

Just to clarify, Animate spells are not triggered. The effect is part of the resolution. So no Stifling.

[Dante]

Just to clarify, Animate spells are not triggered. The effect is part of the resolution. So no Stifling.

That is not correct.  You can stifle the trigger - the effect (putting a creature into play) is NOT part of the resolution of the spell, it's part of the resolution of the TRIGGERED ability, which can be stifled.

1. Cast animate dead
2. Animate dead comes into play (resolves), at which point the triggered ability (become an Aura with enchant creature) goes on the stack. 

At this point in time, Animate Dead is just an Enchantment, with the triggered abliity on the stack.  You can stifle the trigger at this point in time.

Bill

[b-tings]

You're right. For some reason I thought these where "As" effects, not "When." Reading is tech.

[karlake]

One copy of Pthing needle seem to fit in the maindeck.

[policehq]

One copy of Pthing needle seem to fit in the maindeck.

I thought of doing a lot of cute Artificer's Intuition tricks like this, but really it just stalls my play when I should be laying down the Dreadnoughts and looking for Time Walk/Illusionary Mask/Tinker. Originally Chalice of the Void was in here as a one-of, and so was Pithing Needle, but the one copy of Sensei's Divining Top just didn't seem to cut it.

I might add one into the sideboard; hopefully come people here can relate to the troubles of making sideboards at tournaments, especially when you have a 10,000+ card collection and don't even bring 1% of them with you.

[apoc7k]

One copy of Pthing needle seem to fit in the maindeck.

[begin irritable rant] Okay, now seriously here. Explain why one copy might benefit this deck. What will it help against? Might more than one work? What would you recommend removing? I know that some of us will know why it's good, but other people, like the new and inexperienced, might not understand why. [end irritable rant]

That being said, lets get onto why I think they might be beneficial. While some people may thing that pithing needle is a second-rate card, I strongly disagree. Pithing needle can stop things like Wastelands, which against this deck can be fairly devastating, especially when they add in a CoW. Pithing needle can protect your mana base, which is really helpful. Running 11 lands, with 11 non-land sources, a steady stream of wastes will slow the deck down considerably. Needle also stops welders, which can be quite a nuisance. Sure, if he lands out Kira, then he's much safer, but until then... yeah.

Anyways, very solid deck IMHO. I've playtested him with it, and he knocked my block off.

[karlake]

One copy of Pthing needle seem to fit in the maindeck.

[begin irritable rant] Okay, now seriously here. Explain why one copy might benefit this deck. What will it help against? Might more than one work? What would you recommend removing? I know that some of us will know why it's good, but other people, like the new and inexperienced, might not understand why. [end irritable rant]

You covered the most yourself. With this deck you almost always have an artifact in your graveyard, and needle fully itself  the welder-problem itself (but three kira may be enough).

Whats your motivation of running thoughtcast over tfk?

[NWI Team_Zilla]

After reading the Oracle text on Animate Dead and friends, I realize that Sagath is right, that you can stifle it because on the Oracle text it says "When", and because it says when, you can't Misdirect, as it is, as Sagath said, a triggered ability.

[Wolven]

I've been doing a little testing of this deck and it seems as though the deck could really abuse a Yawg's Will. Considering the washing of moxen and other mana accellerants, it could provide some rather busted Will turns.

Also is a question of whether this deck could support a Tendrils as a third win condition.

Thoughts?

[policehq]

I've been doing a little testing of this deck and it seems as though the deck could really abuse a Yawg's Will. Considering the washing of moxen and other mana accellerants, it could provide some rather busted Will turns.

Also is a question of whether this deck could support a Tendrils as a third win condition.

Thoughts?

The eventuality of adding Yawgmoth's Will and Tendrils of Agony is how I plan to abuse Artificer's Intuition when Starter and Portal sets are legal.

U: Pitch an artifact, get a Black Lotus
U: Pitch an artifact, get a Lion's Eye Diamond
Dark Ritual or Cabal Ritual for Grim Tutor into Yawgmoth's Will, sac Black Lotus and Lion's Eye Diamond, cast your spells again and a Grim Tutor once again for Tendrils.

Anyway, yeah, Yawgmoth's Will would be a beast in this deck, and it was a mistake for me not to have played it. I have a new list that I will post soon; it is 4-color.

[bebe]

I love the deck. i've taken two builds of Mask/Naught to Ontario Vintage Championships and top eighted twice. I've put the deck aside as I knew it neeed an update. Your build looks very good although I question the usefulness of some of the sideboard cards. Non-the-less a solid base for me to look at. I've usually played either G/U or W/U for my builds - I dropped black about two years ago. But I've been wanting to put it back in for awhile and your build incorporates it well. I'm not at all surprised at your results - I've a good Mask build has always been competitive. Congratulations.

[policehq]

Since sometimes tournament decklists are suboptimal due to players not bringing all their cards, etc. Here is my new deck and sideboard:

Land:
3 City of Brass
3 Forbidden Orchard
3 Gemstone Mine
4 Seat of the Synod
1 Tolarian Academy

Artifacts:
1 Black Lotus
1 Chrome Mox
1 Engineered Explosives
4 Illusionary Mask
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
3 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sol Ring

Beats:
1 Darksteel Colossus
4 Phyrexian Dreadnought

Search/Draw:
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Artificer's Intuition
1 Burning Wish
1 Crop Rotation
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
4 Thoughtcast
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will

Protection:
4 Force of Will
1 Hanna's Custody

Sideboard:
1 Artifact Mutation
2 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
1 Pithing Needle
1 Pyroclasm
2 Rack and Ruin
3 Sacred Ground
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Vindicate

The deck right now is running the bare minimum of blue cards for Force of Will and Chrome Mox, but for Force of Will, between each Artificer's Intuition beyond the first, early Thoughtcasts, and the top three cards of your library, I've found that finding a spell to pitch hasn't been hard (although actually weighing the pro's and con's of pitching something like Time Walk or Tinker is very difficult).

With the current lists running no Vault of Whispers, I question whether Thoughtcast is the optimal draw spell. Brainstorm has the same amazing synnergy with Artificer's Intuition as Sensei's Divining Top, but unfortunately Brainstorm would be an earlier play (end of opponent's first turn) and make me pass the turn without playing a threat. Thirst for Knowledge is simply too expensive, and the discard drawback is more detrimental in this deck than any other where it is used. If I had about three more blue cards in the deck, I would probably change them all to Tainted Pacts. Perhaps pro-active control/disruption could be brought back to the deck with Duress and Unmask, and then Tainted Pact would be a solid choice.