[Deck] Mega Mana

[netherspirit]

This deck is pretty decent (I'm not saying it's amazing though), and due to its access to more than one copy of most of its key cards disruption is usually of little problem, and the speed of it allows it to survive creature-based aggro. The general idea is to use Fastbond, Zuran Orb, and Crucible of Worlds to power a killer Braingeyser.

3 Zuran Orb
3 Crucible of Worlds
1 Fastbond
4 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Tinker
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Imperial Seal
3 Fabricate
3 Cruel Tutor
2 Braingeyser
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
2 Exploration
3 Xantid Swarm
1 Regrowth
1 Trade Routes
4 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Crop Rotation
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Chrome Mox
1 Mox Diamond
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
1 Mana Crypt
1 Lotus Petal
1 Lion's Eye Diamond
3 Underground Sea
3 Tropical Island
2 Bayou
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Strip Mine


Right, card explanations:
Ensnaring Bridge - I drop my hand so easily and the deck has very little defense, so this seems the best card for the slot.
Fabricate - It may be a narrow tutor but this deck relies on its artifacts.
Cruel Tutor - Not the best tutor, but it lets me get what I'm after either way.
Exploration - Fastbond numbers 2 and 3.
Xantid Swarm - Helps with counters.
Regrowth - Absolutely amazing with all my tutors etc.
Trade Routes - Allows me to kill the turn I drop the Orb Bond Crucible combo.

I have absolutely no idea what to do for the sideboard, I guess that Hurkyl's Recall would be good because Chalice@0 kills this. Maybe add Horn of Greed? I think the speed for setting up the defense is quick enough, it's just getting the kill that lets it down. Any ideas would be much appreciated...

[xycsoscyx]

First off, things like Null Rod can really hurt your day (and yes, like you said, Chalice at 0 or even 1).  I suggest more artifact removal/bounce.  Also, Exploration is nice, but it's not Fastbond 2 and 3, it doesn't let you combo out, only get 1 extra land drop each turn (per Exploration).  It does help you speed things up to get setup, but with most of the card, I don't think you need any speeding up.  Focus on getting your pieces, disrupting your opponent (Ensnaring Bridge is only OK if you have a high aggro metagame), and protecting your combo.  You can sooomewhat get your pieces fast, but you don't have much to disrupt your opponent or protect your combo (and you don't have the raw power/speed of Long or IT to not have to worry about it).

[LotusHead]

It may sound STUPID, but Zuron Orb is vulnerable t6 Chalcie for 0 AND Null Rod (both common in Vintage Metagames), but Dark Heart of the Woods can achieve same goals. Sac land for life, use life to play more land to get mana/life, go broken.

At BG, its a steal...especially in light of other jank in deck (no offence)

[netherspirit]

xycsoscyx: How about if I remove 1 Bridge and the 2 Explorations and replace them with Hurkyl's Recall? And yes the local metagame is high Aggro, but I think 3 Bridges will probably be enough.

LotusHead: None taken, how about removing 2 Orbs and putting in 2 Dark Heart of the Wood?

[Harlequin]

You probalbly want to possibly give up and go 5 color.  White gives you access to Sterling Grove and Enlightend Tutor and Argivian Find.

The only unfortunate thing about Going to 4 color (with 5 color lands) is that Dark Heart of the Wood becomes a bit less playable.

Lastly Ensnareing Bridge x4?  If anything, just run Maze of Ith... its at least a land that can be pitched to Trade Routes.  If I were going to get clever about the deck:

5  Moxen
1  lotus
1  vault
1  crypt
1  sol ring
1  petal
1  diamond
1  LED

Core Lands:
4  Undiscovered Paradice
2  Green Fetchland
1  Trop
1  Bayou
1  Savanah

Tool Box Lands:
1  Tolarian
1  Mishrah's Workshop
1  Stripmine
1  Glacial Chasm
1  Maze of Ith
2  Riftstone Portal

Combo:
3  Crucible
2  Zuran Orb
1  Deep Heart of the wood
1  Fastbond
3  Exploration

Protection:
1  Trinisphere
3  Xantid Swarm

Tutors/Recursion/Draw
4  Sterling Grove
1  Enlighten tutor
1  Crop Rotation
3  Trade Routes
4  Compulsive Research
1  DT
1  Vamp
1  Regrowth
1  Argivian Find
1  Frantic Search

[PETER FLUGZEUG]

There has been a deck which looks similar in regards of philosophy. It's an old relic from the days back when crucible was freshly introduced and anyone would play with it...
I think there are quite a few ideas of how to go with this deck. For instance: why would you bother playing with an easy- counterable, misDable wincondition when you could just go infi barbarian ring or cephalid colosseum?

I'm sure the other list is oooooooooold, but perhaps you find some input nevertheless...
It's here:
http://www.starcitygames.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=276806&sid=c3fbfdcfd9547a90dde475682cf668be

Good luck

[zeus-online]

Erh....there's no disruption in this deck?

Xantid's dosnt count...so you got 2 cards that disrupt the opponent: Strip mine and trinisphere, which isnt nearly enough
(3sphere actually wasnt even on your list)

I cant see this deck racing anything, and it dosnt disrupt the opponent!
How about adding some duress's or fow's ..or just about anything that disrupts?

/Zeus

[Harlequin]

Yeah, I also realized that the deck I posted has no win condition >_<

I was simply trying to squeeze all the techy stuff I could into a Fastbond/Crucible deck that I could think of.  Considering that I threw that decklist together while I was posting ... Well its obviously not optimal.  However, I don't think its 100% worthless, it has some interesting synergies that can be explored in it.  Such as Underdiscovered Paradice w/ some other cards in it (Trade Routes, Compulsive Research, Riftstone Portal).  Also a 1-of shop and a 1-of Trinisphere are likely not bad cards  Both can be used independantly of the other.  Also any Fastbond based decks should probably be running 4 Sterling Grove and an enlightned tutor.

[netherspirit]

Well I've got a ton of spare time at the moment, so I shall playtest this a lot, Duress is going to be my starting place for disruption, I'm not sure whether adding white for Enlightened Tutor is goin to make much difference, I've got a fair bit of tutoring going on anyways. But I'll just have to keep testing, thanks for the help guys

[Kieranwolf]

Why no Cephalid Coliseum or Barbarian ring?

Coliseum gets you your win card, which should be Barbarian Ring. No need to cast Braingeyser or devote a maindeck spot to it, just put Ring and Coliseum in as mana-producing lands. The rest should be combo, disruption, card-drawing and tutors.

You want card quality, right? What about Brainstorm?

And to go with it, some fetchlands. You want a full graveyard and a stable landbase. Fetchlands also make Crucible better.

I also tend to think that Duress is strategically better than Xantid, since you are bound to eliminate a counterspell, and you can see their hand as well.

Ten tutors seems like way more than enough. I'd lose the Fabricates at least, since the card you most often need to find is Fastbond. Replace them with a draw spell or something that can gain you some tempo.

[PETER FLUGZEUG]

So obviously, you all haven't looked at the old deck...
I'll post the list here for you lazy ones.
Have you never thought about the inclusion off Horn of greed?
I think that deck is far more thought about even if it hasn't real disruption either.
the SB obviously has to be changed as well as the whole deck, but I think at least it has a real concept...
Animal Farm:
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Barbarian Ring
1 Bayou
1 Black Lotus
4 Brainstorm
1 Crop Rotation
4 Crucible of Worlds
1 Demonic Tutor
2 Engineered Explosives
4 Exploration
1 Fastbond
1 Glacial Chasm
4 Horn of Greed
1 Library of Alexandria
2 Living Wish
1 Memory Jar
3 Mishra's Workshop
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
4 Polluted Delta
1 Regrowth
1 Strip Mine
1 Time Walk
1 Timetwister
1 Tinker
1 Trade Routes
4 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
2 Undiscovered Paradise
1 Vampiric Tutor
3 Wasteland
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Zuran Orb

1 Wasteland
1 Glacial Chasm
4 Damping Matrix
1 Gorilla Shaman
4 Null Rod
1 Platinum Angel
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
1 Viridian Zealot
1 Woodripper

[netherspirit]

I did have a look at the old decklist, so far I've replaced one Braingeyser with Barbarian Ring, that way I have the geyser as an alternate kill AND it's pretty useful for card drawing. I've dont tons of playtesting with this, and turn 2-4 kill is not that uncommon. I'm wondering about the inclusion of Infernal Tutor, it might be a good Fabricate replacement, but Fabricate has actually been very useful so far....

[gotinput]

Not that many people play it, but you did mention your meta was highly aggro... can this deck even race Food Chain Goblins? 

[netherspirit]

Not a single goblin deck in sight here, but I doubt this could handle them unless I pull a bridge.

[zeus-online]

Turn 2-4 isnt all that fast for a deck with no disruption..its actually kinda slow....!

/Zeus

[netherspirit]

Hehe, yeah, but still, it's not too bad, I agree this needs more disruption, but I've no idea what to cut...

[meadbert]

I have been playing Turboland and variant for almost a year.  I have a ton of experience with this deck and similar decks.

Ensnaring Bridge is a good card, but probably better for the board.  Against aggro your strategy should be to combo out first.  You can just race them.

Crucible should be 4x.  For whatever reason folks counter/duress it all day long.  I am more likely to resolve turn 1 Fastbond than turn 1 Crucible.

Zuron Orb is total trash.  It is hated on by all cards that hate on moxes, Pithing Needle and more.

Glacial Chasm rocks.  Chasm is hated on by almost nothing.

Also Chasm keeps any deck withing land destruction from winning for like 20 turns if you have Crucible or Life from the Loam (more on Loam later)
If you have a Fastbond it can stay out forever.

Note: Chasm does not work against Storm Combo because Tendrils says lose life instead of damage so don't count on Chasm to save you against Long.dec

If you have nothing it still buys you 4 turns which is plenty of time to combo out against Aggro.  So against aggro you drop the Bridges and the Zuron Orbs and just use 2-3 Glacial Chasm and add some other good cards.

Wasteland is awesome.  I don't care how many basics folks play these days, nearly everyone needs their non basics at some point.  If you force gifts to play mono blue then you will tear it up.  Waste is great against Ichorid, Stax, Combo and so many other decks that run few basics.


Braingeyser, Compulsive Research, Gush < Bazaar of Baghdad

Bazaar is amazing in this deck.  Here is why.  If you get Fastbond and Crucible out then Bazaar is basically your win condition.  You can repeatedly Bazaar and then waste/chasm it until you find Barbarian RIng/Cephalid Colliseum.

Also Bazaar discards lands that crucible can play back.  With Crucible it is far better than Trade Routes.

Bazaar also combos well with Life from the Loam.  For 2 mana you get to draw an extra card each turn, fill your graveyard and recur Strip Mine, Wasteland or Glacial Chasm.

Because of the Bazaar, Loam, Strip Mine synergy Intution is also good.  If you Intuition for the three then you get them all.  Just dredge out loam and play it to get bazaar and strip mine.

Squee can be useful to add to the Intution/Gifts list but I have found Squee to be sub optimal.

You best disruption will undoubtably be mana denial.
Null Rod hoses so many decks (and your if you run Zuron Orb)
Strip Mine is good.
Goldfishing you will always tutor for Fastbond.  As you play one on one matches and go to tournaments you will find that you actually end up tutoring for Strip Mine more than anything.  The next most common card to tutor for will be Glacial Chasm.

If you have Crucible + Strip or Loam + Strip then you can tear up almost any deck.

Glacial Chasm by itself beats FCG.  The decks are similar in speed but any tutor means you grab Chasm and just combo out.

Ditto for Ichorid.

The two cards that will win you the most matches are Glacial CHasm and Strip Mine.

Xantid swarm is not needed against Control because you can just massively outdraw them.

You need to have a way to get your Fastbond back.

Right now you are too vulnerable to a countered Fastbond.

Going white allows argivian Find.
Argivian Find + Intuition means you can Intuition for Fastbond + Crucible + Find#2 and get your combo out.
If you go white then you probably want to add a Seal of Cleansing.  Sterling Grove is good in theory, but like I said, in practice you want to be able to tutor for Strip Mine and Glacial Chasm so perhaps Sylvan Scrying is just as good and Vamp Tutor and Imperial Seal are better.

Undiscovered Paradise is only good with Horn.

Horn, Draw 7s ... I still don't know.  They are Awesome with Fastbond.

Horn + Fastbond + Loam = comboing out.  Still, it helps your opponents draw and that is very bad against Combo which will already be your worst matchup.

Chalice should definitely be in the board.

In Tournament Play I hated draw 7s.

I loved Yawg Will.

First of all your opponents will take it with Duress instead of Crucible or Fastbond.

You can't combo out the turn you cast Will but you can go will, Fastbond, Crucible, TImewalk and then combo out.

Use 0 or 1 Barbarian Rings.

Use at least 1 Cephalid Colliseum.