Deckingbuilding Challenge: Squire

[Gandalf_The_White_1]

The other day myself and a friend of mine were talking about magic when I brought up the idea of building a deck around not a cool, wacky card, but a stupid, bad, mundane card, and trying to make it as good as possible.  The first card to come to mind was the recently Timeshifted, and absolutely horrible, Squire.  (I mean come on, this card is worse than Glory Seeker, a crappy worthless common from the base set)

So, the challenge is this, build a deck around Squire.  The main limitations being that the deck must include at least 1 copy of Squire and that Squire must be the win condition of the deck, and to try to make it as good as possible.  The deck should also be Vintage legal.  Whether you want to lock down the opponent and beat them in while they are helpless, or generate crazy card advantage and counter/destroy/steal everything your opponent trys to do, or simply load the Squire up with crazy amounts of Auras/Equipment to make him into an unstoppable killing machine, is up to you.  Lets break Squire.

[SonataOfTheCathedral]

What are the other limitations we have? Like can the deck run a copy of Control Magic for example?

Oh, I think we should try to build a deck around Norin The Wary...Pandemonium, Norin combo....

[Gandalf_The_White_1]

What are the other limitations we have? Like can the deck run a copy of Control Magic for example?

Oh, I think we should try to build a deck around Norin The Wary...Pandemonium, Norin combo....

Lol I saw someone running Norin.dec at a type 2 tournament.  Feel free to make another thread if you want to start a Norin deckbuilding challenge.

The deck's win condition should be Squire, so I mean although you CAN run control magic, your opponent's deck might not run creatures so you can't rely on it it win.  The deck should be based around Squire and use Squire to win (in some way) rather than just a deck with Squire in it. 

For example, if you want to use Squire as a win by getting infinite mana and then Ghitu Firebreathing, that's fine, and it is also fine if you use Squire with Pandemonium and stuff that makes him come into/out of play.  If you recur him some way with Goblin Bombardment, that is fine, too. 

Some combination of other cards+Squire is totally fine and absolutely expected, just make sure Squire plays some sort of purpose in the win (ie, he can't be replaced by anything else that is in your deck, for example although you could slap the Firebreathing on any creature, Squire is the only one in your deck). 

I hope this is clearer now.  Mostly just use common sense; you should be able to say to your opponent "Haha, I killed you with Squire."

Ex: to use the Control Magic as an example, taking over a utility creature card like Archivist or Waterfront Bouncer, etc, and using their abilities to control the game is fine.  Taking over Krosan Cloudscraper and beating their face in, however, is not.  (although it would probably be ok to simply steal the Couldscraper as a method of dealing with it and then kill them with Squire)

[Jacob Orlove]

Clearly the correct build here is a seriously oldschool vercursion list that recurses Timetwister with Forgotten Lore, takes infinite Time Walks, and then beats down with Squire. Bonus points for removing their entire deck from the game first.

[Godder]

ReapLace .

[herbig]

Clearly the correct build here is a seriously oldschool vercursion list that recurses Timetwister with Forgotten Lore, takes infinite Time Walks, and then beats down with Squire. Bonus points for removing their entire deck from the game first.

Like Grim Long with Spirit Guide...

[rmn]

4 Mana Severance
4 Avenging Druid

4 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Balance
4 Scroll Rack
2 Rushing River

1 Krosan Reclamation
1 Replenish
1 Squire
4 Furnace of Rath
4 Gratuitous Violence
4 Pandemonium

4 Flooded Strand
4 Windswept Heath
3 Tropical Island
3 Tundra
1 Savannah
1 Plains
8 SoLoMoxCrypt

Yep.  The combo is Severance + Druid.  Dump your library in the graveyard, and get back Replenish and Squire with Reclamation.  Draw them, then cast Replenish for 4x Pandemonium, 4x Furnace of Rath, 4x Gratuitous Violence.  Then cast Squire and hit for 1024 damage.  Kills up to 4 people!

Scroll Rack and Brainstorm together with lots of fetches help you draw combo pieces while putting back any enchantments you draw.

It's a little fragile, so if you want to, you can replace 3x Pandemonium, 3x Gratuitous Violence with some counterspells.  Then you can only kill 1 person, but whatever.

[Gandalf_The_White_1]

4 Mana Severance
4 Avenging Druid

4 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Balance
4 Scroll Rack
2 Rushing River

1 Krosan Reclamation
1 Replenish
1 Squire
4 Furnace of Rath
4 Gratuitous Violence
4 Pandemonium

4 Flooded Strand
4 Windswept Heath
3 Tropical Island
3 Tundra
1 Savannah
1 Plains
8 SoLoMoxCrypt

Yep.  The combo is Severance + Druid.  Dump your library in the graveyard, and get back Replenish and Squire with Reclamation.  Draw them, then cast Replenish for 4x Pandemonium, 4x Furnace of Rath, 4x Gratuitous Violence.  Then cast Squire and hit for 1024 damage.  Kills up to 4 people!

Scroll Rack and Brainstorm together with lots of fetches help you draw combo pieces while putting back any enchantments you draw.

It's a little fragile, so if you want to, you can replace 3x Pandemonium, 3x Gratuitous Violence with some counterspells.  Then you can only kill 1 person, but whatever.

Great idea.  Why not just use Hermit Druid, though?  He's 1 mana cheaper and doesn't require Severence; I just goldfished a turn 5 kill with this configuration!  Squire ftw.

[freakish777]

//Absurd Mana
5 Moxen
1 Lotus
1 Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
4 Mishra's Workshop
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Mana Drain

//Not so Absurd Mana
2 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
2 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island
1 Tropical Island
2 Island

//Protection or something like that
4 Force of Will
1 Rack and Ruin (important for taking out your own Mana Crypt at some point)
2 Gaea's Blessing (so you don't deck when beating down for 20 turns, and you might need stuff back to clear the board if you're playing against aggro)
1 Wipe Away
1 Fire/Ice

//Winning
1 Squire
1 Time Walk
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Personal Tutor
2 Time Warp
1 Tinker
4 Panoptic Mirror
2 Merchant Scroll

//Draw stuff
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Brainstorm
4 Thirst for Knowledge


In all seriousness, this deck would actually be fun to play casually with Colossus over Squire.

[Gandalf_The_White_1]

//Absurd Mana
5 Moxen
1 Lotus
1 Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
4 Mishra's Workshop
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Mana Drain

//Not so Absurd Mana
2 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
2 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island
1 Tropical Island
2 Island

//Protection or something like that
4 Force of Will
1 Rack and Ruin (important for taking out your own Mana Crypt at some point)
2 Gaea's Blessing (so you don't deck when beating down for 20 turns, and you might need stuff back to clear the board if you're playing against aggro)
1 Wipe Away
1 Fire/Ice

//Winning
1 Squire
1 Time Walk
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Personal Tutor
2 Time Warp
1 Tinker
4 Panoptic Mirror
2 Merchant Scroll

//Draw stuff
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Brainstorm
4 Thirst for Knowledge


In all seriousness, this deck would actually be fun to play casually with Colossus over Squire.

Panoptic Mirror+ walking works pretty well (especially since you can use another mirror+wipe away to get rid of any problem permenents as I am sure you intended), but Mishra's Workshop is pretty much useless in this deck since all it can cast is Panoptic Mirror or Mana Vault/Sol Ring (and the mana can't even be used to imprint stuff on Mirror).  I'm unsure why you are running Underground Sea without any black spells, but I think black would make a good addition to the deck with Vampiric, Demonic, and Imperial Seal.  If you add in a Regrowth since you are already running green the Time Warps can be cut since there are so many ways to find Walk.

[Glix]

Here's my squire deck.  Unlike the rest of the entries, so far, I actually incorporated Squire into the strategy.

  Quicksilver Squires 
         Matter

4 SQUIRE

4 Mind over Matter
4 Quicksilver Dagger

4 Orim's Chant
4 Brainstorm
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Time Walk
1 Timetwister
1 Disenchant

3 Isocron Scepter

7 BAM (no vault, crypt)
4 Flooded Strand
1 Plains
2 Island
3 Volcanic Island
3 Tundra
1 Plateau
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Tolarian Academy

[Anusien]

DoomSquire?  With Squire instead of Mountain Goat (can't be darkblasted! and Invisibility instead of Phantasmal Terrain.

[Glix]

BUT WHAT IF THEY HAVE A WALL?!

[Mr. Nightmare]

.
.
.
In all seriousness, this deck would actually be fun to play casually with Colossus over Squire.

I heart Turboland.  Change some stuff up, though.  Here's the Squire-ific list I would run:

//Absurd Mana
5 Moxen
1 Lotus
1 Petal
1 Sol Ring
4 Mishra's Workshop
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
//Not so Absurd Mana
4 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
2 Underground Sea
4 Tropical Island
1 Tundra

//Protection or something like that
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain

//Degenerate
2 Gaea's Blessing
3 Crucible of Worlds
1 Zuran Orb
1 Fastbond
4 Exploration

//Winning
1 Squire
1 Time Walk
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Time Warp
1 Vampiric Tutor

//Draw stuff
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Brainstorm
2 Horn of Greed

[andrewpate]

Squirecraft 2k6

3 Bayou
1 Black Lotus
2 Bloodstained Mire
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
4 Polluted Delta
2 Scrubland
1 Sol Ring
1 Tolarian Academy
2 Underground Sea


4 Hermit Druid
2 Squire

1 Ancestral Recall
4 Brainstorm
2 Cabal Ritual
4 Dark Ritual
1 Deep Analysis
1 Demonic Tutor
4 Duress
1 Earthcraft
1 Echoing Truth
3 Grim Tutor
1 Imperial Seal
1 Krosan Reclamation
1 Overgrowth
1 Pandemonium
1 Recurring Nightmare
1 Replenish
1 Time Walk
1 Vampiric Tutor

The idea behind this deck is to activate Hermit Druid and cast Replenish.  This build uses up much fewer maindeck slots on the combo than the Furnace of Rath version, though.  It kills by bringing back Earthcraft, Pandemonium, Recurring Nightmare, and Overgrowth.  Once you do this, you sacrifice Hermit Druid to the Nightmare to bring back Squire.  You tap the land with Overgrowth on it for BGG and cast Recurring Nightmare, then tap Squire to Earthcraft and untap the land.  You can then keep using this process to bring Squire into play as many times as you want for infinite Pandemonium damage.

The rest of the decklist should be fairly straightforward.  In an ideal kill, you could generate enough mana to activate the Druid, flashback Krosan Reclamation for Replenish, flashback Deep Analysis to draw the two cards, cast Replenish, and win.  More realistically, you will tutor for Replenish before going off in order to save you the 2GU it takes to get it later, and/or possibly dump your deck eot and untap, allowing you to tap the Hermit Druid to Earthcraft to untap the land you enchant in the case that you have to tap it in order to cast Replenish (this effectively saves you 2 mana, since you also saved the G from the Druid's activation cost).  Brainstorms/fetchlands also let you send back combo enchantments you happen to draw.

I haven't tested the deck at all, so there could be some flaws with the list, but I see this as a pretty good method for killing with Squire.

[Gandalf_The_White_1]

Squirecraft 2k6

3 Bayou
1 Black Lotus
2 Bloodstained Mire
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
4 Polluted Delta
2 Scrubland
1 Sol Ring
1 Tolarian Academy
2 Underground Sea


4 Hermit Druid
2 Squire

1 Ancestral Recall
4 Brainstorm
2 Cabal Ritual
4 Dark Ritual
1 Deep Analysis
1 Demonic Tutor
4 Duress
1 Earthcraft
1 Echoing Truth
3 Grim Tutor
1 Imperial Seal
1 Krosan Reclamation
1 Overgrowth
1 Pandemonium
1 Recurring Nightmare
1 Replenish
1 Time Walk
1 Vampiric Tutor

The idea behind this deck is to activate Hermit Druid and cast Replenish.  This build uses up much fewer maindeck slots on the combo than the Furnace of Rath version, though.  It kills by bringing back Earthcraft, Pandemonium, Recurring Nightmare, and Overgrowth.  Once you do this, you sacrifice Hermit Druid to the Nightmare to bring back Squire.  You tap the land with Overgrowth on it for BGG and cast Recurring Nightmare, then tap Squire to Earthcraft and untap the land.  You can then keep using this process to bring Squire into play as many times as you want for infinite Pandemonium damage.

The rest of the decklist should be fairly straightforward.  In an ideal kill, you could generate enough mana to activate the Druid, flashback Krosan Reclamation for Replenish, flashback Deep Analysis to draw the two cards, cast Replenish, and win.  More realistically, you will tutor for Replenish before going off in order to save you the 2GU it takes to get it later, and/or possibly dump your deck eot and untap, allowing you to tap the Hermit Druid to Earthcraft to untap the land you enchant in the case that you have to tap it in order to cast Replenish (this effectively saves you 2 mana, since you also saved the G from the Druid's activation cost).  Brainstorms/fetchlands also let you send back combo enchantments you happen to draw.

I haven't tested the deck at all, so there could be some flaws with the list, but I see this as a pretty good method for killing with Squire.

If I'm not mistaken your combo doesn't work because you don't run any basics and Eartchcraft can only be used to untap basic lands.

You'd probably have to modify it to include at least 1 basic to enchant and untap (not a problem since you will get one with Hermit Druid if you aren't holding it), however you might run into the problem of not flipping the enchantments you need because you will not longer automatically mill your deck, so you would either need to go for a 2nd activation to win, tutor up the basic land before activating, or run more copies of the combo kill enchantments to increase your chances of flipping all of the ones that you need even if you hit the land fairly early in your deck.

Also, since using Hermit Druid is pretty much the main gameplan of winning with this deck, why not include Worldy Tutor?  At G, it seems better than paying 1BB to Grim for Hermit Druid.

Also, with so many rituals, it seems that Necropotence might be a good addition to the deck, since if resolved it should easily get you what you need to set up the combo (just made sure you don't discard a combo piece with it lol).

[andrewpate]

Good catch.  I was in a hurry to get the post up because I had to catch a concert.  The mana base was pasted from a build I really wasn't liking, and I forgot to make the change due to a lack of proofreading.  It should be as above except:

-1 Scrubland
+1 Swamp

The reason for this is that you never need to make more than one white mana in a turn, so you can always cast Krosan Reclamation for Mox Pearl if you can't cast Replenish.  As for the inclusion of a basic into the Hermit Druid engine, I would not normally attempt to go off with the Swamp still in the deck.  With 6 fetchlands and a decent amount of tutoring and card draw, I would expect to be able to find it beforehand in most cases.  Of course, tutoring for it with the Druid itself is always an option.  I had fully intended to make this change, but simply forgot to in my hurry to post the list.

As for your other suggestions:  Worldy Tutor was in and out of the deck during design, and it could go back in depending on testing.  I chose Grim Tutor because in can also fix mana, get Brainstorm (if I drew a combo piece), grab a Duress (in case of countermagic) or get Echoing Truth (if they have True Believer or something).  Since, as you say, I have a lot of ritual effects, I don't see the 1BB as being a huge issue, esp. since I'm not normally expecting to win before turn 3 or so.  If it did turn out to be problematic, though, Worldly Tutor would be a good candidate to replace it, yes.

I did not include Necropotence simply because I did not think it was necessary.  This is also why I did not add Yawgmoth's Will.  As you pointed out, the purpose of the deck is really just to get Hermit Druid in play and activated.  The Rituals are there to abuse the fact that the combo requires a lot of colorless mana.  With 4 Druids and 6 tutors, it shouldn't be a problem.

[andrewpate]

So.... does anyone win, or will there be a play-off or anything?  This was a "Deckbuilding Challenge," right?

[Gandalf_The_White_1]

So.... does anyone win, or will there be a play-off or anything?  This was a "Deckbuilding Challenge," right?

Well, it was more for fun than anything else, but I can make a thread with a poll for people to vote for the winner if you would like.

I'll do it, say, tomorrow, to allow time for any more submissions.