[Deck] Flash/Rector w/ gush

[Sarah Angel]

So here's what I've got my deck down to so far:

4 Force of Will
4 Flash
4 Academy Rector
4 Gush
4 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall

1 Timewalk
1 Tinker
1 DSC
1 Fastbond
1 yawgmoth's bargain
1 yawg will
1 tendrils of agony
2 Duress
2 cabal therapy
2 chain of vapor
   
3 Merchant Scroll
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Imperial Seal
1 Mystical Tutor
3 Dark Ritual

1 Mox Em
1 Mox Saph
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus Petal

1 tolarian academy
3 Underground Sea
3 Polluted Delta
2 Island
2 flooded strand
2 tropical island

=66 cards 

Just a basic Flash/rector, but I want to abuse gush as well.  Just having one win condition scares me (tendrils) so I would like to keep tinker/dsc in there (tinker is just so incredible in an opening hand).  But perhaps I just don't have the luxury?

Didnt include sol ring, because this deck usually needs colored mana and 1 net colorless dosent seem strong enough.  Though maybe for hardcasting rector?  Not sure...

Do I really need the Yawg Will?  Not so sure....

Is the deck already fast enough with the 4 added gushes that I can take out another merchant scroll or two?

Also, I really need help with my land selection.  Am I safe enough with 2 tropical islands, lotus petal, black lotus and mox emerald to cover the fastbond?  Or are these too many green sources?

Would really like some help!  Thanks!

[zeus-online]

I really don't think gush fits in this deck....Merchant scroll is probably better.

/Zeus

[Sarah Angel]

What if we pretend it fits in? 

Well, fastbond is certainly a powerful card in any deck that can run it.

I mean, if I can fit the 4 gushes in and the fastbond, it's really only a five card change, with some land rearrangement.

Taking your advice, and keeping merch scroll in, wouldnt it just speed things up?  Or do you think it just gets too cluttered with draw/tutor spells?

[hauntedechos]

Hey Sarah,

Thanks for joining the ranks in TMD.com.  usually you need to post a little more "meat", in terms of what you're looking to gain and what you'd like to arrive at idealy.  It seems to me that you're trying to abuse the newly unrestricted Gush.  However your trying to do this in a deck that has not yet totally found it's place in the current Vintage goings on.  On top of that, many players will not want to talk about potential becuase of their own efforts to forge a top teir deck.  What you need to look at is, what do you want from Gush?  obviously you want card advantage, now look at what the deck already provides in terms of draw.  Do you think that you will need this as Flash/rector is already pretty damn fast?

I feel that the home for Gush may be what Steven Menendian has tentativly predicted as a 4Gush Tendrils combo deck.  Scroll right now would serve flash/rector as it's a tutor of sorts that grabs instants that you NEED, not just bulk draw.  If you're having a tough time stuffing into your deck, it's because the deck has already sort of been forged to an extent.  If your interest is in abusing Gush in it's current state, then I suggest you join the ranks of people seeking to abuse it.  If your interest is in the Flash/rector deck, then I suggest you continue to tinker around with what slots are not already considered carved in stone.  Sure this is a pretty stifling way to view things, but if you're at 66 cards, then it would seem you would have to dilute the strategy of the deck to stuff the unrestriction fun into your deck.

To be progressive about it however; cut your Tinker Dsc.  Yes it's an alt win condition, but too many people run bounce as it is and Tinker doesn't seem to have another target to get you what you're looking to accomplish.  If you do that, then you have access to x2 Gush, which is a start if you're bent on stuffing Gush into the deck.  I also agree that Fast bond is out of place here, your goal is the combo, not getting two islands out as fast as possible to abuse Gush to draw 2 cards.  I'd cut the Fastbond for a second Tendrils.  Mystical could be cut for scroll #4 as the scroll is for a specific speed of card which happens to also fit into the combo's namesake.  I'd decide on what I want to run, cabal therapy or Duress?  I think you really want Duress as it takes some guess work out of it, and like Cabal Therapy, they are going to be forced to counter it anyways, either way, job done (forcing them to use a counter).  I would suggest changing that second chain of vapour into an echoing truth so that chalice at 1 (common) doesn't hose your bounce.

While I understand that 1 win condition scares you, you have to realise that your play skill is what will have to make up for the lack of outs.  Perhalps you can use an Empty the Warrens instead of Tendrils #2?  You can pull a quick mini storm to force your opponent to deal with the tokens kicking his/her head in, while you continue to work your combo magic.

I'm not a combo player (not the brains to deal with it), but I don have a basic understanding of the concepts and general theories of Magic, so I hope my 2 cents will help you.  Feel free to PM me if you want more conversation on this and other matters

cheers
Mike

[Purple Hat]

the problem is that bargain combo is very life sensitive and fastbond/gush takes a lot of life to pull off.  you end up burning all the life you'd use on bargain on fastbond or all the life you'd use on fastbond on bargain which means you're playing a bunch of dead cards.  a more focused strategy that accents one or the other is probably the wisest course.

[Methuselahn]

Implementing a Fastbond/Gush mechanic into this deck really only serves to clog it up.   Just focus on Bargain, which draws way more cards.

Also, cut the Rituals.  Flash and Rector are actually bad cards when you are building storm, making this a bad storm deck, actually.   With Flash and Rector in the deck, it is much more geared to be casting more Flashes.  This is where you want to win.

[diopter]

Implementing a Fastbond/Gush mechanic into this deck really only serves to clog it up.   Just focus on Bargain, which draws way more cards.

Also, cut the Rituals.  Flash and Rector are actually bad cards when you are building storm, making this a bad storm deck, actually.   With Flash and Rector in the deck, it is much more geared to be casting more Flashes.  This is where you want to win.

If that is the case, there is no point in playing Flash/Rector over Flash/Hulk. If you're not giving yourself a realistic chance of playing the Rector on its own, then you might as well be playing 8 copies of Hulk instead.

[Sarah Angel]

I played Flash/rector (not with Gush) this last weekend at Myriad Games' double header.  Did well both days, in my estimation (first time in a tournament, first time running this deck) and went 2-2-1 day 1 and 3-3-0 day two (three losses were to top8 decks second day).

Thanks for the feedback, and yes, after playing it, I will completely agree, it does not have a way to fit gush in that I can see.  So that was a stupid post/idea.  I will say, however, that after using it, it needs more card drawing, as I was getting outpaced by intuition/AK and decks with more counterspell power than mine.  But I'll post that in the flash/rector thread.

Clark

[Methuselahn]

Implementing a Fastbond/Gush mechanic into this deck really only serves to clog it up.   Just focus on Bargain, which draws way more cards.

Also, cut the Rituals.  Flash and Rector are actually bad cards when you are building storm, making this a bad storm deck, actually.   With Flash and Rector in the deck, it is much more geared to be casting more Flashes.  This is where you want to win.

If that is the case, there is no point in playing Flash/Rector over Flash/Hulk. If you're not giving yourself a realistic chance of playing the Rector on its own, then you might as well be playing 8 copies of Hulk instead.

I disagree.  First, Rector decks and Hulk decks ARE different and have their own set of strengths and weaknesses.  Second, just because you're not running Rituals doesn't mean that you're not giving yourself a realistic chance of casting Rector.  There are all sorts of decks out there that have 4cc bombs that didn't run Rituals.  In fact, it is entirely realistic that you can get Rector into play by hardcasting him. 

[Harlequin]

Wouldn't this deck be insane with Null Profusion?  Null Profussion (and recycle for that matter) trigger when you play a card - this includes land cards ...  Just a thought.

[Sarah Angel]

I think there was one other Flash deck in the tournament (both days), but he placed lower than I did both days.  I know he ran Doomsday, and one null profusion.  Guess it didnt help him that much.

Honestly, I think bargain has a significant advantage because even after you run out of mana, you can keep drawing.  With Null profusion, if you are out of mana, or close to being out of mana, there's a good chance you arent going to get very far.

And you should be casting flash as soon as you possibly can and arent going to have much excess mana early on.

Now with fastbond in the deck, that's a different story.....

[Argo]

Has anyone ever thought of trying Cadaverous Bloom in this?  It seems pretty good considering 1 gush would = 8 mana if you don't have fastbond (IE can only flash once)

Combo!
4 Flash
4 Academy Rector

Enablers!
4 Gush
3 Night's Whisper
3 Brainstorm
3 Merchant Scroll
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Tendrils of Agony

Targets
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain
1 Cadaverous Bloom
1 Fastbond

Disruption
4 Force of Will
3 Duress

Mana
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
4 Chromatic Star
4 Underground Sea
1 Tropical Island
4 Island
4 Polluted Delta

Something along the lines of that,  I haven't even gotten to test that (I'm stuck at work)

[Methuselahn]

I really don't think that there is a good draw spell for Flash.  The deck would rather just rely on redundancy and tutors to get the job done, in my experience.