Deck Discussion: DeepTombLong

[rologa]

After some months of inactivity in magic tournament scene due to personal issues (born of my second daughter) I am planning to return to competition this summer. I continue following the evolution of the game knowing the dominant decks of the moment and showing how my favorite type of deck, storm combo, was losing the battle month to month. With the apparition of Lodestone Golem things still went worse, making to play with combo in a tournament a nightmare of spheres and null rods.
I tried bob tendrils, that I think is a good deck that can compete against MUD and Noble Fish, but when playing with it I have the feeling that the deck is turning more slow sacrificing raw power and speed by stability and consistency. It could be a fair exchange but I was trying to find something different, something that remember me the feeling of playing with Pitchlong or Grimlong. With the return of  oath as a contender  still convinced me more that I need to find something different.

What I observed playing against 13 spheres + null rod MUD was that have 3 or 4 basic lands in the table and the artifact bouncer in hand doesn't warrant you a win. Lot of time I would need one mana more but the time I spent to find the land the opponent kill me  or  put another sphere in the table and I was in the same situation.
Then an idea came to my mind, why not use Ancient Tombs like then to try to break the lock? Tombs as extra lands can help to break lock more than basics , combat pretty well null rod and help the deck to cast the most powerful spells like bargain, gifts, fact or fiction. It was clear that I need to work more in the idea but did not seem so stupid at all.

Other problem I found in storm combo is that since the restriction of brainstorm we don't have a good draw engine. Sometimes our hands are clogged with lot of acceleration and protection and sometimes with bombs but not fast mana. Playing with Ancient Tombs opens the possibilities to construct a draw engine and I thought directly in one card I always loved when playing control but too slow these days. The card is not other than Deep Analysis. With 3 Ancient Tombs and lot of acceleration is very easy to cast it in turn 2 and 3 to refill our hand. It is reliable to counters, you can cast it from graveyard easily and  it is blue, very important  to support  FoW.

So I think at this point I can present the deck, card by card:

Mana Base
4 Polluted Delta
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Flooded Strand
2 Island
1 Swamp
2 Underground Sea
1 Tolarian Academy
3 Ancient Tomb


Accelerators
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Perl
1 Mana Crypt
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
4 Dark Ritual

Draw Engine
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Time Walk
1 Thirst for Knowledge
3 Deep Analysis

Bombs
1 Necropotence
1 Tinker
1 Timetwister
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Gifts Ungiven
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Memory Jar
1 Mind's Desire
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain

Tutors
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Imperial Seal
1 Mystical Tutor

Protection
4 Force of Will
2 Misdirection
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Rebuild

Finishers
2 Tendrils of Agony

Some comments about cards selection
- 2 Tendrils are necessary because the loss of life in this deck is very big so you need to find the Tendrils very quick to finish as soon as possible.
- No Ponder: I dislike this card more and more every day, is not a brainstorm's substitute, is much worse. You deep 3 cards but if you like 1 you need to keep the other 2 if you do not have any shuffle effect. I used to include it because is blue and until now the number of blue cards was low, but I replace it by Thirst for Knowledge and I am very happy with this change, it has synergy with DA, is card advantage and allow you too renew your hand with 3 new cards.
- No Mox Emerald: I need some space to add a thirst Tomb and Mana Vault has more synergy with the rest of the deck.
- 0 Cabal Ritual: I never like this card to much and in a world of spheres, spells pierce, etc an accelerator that cost 2 to cast is going to be worse and worse


How the deck plays
Well it plays very similar to other storm combo decks like Pitchlong or Grimlong. Try to resolves his bombs as soon as possible and if they are countered try to refill hand with Deep Analysis. It has a very strong turn 2 and 3 but differs from other long decks because can recover better if his first treats are countered.
Obviously is more aggressive than TPS or Bob Tendrils, doesn't intent to play the control role, only to win as soon as possible.
Against control DA make it very resilient and against Fish  Tombs help a lot to play around Null Rod and Spell Pierce.
Against Workshop suffers more, like other combo list, but Tombs help to break the lock and after a massive artifact bouncer is easier to win now than with other decks.

I do not have a fixed sideboard, only general lines, nothing special:  Islands, Sphinx, some bouncers, Leylines, Jailer


I think the deck has some potential and is something refreshing in an archetype that do not have too much innovations last months.
I hope some of you try the deck and contribute to his development.

Cheers

@Mods: was really necessary to "entomb" the post into creative forum so quickly?

[Lemnear]

So you sacrifice artifact mana to play ancient tombs ... ever drew into a hand of Pearl, Ritual and tomb? You dismiss Mox Emerald and maybe artifact mana like Grim monolith to play non-color-producing lands, that (and I could not disagree more with you) won't be better against shop than basics 'cause they'll be simply dumped by wastelands.

Deep Analysis isn't too hot either, I would go that far and say it's much weaker than Foresee which lacks the raw draw but digs 6 cards deep ... even with flashback DA's far behind that. Masses of cards won't help you alone, you want the right ones. Do you think that a 4 mana card with 2 mana, 3 life, flashback and a land that shocks you for every times used, helps you against multiple spheres .... especially if they have legs and beat for 5? High CC Spells won't help you there.

I'm a raw and ol' schooled TPS player. I don't think that rebuilding the board end of turn will always result in a victory. I have always 3 energy flux in SB and 4 Repeal (yeah I'm from Europe  ) in the main. I can't remember a MUD that recovered from a flux hitting the board cause ... YES YOU CAN ... win without having the board fulll of artifacts for rounds, MUD can't. Sure I don't have to remind you how nice Repeals are to remove chalice, BoB and other shit, being an insane storm enabler too. If you want raw power I suggest 1-2 Call to Mind (I've already started a topic here: http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=40774.0). I found it really impressing in my tests. May this could inspire you. Playing 13-14 land is common in TPS while playing versus masses of MUD, so having your desired 4 mana on turn 2-3 is no problem ... without raping the (artifact-)manabase

[rologa]

So you sacrifice artifact mana to play ancient tombs ... ever drew into a hand of Pearl, Ritual and tomb? You dismiss Mox Emerald and maybe artifact mana like Grim monolith to play non-color-producing lands, that (and I could not disagree more with you) won't be better against shop than basics 'cause they'll be simply dumped by wastelands.

What are you talking about man? I only dismiss Emerald that in a world of Null Rods is not the most useful of the mana sources. Nobody plays Grim Monolith, it was discarded years ago. I think you haven't play enough against new MUD decks with 13 spheres and 4 Null Rod, you don't have the opportunity to play Energy Flux very often.

Deep Analysis isn't too hot either, I would go that far and say it's much weaker than Foresee which lacks the raw draw but digs 6 cards deep ... even with flashback DA's far behind that. Masses of cards won't help you alone, you want the right ones. Do you think that a 4 mana card with 2 mana, 3 life, flashback and a land that shocks you for every times used, helps you against multiple spheres .... especially if they have legs and beat for 5? High CC Spells won't help you there.

Deep Analysis is not there to combat Shop decks, is to give a stable draw engine, to support Fow and to help to recover from a bad situation when control deck has counter your first treats. If you can cast DA in turn 2 reliably is much better that you think, increasing your changes of win in turn 3 quite a lot.

I'm a raw and ol' schooled TPS player. I don't think that rebuilding the board end of turn will always result in a victory. I have always 3 energy flux in SB and 4 Repeal (yeah I'm from Europe  ) in the main. I can't remember a MUD that recovered from a flux hitting the board cause ... YES YOU CAN ... win without having the board fulll of artifacts for rounds, MUD can't. Sure I don't have to remind you how nice Repeals are to remove chalice, BoB and other shit, being an insane storm enabler too. If you want raw power I suggest 1-2 Call to Mind (I've already started a topic here: http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=40774.0). I found it really impressing in my tests. May this could inspire you. Playing 13-14 land is common in TPS while playing versus masses of MUD, so having your desired 4 mana on turn 2-3 is no problem ... without raping the (artifact-)manabase

As I explain before the problem with flux is to cast before you are under a lock, difficult if you are on the draw. And if you think Repeal is very useful against MUD I will tell you that you need to test much more against them. Repeal is very bad against MUD or any workshop deck. It is only useful for chalices and only if they don't put chalice at once, very common playing against combo.

I am not newbie player, I started to play in 1994 and restart at 2003 playing without interruption since then. I have played tendrils combo the last 3 years in all his forms, TPS, grim, pitch, IT, bob tendrils, etc. obtaining good results.
I have tested the deck against MUD and Noble Fish and it works fine. I am not saying the deck is perfect but what I can say is that has lot of potential. Has very powerful hands and is reliable. If someone try the deck will see quickly what I am talking about.
I will add tournament report as soon as I can play in one.

[median]

I have a couple of suggestions,
I really think that if you're playing combo and have that much blue, you should either run 8 pitch counters, or less blue. I would prefer to see some duresses in the every storm list.
I like the idea of having a few less bombs, I know you understand the ins and outs of each, but having to think through the line of plays when tutoring up the ideal one can be mind breaking for most of the world, especially for time when things like bargain/desire could be the right play, or gifts/fact could be the right play.

A few questions that come to mind are,
How does the deck play out with no Grim tutors? I've found them to be a necessity in most brutal combo.
I'm also wondering how the deck can stand up to mana denial with a mana base like that.

With preordain a few days away what would you change?

[Lemnear]

So you sacrifice artifact mana to play ancient tombs ... ever drew into a hand of Pearl, Ritual and tomb? You dismiss Mox Emerald and maybe artifact mana like Grim monolith to play non-color-producing lands, that (and I could not disagree more with you) won't be better against shop than basics 'cause they'll be simply dumped by wastelands.

What are you talking about man? I only dismiss Emerald that in a world of Null Rods is not the most useful of the mana sources. Nobody plays Grim Monolith, it was discarded years ago. I think you haven't play enough against new MUD decks with 13 spheres and 4 Null Rod, you don't have the opportunity to play Energy Flux very often.

Deep Analysis isn't too hot either, I would go that far and say it's much weaker than Foresee which lacks the raw draw but digs 6 cards deep ... even with flashback DA's far behind that. Masses of cards won't help you alone, you want the right ones. Do you think that a 4 mana card with 2 mana, 3 life, flashback and a land that shocks you for every times used, helps you against multiple spheres .... especially if they have legs and beat for 5? High CC Spells won't help you there.

Deep Analysis is not there to combat Shop decks, is to give a stable draw engine, to support Fow and to help to recover from a bad situation when control deck has counter your first treats. If you can cast DA in turn 2 reliably is much better that you think, increasing your changes of win in turn 3 quite a lot.

I'm a raw and ol' schooled TPS player. I don't think that rebuilding the board end of turn will always result in a victory. I have always 3 energy flux in SB and 4 Repeal (yeah I'm from Europe  ) in the main. I can't remember a MUD that recovered from a flux hitting the board cause ... YES YOU CAN ... win without having the board fulll of artifacts for rounds, MUD can't. Sure I don't have to remind you how nice Repeals are to remove chalice, BoB and other shit, being an insane storm enabler too. If you want raw power I suggest 1-2 Call to Mind (I've already started a topic here: http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=40774.0). I found it really impressing in my tests. May this could inspire you. Playing 13-14 land is common in TPS while playing versus masses of MUD, so having your desired 4 mana on turn 2-3 is no problem ... without raping the (artifact-)manabase

As I explain before the problem with flux is to cast before you are under a lock, difficult if you are on the draw. And if you think Repeal is very useful against MUD I will tell you that you need to test much more against them. Repeal is very bad against MUD or any workshop deck. It is only useful for chalices and only if they don't put chalice at once, very common playing against combo.

I am not newbie player, I started to play in 1994 and restart at 2003 playing without interruption since then. I have played tendrils combo the last 3 years in all his forms, TPS, grim, pitch, IT, bob tendrils, etc. obtaining good results.
I have tested the deck against MUD and Noble Fish and it works fine. I am not saying the deck is perfect but what I can say is that has lot of potential. Has very powerful hands and is reliable. If someone try the deck will see quickly what I am talking about.
I will add tournament report as soon as I can play in one.

Ok I see you get me a bit wrong. I said that cutting artifact mana makes no sense in general in TPS. You did it because of null rod? That's daily buissness to fight that card. Cutting moxen 'cuz there a null rods out there will hurt you in other matchups. Yeah nobody plays Grim Monolith but neither does with Tomb, Is that an argument for you? I mentioned it because you seem to seek for more speed mana and casting it with 13-14 lands isn't impossible even under multi-pheres. Thy should it be impossible to cast an 3 mana enchantment under spheres but playing rebuild is fine?

I suggest 2-3 additional lands in sb if you think that matchups is still critical. I don't think it's worth weaken your deck in other matchups. I still think that that playing Tomb makes you mana-denial-prone.

I'm aware of your intention with DA. Having 4 mana on turn 2 is not uncommon even without your tombs. I doubt that drawing 2 additional random cards increse your chances of winning on turn 3 "a lot". That's the reason I mentioned something like Foresee 'cause it digs, filter and draws 2. Your flashback asside.

With the repeal thing you got me wrong again. I play repeal to have free draws and gain tempo by bouncing opponents Bobs, oaths, chalices etc. It's not a cards special or MUD even I won with that card against aggro-Workshop decks in the past. They rarely drop 2 spheres on turn 1 so I can play my moxen, paying for each other to lay them down all and so be able to cast flux or something else on turn 2 or 3. Most start with chalice at 0 against unknown opponents, chalice @ 1 against me became kinda rare since the restriction of brainstorm and ponder. chalice for 1 is ok for me shutting off my rituals and my repeals and my topdeckers leaving most mana and buissness untouched till bebuild.

No one said I think you are unexperienced. I started to that time around in the 90s but wasn't always THE Long-addicted one. I played Burning desire, Gifts, Tropical storm ... all tendrils, all different. Post-Apocalypse I return to TPS and found bob-builds to be working best in the meta...

[rologa]

I have a couple of suggestions,
I really think that if you're playing combo and have that much blue, you should either run 8 pitch counters, or less blue. I would prefer to see some duresses in the every storm list.
I like the idea of having a few less bombs, I know you understand the ins and outs of each, but having to think through the line of plays when tutoring up the ideal one can be mind breaking for most of the world, especially for time when things like bargain/desire could be the right play, or gifts/fact could be the right play.

Well if you add duress then better to play with TPS. I am trying to build something more similar to old Pitchlong, faster but with less control. I don't want to spend mana to protect my spells, I want spend mana only for draw or play bombs.

A few questions that come to mind are,
How does the deck play out with no Grim tutors? I've found them to be a necessity in most brutal combo.
I'm also wondering how the deck can stand up to mana denial with a mana base like that.

With preordain a few days away what would you change?

To play Grim tutors you need more rituals, at least 2 or 3 Cabal. But Cabal is not very good in a world of spheres and you don't reach threshold quickly know that 4 brainstorm are not allowed.
I don't think the mana base is so bad, it plays 3 basic, 6 fetchlands, 2 duals and Tolarian, just like TPS before Lodestone arrives. It plays 3 additional Tombs that are vulnerable to Wasteland but allow you to play your bombs very quickly and after casting the bomb it doesn't matter if they blow-up.
By the way I am thinking to replace 1 Tomb by 1 basic island more to make it more stable, I need to test more to be sure.

Ok I see you get me a bit wrong. I said that cutting artifact mana makes no sense in general in TPS. You did it because of null rod? That's daily buissness to fight that card. Cutting moxen 'cuz there a null rods out there will hurt you in other matchups. Yeah nobody plays Grim Monolith but neither does with Tomb, Is that an argument for you? I mentioned it because you seem to seek for more speed mana and casting it with 13-14 lands isn't impossible even under multi-pheres. Thy should it be impossible to cast an 3 mana enchantment under spheres but playing rebuild is fine?

I think you don't understand what is the goal I try to reach. The main objective is to be able to cast all the bombs in turn 2 or 3 consistently. I have played a lot with TPS since the restriction of brainstorm and one of the problems the deck have is that sometimes you do not have the fast mana necessary to cast the bombs in your hands or sometimes you have only fast mana and no bombs. What I tried to accomplish is to cast something relevant in turn 1 or 2 and never have to wait with bombs in hand. Tombs help me to have more mana in turn 2 consistently and help me also when opponent plays null rods. I only cut 1 off color mox of 10 artifact accelerators and add 3 Tombs that could be considered fast mana also so I doubt I am rapping the mana base. About rebuild/energy flux my only comment is that if shop player plays with null rod, spheres and tangle wires you need lot of luck to draw flux and play it.

I'm aware of your intention with DA. Having 4 mana on turn 2 is not uncommon even without your tombs. I doubt that drawing 2 additional random cards increse your chances of winning on turn 3 "a lot". That's the reason I mentioned something like Foresee 'cause it digs, filter and draws 2. Your flashback asside.

The flashback part is what make DA resilient to counters and what allow you to draw 2 more cards in turn 3 that together with the 2 drawed the turn before make easy to cast a bomb for the win. Probably 3 are too many, probably 2 are the correct number. But what make good DA is the fact that with this mana base you can consistently play it in turn 2 and flashback in turn 3 with few mana resources.

With the repeal thing you got me wrong again. I play repeal to have free draws and gain tempo by bouncing opponents Bobs, oaths, chalices etc. It's not a cards special or MUD even I won with that card against aggro-Workshop decks in the past. They rarely drop 2 spheres on turn 1 so I can play my moxen, paying for each other to lay them down all and so be able to cast flux or something else on turn 2 or 3. Most start with chalice at 0 against unknown opponents, chalice @ 1 against me became kinda rare since the restriction of brainstorm and ponder. chalice for 1 is ok for me shutting off my rituals and my repeals and my topdeckers leaving most mana and buissness untouched till bebuild.

when shop player is on the play a very common start is chalice for 0 and sphere or null rod and sphere. Tell me how you plan to cast flux on turn 2 or 3 when you need 4 lands to do it and probably shop player will play tangle wire or another sphere faster.

[Lemnear]

I wonder about the kind of MUD your talking about, playing spheres, tangle wire, chalice, and Null rods ... at this point I have to abmit I've never played against such a thing and I'm sure I never will be. MUD with only mana and denial without threads...

Anyway, if opponent only lays down masses of denial you described you have plenty of time laying land, after land, after land. Then turn 2 or 3 removal is not needed. Moreover you have artifacts with cost 1 so chalice won't shut off tinker and a MUD only relying on denial would be beaten by every aggro-deck or a single confidant you may resolve. MUD is one of the matchups confidant shines as a cheap carddraw.

At this point I dare to ask: That makes your build/idea better than a bob tendrils which was created to fight the new MUD's and Spell Pierces?

[rologa]

I wonder about the kind of MUD your talking about, playing spheres, tangle wire, chalice, and Null rods ... at this point I have to abmit I've never played against such a thing and I'm sure I never will be. MUD with only mana and denial without threads...

Anyway, if opponent only lays down masses of denial you described you have plenty of time laying land, after land, after land. Then turn 2 or 3 removal is not needed. Moreover you have artifacts with cost 1 so chalice won't shut off tinker and a MUD only relying on denial would be beaten by every aggro-deck or a single confidant you may resolve. MUD is one of the matchups confidant shines as a cheap carddraw.

Well I test against a list like the following, lot of mana denial but important threats also:
// Lands
    1  Strip Mine
    1 Tolarian Academy
    4 Ancient Tomb
    4 Mishra's Workshop
    4 Wasteland
    4 Mishra's Factory

// Creatures
    2 Razormane Masticore
    4 Lodestone Golem
    4 Juggernaut

// Spells
    1 Mox Sapphire
    1 Mana Crypt
    1 Mox Ruby
    1 Mox Emerald
    1 Trinisphere
    1 Mox Pearl
    1 Mana Vault
    1 Sol Ring
    1 Mox Jet
    1 Black Lotus
    2 Sculpting Steel
    4 Chalice of the Void
    4 Tangle Wire
    4 Null Rod
    4 Sphere of Resistance
    4 Thorn of Amethyst

If you don't have seen one like this list before is that you didn't face the good ones

At this point I dare to ask: That makes your build/idea better than a bob tendrils which was created to fight the new MUD's and Spell Pierces?

I think bob tendrils is a good deck but too depending on confidant. If opponent kills it then your deck is very slow, without engine and few threats. It is not the best deck to combat Oath also, a deck that is seeing play lately.
In general bob tendrils is a reliable deck but a bit slow that have problems if cannot resolve a confidant during the first turns of the game.
Another thing I dislike about this deck is that the number of blue cards to support Fow is very low and often you have Fow in hand but not blue card.

[Lemnear]

Thx for the list! A pretty though one...

I guess it depends on the build of the bob tendrils. I see it more like a smoothed bomb-light TPS with Bobs but I sure know the very relying builds like GWSx (I guess, sorry if I confuse it with something else). The Force of Will problem is something that bothers me too. I Dec '08 I tried it with playing repeal and misdirections that replaced my duresses 'cause I expected drains. It was a fail 'cause I faced TPS several times    'cause duress is so important vs. tps.

The repeals still stayed in that list cause they are nice storm enablers (especially if you splash red for artifact removal and Empty the Warrens) and good tempo gainer, not only in remora-decks. They up the blue-count and are cheap. I try to fight the MUD and denial-plan via cheap trips instead of upgrade mana but I looking forward to hear from you, playing this deck in field.

I'm with out in terms of the Grim Tutors. I kicked them myself long time ago. They are clunky, mana intense and so unplayable without cabals and those need a fast-filled grave, which is hard to achive without cantrips .... a downward spiral. I cracked this problem by testing Street wraith, the loved repeal and chromatic spheres together with cabals in a 3 Grim-Long-list but this resultet, as expected, in a gambling balls-to-the-walls deck like belcher which is not acceptable.

Guess Preordain will be a must-have after m11-release

[rologa]

Well, after two more weeks of testing I have modified the deck quite a lot:
First modification was to replace one Ancient Tomb with a basic island to have more stable mana base. The change was very positive, more color implies less mulligans and 13 color lands and 2 Tombs make the mana stable and more explosive that the standard 14 color land.

After testing heavily the MUD match before using sidebar I noted that continue to be very hard and unfavorable match. After sideboarding is better but I wanted something with more chances in the first game on the draw. As Deep Analysis was a dead draw against Workshop decks I replaced one with another Hurkyl's Recall. Passing from 2 massive bouncers to 3 increase quite a lot the % of wins the first game. With 3 you see one of then or tutor for it in every game so you have a change in much more games than before. This change make a little weak other match ups but you lose very few compared with what you win in MUD match up.
I also tried again Ponder, is not my favorite card but is necessary to smooth casting costs and  develop your mana base, and much better than ToK with 1 or 2 spheres on the table.

Other changes I made was to replace Imperial Seal with Merchant Scroll. Seal is a very good card and more powerful than Merchant but force you to fetch swamp quickly. I try to avoid very black hands with this deck because is very important to start with an island on the table and if you have only a land and a heavy black hand you are forced to fetch swamp. Usually after that you can draw blue cards and not develop anything because you don't have blue.

At this moment what my test reveals is that the weakest cards in the deck are Deep Analysis. They are good against control, average against Fish and combo and bad against workshop based decks. You need 2 turns to take full profit of then and have at least 4 mana to cast it from hand.
So I need something to replace it, something blue and with a similar function. Then I though about Jace the Mind Sculptor, I haven't still play it  and seems that is wining more and more adepts with the time. As my mana base has enough blue is not a big problem the double cost.
Mind Sculptor is more powerful that DA and more versatile, definitively a good addition.
The only problem is that the name I chose for the deck is not valid any more
Now Jace Long seems more accurate.

Last change was replace Mana Vault with Mox Emerald, I prefer to have mana every turn that a boost of 3 once now that DA is not in the deck anymore.

Jace Long (DeepTombLong 1st revision)

Mana Base
4 Polluted Delta
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Flooded Strand
3 Island
1 Swamp
2 Underground Sea
1 Tolarian Academy
2 Ancient Tomb

Accelerators
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Perl
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mana Crypt
1 Lotus Petal
1 Sol Ring
4 Dark Ritual

Draw Engine
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Ponder
1 Time Walk
2 Jace the Mind Sculptor

Bombs
1 Necropotence
1 Tinker
1 Timetwister
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Gifts Ungiven
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Memory Jar
1 Mind's Desire
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain

Tutors
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Merchant Scroll

Protection
4 Force of Will
2 Misdirection
1 Chain of Vapor
2 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Rebuild

Finishers
2 Tendrils of Agony

The deck now is more stable, continue being very powerful (has same bombs than TPS) and is a blast to play.

I will try to add later an analysis against main archetypes and a generic sideboard

[Lemnear]

I see that your testing results fits my predictions. Jace is good but I believe, since it's a turn 2 Drop due to it's cost (double U), it would fit better in a Drain-tendrils-Shell than in Long. Jace is a Control card and not a combo-bomb. I'm Not sure you'll Be happy with this one. But repeating bounce vs. mud's golems could help you a lot, thats for sure