60 Card Pickup

[hippiechic]

The game today fellas, is called 60 Card Pickup. When I let you play a card, you pick it back up.

So the basis of the deck is to do one of three things: Dig/Draw, Counter, Bounce
I understand this is definitely not a new concept. Blue bounce decks have been around since 1993, and then they kinda faded off. Perhaps because land bouncing is so expensive compared to just killing your opponent. (Note: Do not take this deck to a serious tournament unless you plan to likely lose.) This is a Vintage remake of the old Blue Bouncy shell, for current day card selections. I would love constructive feedback, but seeing as this is the Internet, I will likely have 20+ troll replies to this post. Now for some card choices and explanations...

Card Selections:

Capsize
I know you're like "wtf thats 6 mana! ur so bad trolelolol!", but hear me out. It's a 1-of, designed for late game usage, and if you draw it mid or early game, then you can just hold it, or Brainstorm/Jace it back into your deck, or pitch it to a critical Force or whatever. It's not a big deal. It's just one card, which if drawn at the right time, will win your game.

Boomerang
There are numerous 2cmc bounce-any cards to choose from, but Boomerang is an Instant and it's pretty straight forward. The goal is to try and save it to force your opponent to pick up a land, to buff your bouncing speed. In a pinch, you can make them pick up anything you need at the time, or pitch it. As a matter of fact, about 60% of the deck can be used as a FoW pitch.

Steel Sabotage
Probably one of the best Vintage bounce/counter for 1cmc. With artifacts galore, having a 1cmc option to counter or bounce, gives you a great advantage over your opponent in many cases.

Riftwing Cloudskate
This guy has a horrible mana cost, and the amount of suspend counter can be annoying, but he does suspend (allowing you to bypass counterspells), and he only costs 1U to do so. Then you just pick him up after a swing or two, and start the counters over.

Ninja of the Deep Hours
In conjunction with the Riftwing Cloudskate, this guy is part of your draw engine, part of your bounce engine, and a bit of damage pressure to your opponent.

Jace, the Mind Sculptor
This guy is in like every deck these days. Almost to the point of annoyance. He does provide a nice creature bounce (Riftwing Cloudskate), a Brainstorm on a stick, and he helps to buff that little bit of control against what your opponent has in their hand to get you over the hump.

Black Vise
This is your main source of damage. With your opponent ending up, mid to late game, with 8+ cards in their hand each turn, the Black Vise hurts bad and fast. It's a great turn 1 opener as well, if you are on the play. Having four of them in this deck is rarely a bad thing.

The rest of the deck is basically your standard collection of Vintage blue staples. I am running nearly full Islands, but you could run fetches if you like. Keep in mind, fetches hurt your max land count, and as such, hurt your Capsize. I chose a minimal set of jewelry for space purposes. Also, non-blue mana kinda screws you in this deck, so I would suggest staying away from as many non-blue sources as possible.

Here is the listing I have been testing with for people to get an idea of the concept and application:

60 Card Pickup

    16 Island
    1 Library of Alexandria
    1 Black Lotus
    1 Mox Sapphire
    1 Mana Vault
    1 Sol Ring
    1 Mana Crypt

    4 Force of Will
    2 Mana Drain
    2 Mental Misstep
    2 Steel Sabotage
    1 Flusterstorm
    1 Misdirection

    4 Black Vise

    3 Riftwing Cloudskate
    2 Ninja of the Deep Hours

    2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

    4 Boomerang
    1 Capsize

    4 Preordain
    1 Time Walk
    1 Merchant Scroll
    1 Ancestral Recall
    1 Brainstorm
    1 Ponder
    1 Mystical Tutor

There is no sideboard, currently, but it would likely include some grave hate, Stifle, Hurkyl's Recall/Rebuild, and some archetype specific choices for when I begin to run into troublesome decks.

[KrauserKrauser]

I would play Snapcaster over Riftwing.  Sure, less bounce, but it's even better with Ninja and get's so many additional options to work with.

[xouman]

Echoing truth is a great bouncer. I like recoil a lot, but it has black.

You can also try arcane laboratory, at least in the sb. They play a permanent, you bounce it. They cannot play it again or counter your bouncer. And with arcane laboratory in play, capsize is win against most decks.

[Zeksagmak]

Riftwing is still counterable if you suspend it.  You cast it for no mana when it runs out of counters, not put it onto the battlefield when it runs out of counters.

[diopter]

Arcane lab seems awesome.

Also, If you try max jace, max snapcaster, riptide lab and add hoodwink, you could be bouncing land faster than they play it.

[fsecco]

Echoing Truth is so much better than boomerang...

How does a more creature-centered version with Snapcaster and Tradewind Rider sounds? That way, with Arcane Lab on the table, you won't even spend a spell to bounce, still having counter mana open.

Also, it sounds like one Mikokoro, Center of the Sea could be nice. If you activate in on the end of their turn, when they have 7+ cards in hand, it's only card advantage for you.

[hippiechic]

So, Snapcaster Mage does seem like an awesome choice. Does Flashback not exile the card cast with it upon resolution?

Echoing Truth was chosen against because it cannot target lands. Echoing Truth is an awesome bouncer, and may be worth running a couple just for anti-aggro with a bit of nonland bouncing. Not being able to bounce a land really hurts though.

My first Blue Bouncy deck was actually the Tradewind Rider and Man-o'-War with Capsize from back in the 90's. I have tried to figure out a good way to reuse Tradewind Rider, and Snapcaster Mage may be a good solution for that. Man-o'-War is just too weak for the cost these days.

If I am not mistaken, Riftwing Cloudskate is counterable once the last suspend counter is removed and the card is put onto the stack. The suspend itself is not counterable by anything other than a Stifle type effect.

I was not aware of Arcane Laboratory or Riptide Laboratory. Arcane Lab does seem pretty awesome. I thought there were some other cards which had a similar effect as well. I will have to do some digging though. Riptide Laboratory with Snapcaster Mage would be awesome. Still, the Flashback versus Buyback may be a problem. Also, would Riftwing Cloudskate also get around the one spell restriction form Arcane Laboratory when the last suspend counter is removed?

Personally, I like that the Riftwing Cloudskate can keep bouncing lands over and over, but the three turns to have to wait for that bounce can be annoying (and sometimes critical). I do agree, that if the Flashback can be made to work well enough, that Ninja of the Deep Hours would work much better with Snapcaster Mage.

My main problem with Recoil is, as you said, it's not mono blue. I am really wanting to keep the focus on mono blue, as it is naturally resilient to many common Vintage tactics targeted at cards heavily played in multicolour decks.

I really do like the Mikokoro, Center of the Sea. It's like a Howling Mine that I can choose when to use it. I believe tying up three lands for this, since it's my decision of when I want it, is very doable as well.

I have tried to figure out how to fit in a Temporal Adept as well. He is like a cheap Capsize on a stick.

As for Hoodwink, in mono blue, it seems Hoodwink is worse than Boomerang and comparable to Eye of Nowhere.

I do agree with the suggestion concerning Jace, the Mind Sculptor, and though I may consider putting up to three in the deck, I am trying to avoid making the standard Jace.dec that everyone runs.

It seems many of the games last fairly long too. If everything is working out as planned, an average game is about an hour for a single game. This is definitely not a viable tournament deck, unless you were just looking for a Shahrazad approach. So, having a fourth Jace, you may end up with too many of them. I would rather have a Capsize at that point, or a Temporal Adept.

I am going to test out the Snapcaster Mage in place of Riftwing Cloudskate. I feel like they are comparable cards, but that one may be slightly better than the other, with some minor modifications to the rest of the deck. If Snapcaster does prove to be a better choice, I would much prefer it.

Thanks for all of the suggestions! It would be great to see some of the decklists you guys come up with. =)

[fsecco]

Is bouncing lands that important? I mean, this is Vintage, people play Mox, Sol Ring, Crypt, Lotus. Also, they play fetches which can be cracked in response to a bounce. Maybe bouncing lands is nice in the late game, once you get Capsize online.

Also, Sapphire Medallion could be nice too. One of it makes you pay 2 less mana to Capsize twice in a turn. With multiples on the board...

Riftwing does count as one spell after suspend, as far as Arcane Lab counts.

Another adition could be Vendilion Clique. Coupled with a bounce, it can shuffle any permanent you don't want him to cast again. Also, another flash creature to help Tradewind hehe

[WhiteLotus]

If you add arcane laboratory, be sure to add erayo since it's a hard lock, and with bounces to deal with whatever threat is on board it seems pretty strong.

utility creatures such as snapcaster, vendillion clique and trinket mage would help.

[Twaun007]

This is a great one for bouncing things since it's pretty much un-counterable