Meddling Scepter

[David Hernandez]

Hi,

I've been wanting to play my Meddling Mages and Isochron Scepters, and came up with the following build.  I've only tested it in Apprentice so far (there haven't been any tournaments in our area since...seemingly forever...).

"Meddling Scepter"

Blue:
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
4 Brainstorm
3 Misdirection
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Gush
1 Time Walk
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Stifle
1 Morphling
(22)

White:
4 Orim's Chant
2 Swords to Plowshares
(6)

Multi:
4 Meddling Mage
(4)

Artifacts:
4 Isochron Scepter
(4)

Mana:
7 Island
4 Tundra
4 Flooded Strand
1 Polluted Delta
1 Plains
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
(24)

Notes:
The use of a full complement of Moxes is to accelerate the deck.  I've found that having the extra mana on hand is important to getting a quick Scepter out, and gives me mana to use it.

Scepter/Chant is the combo, protected by Counters/MisD/Mage/Chant.  Mages and Morphling are the kill.

Many of the cards can be imprinted, including Brainstorm, Ancestral, STP, Mana Drain, Mystical, and Stifle.

The STP's are insurance against early Negator/Specter/etc. (thanks to Tony Soto for suggesting this).

Chalice of the Void will probably make it's way to the SB. I am considering Cunning Wish in the deck.

I'm looking for comments and constructive tweaking.

There is no sideboard yet.

Thanks for looking,
--Dave\n\n

[Toast]

you might want to try 3 or 4 cunning wish...that way you would have a tool box added in to put different things on the stick that you simply would never want to run main (like hurkyll's and disenchant)....it would also increase your chance of finding a chant if you moved one to the board. It might be beneficial to run impulse instead of brainstorm so that way the main thing you have to worry about is chalice for 2 instead of potentially getting screwed by a chalice for 1 as well.
3 Mis-D seems to be a bit much....you have the blue to support them but my guess is in many matchups Mis-D will be used more often to fuel force of will then it will actually get cast. You might want to cut down to 1. Masticore might also be a good addition because of it's amazing synergy with drain and its ability to pick off ugly creatures like welders. Otherwise I think you have a pretty good start.

[Shock Wave]

Gush seems really out of place, and you seem to be lacking in the card drawing department. Gush does not really qualify as "card drawing" in this deck, because you really don't want to return two lands to your hand in a non-gro control deck. At 5 mana, you don't really want to hard cast that thing either. Also, the lone Stifle seems a little on the random side. Perhaps a lone Cunning Wish or a 3rd STP (depending on meta) would be more appropriate?

I'm not really sure what kind of card drawer you could use to replace Gush, but I suppose Braingeyser/Stroke/Future Sight are all worth consideration.

[VideoGameBoy]

Is Misdirection good enough right now to warrant 3 x slots?

Your kill is rather slow; I can accept this from decks like Fish which outdraw their opponents like crazy, but I feel you need a little more card advantage - maybe FoF, AK, Future Sight...

Quote Many of the cards can be imprinted, including Gush, Brainstorm, Ancestral, STP, Mana Drain, Mystical, and Stifle.

Gush can be imprinted?

[David Hernandez]

@Toast:
I've been looking at 2 or 3 Cunning Wish in place of 1 MisD, Stifle (move to SB), and Gush or 1 STP (move to SB).    

Your point about CotV for 1 is interesting.  A mix of Brainstorm and Impulse could work to change the mana curve (perhaps 2 of each).

Masticore could be interesting. I might put a couple in the SB for now.

@Shock Wave:
I've been looking at Gush as a card to cut.  Originally, this deck had 3 Back to Basics in it, and the Gush is a leftover from that build. FoF is already in the build.  The Stifle is going to make it's way to the SB.

The lone Stifle is seemingly out of place because I only own one, but the card has been very strong.  Replacing it with Cunning Wish makes more sense.  See changes below.

I looked at Future Sight. Still not sure about it in this deck.

@VGB:
I'm looking at cutting the Gush and 1 MisD in favor of Cunning Wishes. Gush cannot be imprinted...my bad...I was thinking about the alternate casting cost of "return TWO islands..."

So, right now I'm making the following changes:

-1 Stifle (to SB)
-1 Gush (to SB, but may cut altogether)
-1 Misdirection

+3 Cunning Wish

and i'm considering:

-2 Brainstorm
+2 Impulse (Tony also suggested the use of Impulse, but his reasoning was "...impulse on sceptre is a HOUSE--draw 2 cards per turn AND see the top 4 cards...")

edit to avoid double posting:

Tony suggests the following build:

4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
4 Impulse
3 cunning wish
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Morphling
(20)

White:
3 Orim's Chant
2 Swords to Plowshares
1 Balance
1 Decree of Justice
(7)

Multi:
4 Meddling Mage
(4)

Artifacts:
4 Isochron Scepter
(4)

Mana:
8 Island
4 Tundra
4 Flooded Strand
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Plains
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
(25)

Toolbox sideboard cuz of 3 cunning wish.  The 4th Orim's Chant would be in the SB.

Dave.\n\n

[MisterShark]

With all the Scepters and Wishes, don't forget about Fire/Ice when you formulate the sideboard.  Also, the draw aspect of Ice helps out with the Masticore's discard condition.

[Kerzkid11]

I don't see a need for 1 Morphling and 1 Decree. Couldn't you just use 2 Decree?

If you are playing morphling to hold back aggro, don't you already do that well enough with scepter?

[Moxlotus]

Quote (MisterShark @ Nov. 24 2003,17:08)With all the Scepters and Wishes, don't forget about Fire/Ice when you formulate the sideboard.  Also, the draw aspect of Ice helps out with the Masticore's discard condition.

What is the point of Fire/Ice when there is a Ruby only for red mana?

[wuaffiliate]

because you can use the fire or the ice on activation of the scepter.

[David Hernandez]

yeah, SB Fire/Ice is awesome with Wish and Scepter.

4 Impulse are working better than 4 Brainstorm or a split (2 Brainstorm/2 Impulse), and Balance is awesome.

Currently, I'm running 4 Orim's main, and NO Decree of Justice.  Also, I'm not running Tony's mana base, I'm running mine, so I still have 2 Misdirection in the Main Deck.  I find that the LoA is not strong enough in this case.

@Kerzkid: i like Morphling...

 

So the deck looks like this now:

"Meddling Scepter"

Blue:
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
4 Impulse
3 Cunning Wish
2 Misdirection
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Morphling
(22)

White:
4 Orim's Chant
2 Swords to Plowshares
1 Balance
(7)

Multi:
4 Meddling Mage
(4)

Artifacts:
4 Isochron Scepter
(4)

Mana:
7 Island
4 Tundra
4 Flooded Strand
1 Plains
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
(23)

I'm also testing this with -1 Misdirection +1 Polluted Delta.

dave.\n\n

[Kerzkid11]

Quote @Kerzkid: i like Morphling...

Why?

BTW: I think your deck looks pretty cool.Tricks like scepter Chant + stick might be just cute though- not broken (enough).\n\n

[Samite Healer]

Quote (Kerzkid11 @ Nov. 25 2003,19:13)Tricks like scepter + stick might be just cute though- not broken (enough).

Do you mean chant + stick?

[David Hernandez]

you know, i'm even thinking that Boomerang could be good in this deck.  Send their land back to their hand every turn...good tempo...

dave

[TracerBullet]

Not so much.


In those two extra slots, you'd really like more search/draw.  The ability to Brainstorm on you first turn can really be key, allowing you to get to the FoW when you really need it.  In addition, Brainstorm+Scepter is gold, providing the last little boost in your draw power.


Boomerang is less than optimal simply because it's going to be rare that it'll be useful without a scepter, and even with, you're not likely to be able to 'rang a land every turn when the game is still in contention, or when their land count is paramount (read:first three turns).  The boomerang doesn't effectively help any real matchup outside of maybe WelderMud, and there it's only because of the ability to get rid of their Stack/Wire EoT.  In addition, those really aren't major contenders in your metagame (read:our metagame), and are not the decks you want to be maindeck metagaming against.

My thoughts.

[David Hernandez]

Good points.  Brainstorm is awesome, as is Impulse.  Both have their + and -.  With Brainstorm, I'm a little concerned about the CotV threat.  With Impulse, i like the fact that the cards i'm looking at are new material every time.

Hey!  When are we having the next T1...?  Let me know when you post it in the Tournament Area.

Dave.

[Zherbus]

I would much rather use Abeyance over Chant, or at least a few of them, because the ability to cycle or turn scepter into a drawing machine is greater than having to use the creature removal spells. Also, I might even be tempted to throw out other win conditions in favor of Raise the Alarm.

[doublej20]

Dave,
If you're not planning on running 2-4 Back to Basics in your sideboard (that is, if you're not relying on that as a hoser/spoiler/game-winner against some matchups), adding Red to this will make it much better.

I've been playing a Red/White/Blue version of this for about the past month and a half to two months, and have finished in the Top 3 or 4 of every tournament I have entered it with. Red gives you access to Gorilla Shaman and Fire/Ice in the main deck, and a ton of good sideboard options (Shattering Pulse, Rack and Ruin, Fire/Ice, Red Elemental Blast all for the Cunning Wishes, and Dwarven Miner that isn't Wishable, but is off the meat-rack in the current metagame).

Regarding Orim's Chant vs. Abeyance, Orim's Chant is strictly better in a mixed metagame because of the ability to simply Time Walk every turn against any deck. Put 1 Abeyance in the board to wish for if necessary vs. control decks, but stick with Orim's Chant main.

David, you've already mentioned that you prefer Morphling to Decree of Justice, but I would recommend running 1 of each and see how you like them, and also giving you another win condition at the same time. Also, splashing Red also gives you another 2 win conditions (Gorilla Shaman and Fire/Ice on Isochron Scepter). If you're interested in running the Red, PM me and I will give you my current decklist and sideboard, as I'm kind of keeping it under wraps for now.

[David Hernandez]

@Zherbus:
Raise the Alarm looks awesome.  An infinite army at Instant speed...yeah, that fits much better in this deck. I hadn't thought of it.

There have been several comments (via PM) for Abeyance over Orim's Chant, and a couple of comments about running both (perhaps a couple of them in the SB).  The draw ability of Abeyance is really powerful here, though I also like the Orim's ability of stopping the creature spells from being played too.

I'm going to buy a playset of Abeyance, and then I will mix it up a bit to see what I am comfortable with.

@DoubleJ20:
I'm going to mix them up a bit (Orim's and Abeyance) to see what I like best.  See above.  I actually do run B2B in my SB, but I like the utility offered by adding Red.  Even without Red, Fire/Ice can be run (and I have a couple in my SB right now) since it can be imprinted on the Scepter.  I'm trying to avoid a third color because I don't want to turn this into a different deck.  I think after I have a base defined (should be soon) I will tweak for a third color (black or red) and test it.

In the meantime, I'm going to add Raise the Alarm to the main deck.  I think the MisD's are have to be dropped completely.

"Meddling Scepter" 11/28/2003

Blue:
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
4 Impulse
3 Cunning Wish
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Mystical Tutor
3 Fire/Ice
(22)

White:
3 Orim's Chant
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Balance
1 Abeyance
(6)

Multi:
4 Meddling Mage
(4)

Artifacts:
4 Isochron Scepter
(4)

Mana:
7 Island
4 Tundra
4 Flooded Strand
1 Plains
1 Polluted Delta
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
(24)

SB:
3 Back to Basics
2 Chalice of the Void
1 Fire/Ice
1 Disenchant
1 Misdirection
2 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Circle of Protection: Red
1 Stifle
1 Abeyance
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Blue Elemental Blast

Does Enlightened Tutor deserve a slot...?

--Dave.\n\n