Fever Mask

[MisterShark]

Yes indeed, I am going to keep Cunning Wish resident main-deck for now.

Now for the next experimental card swap:
  -1 Sleight of Hand
  +1 Skeletal Scrying

I figure that at worst your going to maybe draw 2 cards with Scrying (and keep both, unlike Sleight), and take the 2-hit on your life counter.  Of course the potential/ option to draw more cards exists, unlike the swapped-out Sleight.
With fetchies and all the 1cc spells having hit the grave, you should have no problem feeding  that condition of Scrying.
Problem comes into paradise when you add up all the potential fetchie damage + Vamp Tut life-loss.  Do you have the extra life to give for the Scrying?
You know what they say though: "your life-point total is the most underused resource by most decks".  "After all, it's only the last life-point that actually counts".
Keeping this in mind, and considering how fast a Mask deck can turn things around in your favor with the right cards, I think Scrying is at least worth a look.

[MisterShark]

Ummm,....is that it then?  All of a sudden nobody wants to pursue this deck's development?
For the record (and it looks as though it might be the last record for this thread), the Scrying seems to work well.

[Cavalry19D]

If you play Cunning Wish, then Skeletal Scrying can find a safe place in your SB. I think Scrying is much more of a conditional card since drawing it early can be ass.

** Note: I've recently returned to civilization from an army deployment (notice my handle - Scout MOS) and am please to see a myriad of diverse decks emerge in my absence.
Props to Fever since his particular build of Mask is pretty fuckin' cool and I can't wait to put my spin together. Hopefully discussion on this thread will continue as more testing and deeper development will inevitably come with time
.

[Fever]

Well, for right now, im afraid i dont have much to add. The last list posted here is very close to what i would play if i had access to the cards, with the only changes being to the sb to accomodate local metagame. Until something alters the environment significantly, i am quite satisfied with the following list:

Fever Mask

1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
3 Duress
3 Lim-Dul's Vault
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Brainstorm
3 Sleight of Hand
3 Midirection
4 Force of Will

4 Shadowmage Infiltrator
4 Phyrexian Dreadnought
4 Illusionary Mask

1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
2 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
4 Underground Sea
2 Swamp
4 Island

Sideboard is totally metagame dependant, and i know mine is always in flux, so use your imagination.

[Milton]

I went to a tournament this evening with FeverMask.  My build looked like this:

4 Slight
4 Brainstorm
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Yag Will
1 Ancestral
1 Time Walk
1 Demonic
3 Cunning Wish

4 Force of Will
3 Misdirection
1 Divert

4 Duress

4 Shadowmage Infiltrator
4 Phyrexian Dreadnaught
4 Illusionary Mask

4 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
4 Island
2 Swamp
4 Underground Sea
1 Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire

Board:
1 Gush
1 Misdirection
1 Ebony Charm
1 Blue Blast
1 Psionic Blast
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Smother
1 Recoil
1 Stifle
3 Hurkyls Recall
3 Back to Basics

I went heavy on the Misdirection effects with the Divert in the main deck.  This was a metagame call.  I went 3-1 in the prelims, losing to Stacks.  Game 1 he had Wheel, Twister, Ancestral, Walk, Smokestack, Sphere by turn 2 and crushed me.  Game 2 I had first turn Mask, Dreadnaught and I crushed him.  Game 3 he had turn 2 Wire, Smokestack, Karn, Sphere.  Our three games lasted like 8 minutes!  It was like masturbation.

In the first round of the finals I lost to the Burning Wish / Mind's Desire deck.  He had no permission, just Duress for disruption.  He went off like a mad MF.  Game 1 he crushed me.  Game 2 I crushed him.  Game 3 he had a second turn MindTwist for 5 on me and I had no Force or Misdirection (after Wheel of Fortune had resolved.  No Force or MD in the top 15 cards of my deck!).  I call it a fluke for now.  I think I have a favorable match-up against Minds Desire / Burning Wish deck.

Anyway, I have a question for you guys.  What do you like in the Cunning Wish sideboard for a metagame with Stacks and TnT and Burning Wish / Minds Desire decks everywhere?  Arcane Lab?  How about splashing red for Blasts and Rack and Ruin or Pillar?  I'm pulling Back to Basics.  Fetchlands have made BtoB obsolete.

Also, has anyone thought about a transformational board that pulls out the 4 Masks and 4 Naughts to shift the deck into something completely different?

Lastly, I'm shifting my deck around a little before GenCon.  I'll probabally only run 2 Cunning Wish and put the Misdirection back in the main deck.  Also, I'm most likley going to replace the Divert with another Merchant Scroll.  The ability to Scroll for a Force or Misdirection would have been huge in place of the Divert.

Anyway, I still think we can continue to refine our varients of this deck and I think the transformational sideboard is a great place to start.  Thoughts?

[Fever]

Im very tired at the moment, but i have one quick question. Where the heck is Vampiric Tutor?? I know you have some kind of issue with Vault, which i can understand to a certain point, but Vamp should be totally automatic in this deck. Also, depending how brave you are, Consult could also be excellent.

[Milton]

Quote Im very tired at the moment, but i have one quick question. Where the heck is Vampiric Tutor?? I know you have some kind of issue with Vault, which i can understand to a certain point, but Vamp should be totally automatic in this deck. Also, depending how brave you are, Consult could also be excellent.

I put it in the sideboard.  Cunning Wish for Vamp for combo piece.  I wished for it quite a few times.

[Diablos8]

Nice job with the tournament Milton.


Red I fel would be a nice addition to the deck and/or sideboard. It addition to the REB and Pillar, it can also grab Fire/Ice if needed.


I'm not sure about a Transformational sideboard due to Cunning Wish. I see that your sideboard is VERY wish dependant(12/15 cards in your list), so I'm not sure if replacing 8 cards(technically 5 since you removed BtB) so I'm wondering what you could fit, if anything to replace the combo. Only possible ideas I have are Negators vs. Keeper and such, or Morphling. If Red is added, there could also be some interesting transformational stuff from there.

[Milton]

Right now I'm planning on playing my sideboard as such:

1 Ebony Charm
1 Blue Blast
1 Gush
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Smother
1 Recoil
1 Psionic Blast
2 Annul
1 Hurkyls Recall
1 Stifle
4 Energy Flux

Board out 4 Negator, 4 Dreadnaught

Board in 2 Annul, 1 Hurkyls Recall, 1 Stifle, 4 Energy Flux

This requires me to use Infiltrators for the kill, with a wishable Psi Blast as a way to deal an additional 4 damage.  In testing, one Energy Flux is killer against Stax, but two or three is just game.  You can just attack with Infiltrators all day long, and they can't do much about it.

I'm still testing, though.

[Methuselahn]

Rector Trix went on to win that tourny, piloted by Jon Tschida, crushing my Nether Void deck.  

You may want to consider Planar Void in the sideboard.  It stops Welders, Rectors, Call of the Herd flashback (which is popular in the meta), Tog somewhat, and lots of others.  And it only costs B to cast.  This is very nice against all those Rector/Trix decks around.  Unfortunetly you can't wish for it though.

I would really question the mana base of a 3 color version of this deck.  The number of fetchlands needed really pushes it out of that realm.

[Zharradan]

I played an experimental Fever Mask deck in the TMD ToC yesterday, my decklist is in this thread in the tournament forum. The main changes were that I dropped the Slights, and added Drains. This actually felt pretty good.. I didn't really miss the cantrips, and the extra permission was nice. The decklist isn't the best, though.. I'm very heavy on the tutoring effects, but I wanted to try it out. The sideboard was made with heaps of combo in mind.. which didn't really happen. I was thinking about the 50+ entries we had last ToC, instead of the mere 12 we had this time 'round. Ah well.

If anyone is still testing this deck, you should at least try the Drains. They seemed decent. (I only burnt off them once. The mask let me sink drain mana into a face-down Finkel with 5 counters on it when I would otherwise burn   )

[Fever]

I tested Drains and never liked them, not at all, they just didnt fit in with the way i play the deck. With the environment getting faster and faster, i dont see how i could sit with UU open instead of trying to kill my opponent ASAP. I havent had much time for magic recently, but i think my last decklist absolutely needs some alterations for the current metagame. Here is what i would run at GenCon:

Fever Mask

1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Demonic Consultation
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
4 Duress
1 Lim-Dul's Vault
1 Recoil
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Brainstorm
4 Sleight of Hand
3 Midirection
4 Force of Will

4 Shadowmage Infiltrator
4 Phyrexian Dreadnought
4 Illusionary Mask

1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
2 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
4 Underground Sea
2 Swamp
4 Island

I added a Recoil to the maindeck, just because i think Cunning Wish is probably too slow to deal with Rector/Bargain effectively, not that Recoil solves the problem but you get what i mean. I also cut down the Vaults to one, which is something i said i wouldnt do, but let me explain that.

You see, i had been working on a Mask deck using Vaults for a long time, back to before GAT. I really liked the Vaults over Pact and felt that they were an improvement. Then GAT happened, and the card-disadvantage from the Vaults really hurt in that matchup, the deck seemed just a turn too slow a lot of the time. Then, with GAT neutered, i felt the time was right for the deck, and so i started this thread. I still feel the deck can be competitive, very much so, but the environment has once again sped up, and as such, the Vaults are once again painfully slow. For this reason i have gone down to only one copy, and replaced the other two with a Sleight and a Consult(which i still hate). I feel these changes are necessary if you want a shot at beating the new breed of combo deck.

That is all.\n\n

[Malus]

Quote (Fever @ July 21 2003,12:00)I also cut down the Vaults to one. . .

After testing the deck for a little bit, I think that cutting the vaults really isn't such a bad thing.  While it is a pretty cool tutor, I found that with all the card draw and the other tutors the deck packs, I can usually find a threat in time for the win.  However, I do happen to like it when I play vault and either use a Brainstorm or Shadowmage Infiltrator.  Not quite an instant speed tutor, but it is effective enough.

Also, this may seem a little crazy, but I don't think Yawg's Win pulls its weight as much as it does in other decks.  I find that I hardly ever use it, mostly due to the fact that I never seem to have enough mana to abuse it.  In decks with loads of power or Dark Rituals, it can lead to quite a bit of brokeness.  Also, I only ever seem to use it to recur a Dreadnaught or play Timewalk/Ancestral.  I still think it's a great card, but I think it's potential is limited by the deck.  I'll probably keep it for the time being, but I just wanted to throw the thought out since my friends also noticed its lack of use when the deck is played.

[Milton]

I didn't think you could recur a dreadnaught from your graveyard with Yag Will.

[MoreFling]

Quote (Milton @ July 22 2003,07:33)I didn't think you could recur a dreadnaught from your graveyard with Yag Will.

You can't play it through your mask from your graveyard with Will.
Read the damn cards boys, it explicity says play as though it were in your hand, so it's not in your hand, so you cannot active a mask playing the dread face-down from your graveyard.

[Malus]

Quote (MoreFling @ July 22 2003,04:06)

Quote (Milton @ July 22 2003,07:33)I didn't think you could recur a dreadnaught from your graveyard with Yag Will.

You can't play it through your mask from your graveyard with Will.
Read the damn cards boys, it explicity says play as though it were in your hand, so it's not in your hand, so you cannot active a mask playing the dread face-down from your graveyard.

That doesn't make much sense, seeing as how you always play it from your hand and playing it via a Will is like playing it in your hand.  However, if that's the case, then it makes Yawg's Will even less useful in the deck.

[Methuselahn]

Time to liven up this thread again by playing devil's advocate.  I'm really just going to talk in theory here, so bear with me.

I've seen this deck do well and I've seen it not make .500.  There are some fundamental choices in the deck that don't make sense to me.  It could be these choices or it could be the metagame hate I've seen.  For the sake of arguement, I'll focus on the card choices.  

The deck is fundamentally a control-combo deck.  You have the mask-naught combo, which is very fragile.  The dreadnaught is perhaps one of the most easily dealt with creatures in Type 1 by comparison.  Unlike Morphling, which has a knack of protecting itself, you really need to have excellent backup so that the combo resolves and taps for damage.  Sure, it get's the job done twice as fast as Morphling, but this is a control deck tho, so it shouldn't matter as much.  I wouldn't suggest taking out mask/naught because that would change the deck entirely and that's just not fun.  As far as the amount of control goes, why not slow it down and focus on protection?

The "Gro" engine of Brainstorms, Slieghts, Vaults, and Fetchlands increases your card quality, yes.  But while you spend your mana doing this you are being bombarded by your opponent who is essentially goldfishing against you.  Sure, you have counters, but not enough for the amount of things you need to protect.  This "Gro" engine is also a very risky move.  You expend cards and mana to get what you need, but if one thing gets thru to disrupt your plans, all those cards are essentially wasted and you take it up the tailpipe like a sedge troll.  The combonation of these spells worked well in GAT because they not only provided increased card quality, but they also provided additional damage via Dryad and 'Tog.  There's no pumping a naught or finkel.

Counters vs Disruption.  Which do you lean more towards?  I believe disruption is the answer.  Prevention vs Reaction.  If there were more pitch counters available, then the latter would be feasable.  You have to spend your mana on getting your combo out RIGHT NOW, thus leaving you with far less reactive measures.  I know I'd much rather want to see the opponent have to topdeck an answer within the space of 2 attack steps than knowing you have to build up card quality, drop the combo, while having answers for your opponent.

Again, don't take this post as an attack on the deck.  It could easily be seen as such.  This deck looks fun and strong.  I hope it continues to evolve.

[Zharradan]

Quote (Methuselahn @ July 29 2003,11:00)The "Gro" engine of Brainstorms, Slieghts, Vaults, and Fetchlands increases your card quality, yes.

Fetchlands + Brainstorm should be an almost no-brainer in any deck with blue in it.

While I'm not a fan of the Sleights in this deck, the Vaults are very good - and help in getting your combo "RIGHT NOW", as you put it.

[Fever]

I really have nothing more to say regarding this deck. Every aspect of it has been discussed, and i dont care to go into it again.

Once i dreamed a dream, that this deck could be a major force in the metagame. I felt the time was right, and that it could make its mark, but it was dead before it got started.

"Let the deck die in peace"  -Steven Menendian

[jpmeyer]

You're a mod too so if you deem it so, you can lock this bad boy up.

[Fever]

Yes, i realize that MrBadPlayer. However, even though i see no future for the deck, i leave the thread open in case others may want to continue the discussion. I see no harm in doing this.

[-CF-]

Quote That doesn't make much sense, seeing as how you always play it from your hand and playing it via a Will is like playing it in your hand.

This might seem unintuitive, but look at what it says: "You may play cards in your graveyard as though they were in your hand."

It does NOT say: "You may use the cards in your graveyard as though they were in your hand". To "play a card" is to either announce a spell or to put a land into play using the main phase special action. You can NOT use the cards for "put into play from hand"-effects, nor for discarding (which includes cycling). You can't remove a card from the graveyard as an alternate cost to FoW and similar spells when you are Yawgmoth's Winning either.

--
Chris

[Zharradan]

I wouldn't really mind if you locked this thread. I decided to sit down tonight and have a good think about this deck and do some work on it, and I found myself thinking that it would be much better if I replaced the 4 masks and 4 'noughts with togs, and replaced the heavy tutoring with more draw.. and ended up with a crappy Hulk.

edit: er, just incase that sounded pompous.. I wasn't trying to say "oh, yeah! I thought of Hulk too!" .. just that after thinking about Hulk and then going back to look at this deck, I realised it would simply be better if you turned it into Hulk.

[MisterShark]

Well, I guess that about sums it up then; let's all play Hulk  
Honestly guys, we have taken an irresistable 3 colorless mana-2 card combo, and plunked this heart into different bodies:
Tainted Mask
Vengeur Masque
Fever Mask
     So what have we got when all is said and done?  I'd say we have finally found the best body for this heart, and a solidly competitive tier-2 Vintage deck.  
     I have had very good results playing against most decks, and thoroughly enjoyed the matches due to the flow of the deck.  Abandon it if you wish, but it remains one of my favorites.
As one final note: kudos to Fever for birthing the deck and I hope you find some uppers soon.  Your last post on this thread was a morbid closer to an otherwise interesting discussion.

[Malus]

Quote (-CF- @ July 29 2003,10:16)

Quote That doesn't make much sense, seeing as how you always play it from your hand and playing it via a Will is like playing it in your hand.

This might seem unintuitive, but look at what it says: "You may play cards in your graveyard as though they were in your hand."

It does NOT say: "You may use the cards in your graveyard as though they were in your hand". To "play a card" is to either announce a spell or to put a land into play using the main phase special action. You can NOT use the cards for "put into play from hand"-effects, nor for discarding (which includes cycling). You can't remove a card from the graveyard as an alternate cost to FoW and similar spells when you are Yawgmoth's Winning either.

--
Chris

Yeah, I figured it out, but thanks anyway.    

I ended up cutting Yawg's Win and testing it out.  I really haven't noticed a difference, though I'm not sure if I'll miss the occasional brokeness that it provides.

[Clown of Tresserhorn]

I really feel like I should chime in here, but I don't know if my ideas will be flamed...

First, I think in THIS metagame, the best deck to play (with the combo) is Tainted Mask. Now, here me out...Before GenCon and the huge burst of Hulk and Combo, there were 2 types of decks running rampant...GAT and Weenie decks (although, a strong case can be made against this; also, TnT was viable). Tainted mask did not shine, as a fast creature horde could easily disrupt it, and GAT was just a house. This meant that Mask had to adapt...and it did, in the form of Vegeur Masque. It was more resilient and had a way to just say no (a la force of will). Now that Hulk seems to be the top deck and combo is still very strong, Tainted mask seems like a great choice. Almost ALL of the top decks are hurt by discard and misdirections are at an all-time low. Out of all the builds of Mask decks, Tainted mask runs the most disruption, and can drop the combo the fastest. Although it is the least consistent, I still feel that the disruption and speed make up for it. If I were to go to a tourney with an ideal metagame (Hulk, Keeper, Stax, etc.) this is what I would run:

2 Snow-Covered Swamp
2 Swamps
3 Underground Sea
3 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
3 Blood Stained Mire
3 Polluted Delta
7 SoLoMoxen
4 Dark Ritual
-28 Mana Sources

4 Illusionary Mask
4 Phyrexian Dreadnought
3 Hypnotic Specter
1 Lord of Tresserhorn
-12 Threats

4 Duress
3 Unmask
3 Hymn to Tourach
1 Recoil
1 Mind Twist
-12 Disruption spells

1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Necropotence
1 Demonic Consultation
1 Demonic Tutor
3 Tainted Pact
-8 Broken Spells

I know this is a bit untuned, but it is what I would play. While I do like lim-dul's vault, I feel that Tainted pact is better. In a deck where you can reduce the risk of it's drawback, pact becomes an instant speed demonic tutor. With the low amounts of weenie decks now-a-days, you can drop on the number of creatures, although lord of tresserhorn is a nice catch-all for aggro decks. As said before, I think that disruption is absolutely KEY in winning in today's environment. Stop a few of rector-trix's pieces and they collapse. Yoink a couple of StP's and drop a quick naught, and that's game. No disrespect to Fever's build, but I just can't see it surviving in today's meta. It's like an aggro-control deck with a huge win condition. The problem with this is that Vengeur masque does the same thing, only more consistent (because of survival). I'm not saying Tainted pact is much better, but I do think it has more potential.

[Fever]

First, i dont agree at all(obviously) that Tainted Pact is a better choice. I think the vast majority of players now accept that it is the third best Mask build behind Vengeur/Ninja and my own.

However, i will not argue this point. This thread is  not a discussion of Mask decks in general, it is specifically about my deck. As such, your post is kinda off-topic. No biggie.