Low Budget Keeper

[Anonymous]

This is my first post here  

I'm an french Type 1 player, mostly playing fully powered paragonish Keeper and TnT. A friend of mine wants to try it at a small tournament (the metagame will probably be jankly and unpowered), but he doesn't own any of those cards : Power9, Mana Drain, The Abyss and Moat. I tried to design him a low budget Keeper, and this is the list I'm currently on :

// MANA (25)
1 Strip Mine
2 City of Brass
2 Flooded Strand
2 Tundra
3 Wasteland
3 Polluted Delta
3 Underground Sea
4 Tropical Island
4 Volcanic Island
1 Sol Ring

// REMOVAL (8)
1 Powder Keg
1 Gorilla Shaman
1 Dismantling Blow
2 Fire / Ice
1 Chainer's Edict
1 Balance
1 Swords to Plowshares

// DRAW+TUTORS (12)
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Sylvan Library
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Stroke of Genius
1 Vampiric Tutor
2 Brainstorm
3 Gush
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Scrying Glass
        
// KILL CARDS (2)
2 Morphling

 // COUNTERS (9)  
1 Misdirection
4 Counterspell
4 Force of Will

// BROKEN UTILITY (4)
1 Zuran Orb
1 Mind Twist
1 Regrowth
1 Yawgmoth's Will

// SIDEBOARD (15)
1 Spike Weaver
1 Dwarven Miner
1 Ravenous Baloth
4 Oath of Druids
1 Naturalize
1 Seal of Cleansing
4 Red Elemental Blast
2 Gaea's Blessing

Now some comments of my main choices.
The most difficult card to replace is probably the Ancestral Recall. I had to modify the hole skeleton of the deck, in order to add some Gushes and a few more Brainstorms. The draw engine is quite interesting now, and Yawgwin is still a broken card in this configuration. Brainstorms are here over Impulse due to their great interaction with fetchlands. Braingeyser is out, because it is not powered by juicy Mana Drains anymore.
I decided to go back to green mainly for sideboard choices. The main deck can perform well versus unpowered control decks, but low budget Keeper is really lacking Moat and Abyss versus aggro decks. I opted for a transformal sideboard, like Gro one, with an Oath of Druids configuration allowing a third Morphling drop, with Ravenous Baloth and Spike in back up. I added a second Fire/Ice main deck, I think negating an opponent's mana source early with cantrip effect is quite like a Time Walk. Adding green allows be to play the Sylvan tutor main deck, which is interesting with tutors and fetchlands for their shuffling effects.  
I still have some interrogations about the man deck :
- without Drains, is Mind Twist still worth a slot. I've not been disappointed by this yet but I haven't spent hours testing...
- is Scrying Glass a stable drawing engine ?

Thanks to anyone how will comment my current decklist.
I apologize for possible english errors, french is my mother language  

[MoreFling]

The Blessings need to be Krosan Reclamation, so you can side into the combo trick. I would move toward adding Enlightnened Tutor maindeck, together with Power Artifact/Grim Monolith Combo.
Future Sight + Fastbond is a nice trick in a deck like that.

I'm not sure what to say on unpowered Keeper, apart from the fact that it's doubtable wether I'd want to name it keeper

[Anonymous]

Well I also think it's not a true Keeper anymore  

I've tried Future Sight (with Fastbond) in a fully powered Keeper, I'm not a real fan of this card. Of course, if It resolves, It's game. But It's a really juicy mana drain target; and It merely mobilizes all your mana sources for a whole turn. That's why I didn't play this is the low cost Keeper.

For the combo trick. I'm currently playing it as a sideboard tech against TNT and Sligh in a KrOathan Keeper. This is a pretty interesting tech, but It is mana expensive, and hardly playable without all the jewerly played from the graveyard with a Yawgwin. Gaea's Blessing allows to recur Morphling and the others critters.

[MoreFling]

Oh right, how could I forget about the non-playability of the combo without the jewels heh

Still, there are no mana drains in your enviroment? So the future sight + fastbond will be great in this deck!
i'd still play the combo+enlightnened tutor though. Cunning Wish could be good, so you can use the tutor in the side.

btw, you should be able to just force through the future sight.

[Spizzard]

I wonder if the Stroke, mind twist and  mystical tutor are worth it without power and drains.  They wont be near as powerfull or come out near as fast without the speed of moxen + drain mana.  Mystical isn't that good without ancestral.  I might consider dropping them for misdirections and brainstorms (the fetchlands are already there to support)

[Sylvester]

I'd suggest going towards something more like (gro-a-)tog, Mono-U, or Urphid. Keeper without its main creature answer and its acceleration isn't really Keeper anymore: you  sacrifice your manabase for...nothing?

[Anonymous]

The Mystical Tutor was cut in the first list, but I decided to keep It because It still can find Gush, Balance or an instant/sorcery spot removal. Sure, that's not Ancestral Recall but I think It's worth the slot. If I cut it, It will probably be for a third Brainstorm.
Stroke and Mind Twist are of course loosing much from the lack of mana drains, and that's why I've already cut the Geyser. Maybe, as MoreFling mentionned, I should cut them for Future Sight and Fastbond. I'll test this.

I know that Keeper without his main creature answer and his jewels is not Keeper anymore, but my friend really want to play a Keeper like deck at a tourney next week and I can't borrow him my power because I'm also enrolled.