I've been looking for some interesting synergy lately...

[mouth]

I've been looking for some interesting synergy lately, trying to create a new combo deck. The best I've come up with is Multani's Presence + Chalice of the Void.

In a deck loaded with 0cc artifacts, you could draw a large portion of your deck. That's good in theory and all, but I've had a hell of a time getting any consistency. The basic structure of the deck is as so:

- 4 Multani's Presence
- 4 Chalice of the Void
- alot of other 0cc artifacts
- as little land as possible
- some sort of kill condition
- tutelage and draw

There are some things in the deck that really bug me though. First, it's a 2-card combo, sort of, which makes it hard to consistently get the pieces together while trying to keep consistency in the deck. Second, once CotV is in play, it counters all of your mana producing artifacts, which are much needed to cast the win condition. Third, you actually need alot of 0cc atrifacts in your opening hand, which are damn useless, but you also need to balance those with draw 7's and the like, while not diluting it too far.

Ornithopter, Shield Sphere and Phyrexian Walker all help vs. aggro. Multani's Presence helps versus control (obviously). Versus combo, the idea is to just win first.

I love the idea of the deck, but I just can't get it to all gel together. It feels like something integral is missing.

Some low cc artifacts I've used:
Ornithopter
Shield Sphere
Phyrexian Walker
SoLoMox
Chrome Mox
Mox Diamond
LED
Gustha's Scepter
Lotus Petal
Mana Crypt
Mana Vault
Tormod's Crypt
Spellbook
Urza's Bauble

This may not be a Type 1 deck, and I'm concurrently adapting it for Extended, which is a frick-ton more consistent than the Type 1 build. 4 Enlightened Tutor, 4 Vampiric Tutor, 4 Chrome Mox and 4 Mox Diamond make it very powerful, but not as fast as I'd like. Again, this deck is in the very pre-lim phases of development.

[EDIT]: The deck only usually goes off with a hand of CotV and 2 Presence, which isn't acceptable for T1. In Extended though, it's easy to get that on turn 2, but the good 0cc artifacts aren't in the 1.x cardpool. I'll post later if something comes up.

[BuboniC]

This deck doesnt seem very playable in T1. Try using Tendrils as kill, play tons of artifacts and stuff, but egg academy would be better.

[Lactose]

omfgthisissocool!

I don't know if it's ever going to be very strong, but it's just so awesome that I want to play it anyhow.

If you really need to get rid of the Chalice, Abolish (or Crash if you feel like really altering the deck) could do the job. Maybe you could use it with Land Grant (and ESG, perhaps) and get your land count down really low.

I was thinking about maybe a Yawgmoth's Will win, but obviously that won't work with a 1.x build, and might not be optimal anyhow.

[mouth]

I've been using Chain of Vapor, but it sucks for the same reason the deck does: not enough mana. Abolish is a good option to replace it, I hadn't considered it.

The deck is very elegant in that it's 2 main combo pieces cost G and 0, but it's also quite unappealing because it really is just a pile of jank. In Type 1 it is nearly unplayable, both because of the rampant hate and because of the lack (relatively speaking of course) of undercosted tutelage. For 1.x though, it gains 4 Enlightened Tutor and 4 Vampiric Tutor, but loses SoLoMox + crew and dual lands.

Another point of note is that there is alot of room for decent maindeck hate. For instance, Tormod's Crypt and Abolish. Not only that, but the deck is quite resilient to Chalice @ x=0 (I'd hope) and can even deal with Chalice @ x=1.

I don't expect any help with the deck, mainly because it is very unappealing, but I'll mull over it for a few more days.

[g0dzillA]

Using Tendrils as the kill condition could easily work. You could run Elvish Spirit Guides and Dark Rituals as accelleration, so you wouldn't have to deal with removing your own Chalice for the kill.

Running ESG's would also allow you to cast multiple Multani's Presences early, thus stacking the draw effect and upping the likelihood of comboing out in a single turn.

Running black allows for Rituals, Tendrils, Yawgmoth's Win, Duress for protection, and the all important tutors. Spoils of the Vault might not be a bad idea here, just in terms of finding your combo pieces quickly.

Fetchlands could shore up at least some of the land issues, as their deckthinning power would be more useful than usual in a build like this.

One thing I like about the idea is that, assuming it could be made to work consistently, it should be extremely feasible to make a budget build out of, since the LoMoxen aren't really all that necessary.

I like the idea, but worry about the consistency. I'll play around with a few ideas and see if I can't get a working decklist out of it. Keep us posted on your ideas too, please.

[mouth]

That's pretty much the direction I've taken it. Rituals, Tutors, ESG and the like.

The main problem I'm having is the lack of mana, specifically the coloured mana requirements. I can draw 20 cards or so (not consistently) and have several Rituals, ESG and hopefully a Tendrils in my hand, but no way to cast it. In order to do that, you need to play down some mana artifacts, but hey, Chalice @ x=0 screws that up. So then you hafta Abolish or Crash your Chalice. That is so damn convoluted. Having all those extaneous pieces in there dilutes the number of 0cc cards you can have in there to the point that you can no longer draw enough cards.

That is why it feels like there's something missing.

[EDIT]: Kobolds and Haunting Misery for the win? Bleh.

[BreathWeapon]

Hurkyl's with 0 cc Artifacts is good mana production and adds to your Storm Count. Chains of Vapor is ass in comparison.

[Necrologia]

As much fun as this deck sounds it can never be considered a real type 1 contender. It suffers from the same problem that Fluctuator does, it's blindingly fast when it works, but it just rolls over and dies to Force of Will, Duress, or even just a bad draw. Add in the fact that cards like Duress, and even tutors slow the deck down and you're in a real jam. In any case I still think this is like the best "wtf" combo deck to watch _ever_.

Well, since no one's posted a decklist yet, how about we start off with something like this:

//Combo
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Multani's Presense
2 Tendrils of Agony
//Mana
4 Gemstone Mine
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Dark Ritual
5 Moxen
1 Lotus
1 Lotus Petal
1 Chrome Mox
1 Mana Crypt
1 Lion’s Eye Diamond
4 Chromatic Sphere
//Tutorage
4 Spoils of the Vault
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Demonic Consultation
//0cc stuff
4 Tormod’s Crypt
4 Urza’s Bauble
4 Shield Sphere
4 Welding Jar

I'd love to add in some draw 7s and such, but if we start going down that route aren't we ultimately going to end up with Neo-Academy/TPS?

[g0dzillA]

Heh... this build is only about 6 cards off from what I've been working with - mostly in the mana department. Is there a reason you chose to run Chromatic Spheres? Being that they're not 0cc, they seem questionable. Of course they're good for color fixing, but they seem a little mana intensive early on, and a little combo-disruptive later on. I suppose if you have a second Chalice set at 1 they could be useful for the combo... I just wonder if there's anything better.

I hadn't considered the Welding Jars; they seem like a good idea.

After some testing, though, I have to agree: this deck will roll over to FoW, or even Stifle... not to mention its propensity for being completely uncompetitive if it doesn't find its combo pieces by turn 2, which seems to happen too often. These are just first impressions, though - I'm sure there are some good ideas we may have missed.

[mouth]

Officially relegated as worst combo deck evar. This is lower than Fluctuator.dec. And I had such high aspirations for it.  Boohoo.

[g0dzillA]

It's a pity... the concept is way cool. Two cards requiring 1 mana combined... seems like such a solid combo. Unfortunately it requires the deck to be full of relatively useless jank. I can think of worse combos, though.  

[Necrologia]

Yeah, this is far from the worst combo deck ever. We all remember the 4 card combos we made when we first started playing that would result in stealing one of the opponent's creatures, right?

On the Chromatic Spheres: The reason I included them was Long.dec withdrawal. I mean to help the Mirage tutors. And color fixing, yeah that's it. *cough*

So, we've basically agreed that 40 0cc stuff, the combo and some land isn't going to work by itself as Fluctuator's been kind enough to demonstrate. Both cards are nice by themselves though, so what if we use them as just another means to an end? In this case, that would be pumping storm. Long.dec has 9 openings now, and your combo is 8 cards at most so...

Extremely tenative deck list:
//Protection
   4 Duress
//Broken/Draw
   4 Brainstorm
   1 Timetwister
   1 Windfall
   1 Wheel of Fortune
   1 Necropotence
   1 Memory Jar
   1 Tinker
   1 Yawgmoth’s Will
   1 Tendrils of Agony
   2 Multani’s Presence
   2 Chalice of the Void
   4 Jeweled Amulet
//Tutors
   4 Spoils of the Vault
   1 Burning Wish
   1 Vampiric Tutor
   1 Demonic Consultation
   1 Demonic Tutor
   1 Mystical Tutor
//Mana
   4 Gemstone Mine
   1 Tolarian Academy  
   5 Moxen
   1 Black Lotus
   1 Chrome Mox
   4 Dark Ritual
   1 Lion's Eye Diamond
   4 Chromatic Sphere
   1 Mox Diamond
   1 Grim Monolith
   1 Mana Crypt
   1 Mana Vault
   1 Lotus Petal
   1 Sol Ring