[Deck] Easter Tendrils

[Holy_Cow]

I think this deck is going to work out just fine.  I gonna try and bring it to a local tournament  

[Ephraim]

I found a good solution to the problem of keeping track of mana. I forgot that a while back I'd purchased some poker chips as a sample, since I was considering buying a lot of them. I happened to get five each of red, blue, green, black, white, and yellow. In most cases (except when casting a bunch of rituals) I won't have more than five of any colour of mana, so those chips will serve the purpose just fine and will look damn cool to boot.

Anyhow, this is the form of my deck as it currently stands. As previously mentioned, I'm aiming for consistency first and speed second, since my meta is very slow. I've filled thirteen of the slots in my sideboard and will probably use the last two for Defense Grid.

Since I'm using Duress in the sideboard, rather than in the maindeck, one of the things I've been giving a lot of thought is what I would remove in games two and three, in the control matchup. Right now, what I have in mind for removal is 1 Skycloud Egg, 1 Dark Ritual, and 1 City of Brass. I'm not sure what the fourth card would be yet. Maybe a Lim-Dul's Vault or a second City of Brass.

Easter Eggs (17)
4 Chromatic Sphere
2 Sungrass Egg
3 Skycloud Egg
4 Shadowblood Egg
4 Darkwater Egg

Search/Draw (12)
1 Demonic Tutor
3 Lim-Dul's Vault
1 Frantic Search
3 Thoughtcast
4 Death Wish

Mana Acceleration (14)
1 Sol Ring
1 Grim Monolith
4 Helm of Awakening
4 Dark Ritual
4 Cabal Ritual

Kill (2)
2 Tendrils of Agony

Land (15)
1 Tolarian Academy
2 Ancient Tomb
4 Gemstone Mine
4 Glimmervoid
4 City of Brass

Sideboard
4 Duress
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Mind's Desire
1 Terror
1 Devour in Shadow
1 Oxidize
1 Tel-Jilad Justice
1 Demystify
1 Aura Blast
2 Defense Grid (?)

[Ephraim]

The last build proved to be very stable, so I've started messing with it. My theory is that the previous stable deck is sufficiently durable to withstand the removal of some of its cards, which I intend to replace with Duress or Cabal Therapy. In this case, I am not sure which of the two is better.

Since I need to have an early Helm of Awakening, I can't mulligan until I have a hand with Duress in it. However, because of the nature of Storm decks, traditional counter magic isn't quite as frightening as Stifle. I may need to be concerned with somebody countering my Helm of Awakening, but if that doesn't happen, my largest concern must be somebody Stifling my Tendrils of Agony. If in the end I conclude that my greatest/only significant fear is Stifle, then I will settle on Cabal Therapy, since I can remove all Stifles from my opponent's hand with a single card.

I have made the following changes to the deck since the last list:

-3 Shadowblood Egg
-2 Dark Ritual
-2 City of Brass

+1 Ancient Tomb
+2 Sungrass Egg
+4 Duress (Cabal Therapy?)

I often found myself getting more mana than I needed to win, so I figured I could trim the land and the Rituals down a little bit. I've not had too many problems keeping my life at a managable level, so I opted for a third Ancient Tomb in place of the two Cities of Brass. Two colourless mana is often much more useful to me than a single coloured mana. I removed most of the Shadowblood Eggs because I never need red mana. Also, because of the Rituals in the deck and because my default mana production is typically black, I don't need that many black filters. However, many of the silver bullets in my sideboard are green and white, which makes Sungrass Egg a bit more useful than Shadowblood Egg.

Also, with the move of Duress from the sideboard to the maindeck, I've got sideboard slots open again. I'm getting a Windfall and several Ancestral Knowledges sometime soon. Windfall may replace one of the Thoughtcasts in the maindeck. Ancestral Knowledge may have a position in both the maindeck and the sideboard. I'm also going to up the number of Defense Grid in the sideboard to three.

Tentative Sideboard:
1 Oxidize
1 Tel-Jilad Justice
1 Demystify
1 Aura Blast
1 Terror
1 Devour in Shadow
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Mind's Desire
3 Defense Grid (?)
1 Ancestral Knowledge (?)
2 (?)

[spectreonline]

The Devour in Shadow in the 'board should probably be a Terminate if you want something targeted. Colour should rarely be a problem either way, although BB for Devour after BB for Death Wish could be a little tougher than the BR that can come straight out of a Shadowblood Egg.

Given this is coming off a Death Wish I also think the lifeloss could be relevant; especially when these aren't the only pain the deck is causing itself (NB: Wish drops you to 10 max so you can *never* kill a'Naught w/ a Wished Devour)

[Ephraim]

Terminate is certainly worth considering. I'll test with it and see what comes of it. However, it may also not be necessary or feasible. There's really only one prevalent colour of mana in this deck and that's black (because of Dark- and Cabal Ritual). Since blue appears frequently in the maindeck, I also generate it on a regular basis. However, green, white, and red are all definitely off-colour. With several green and white bullets in the sideboard, I'm already in a position where I may want to cast an off-colour spell. If possible, I would like to minimize the reliance on additional colours. Terminate is definitely a better spell than Devour in Shadow, if one can afford the colour splash, which this deck may well be able to do. On the other hand, that slot of the sideboard could probably go to Purge just as easily, since it only needs to be able to destroy black creatures. Terror deals with non-black, non-artifact creatures and Oxidize or Tel-Jilad Justice deal with artifact creatures, just fine. Also, I don't really need to worry about stuff like Phyrexian Dreadnought, since it doesn't actually hinder my ability to go off. The redundant removal in my sideboard is to deal with stuff like Platinum Angel, Leonin Abunas, Disciple of the Vault, etc...

[Jacob Orlove]

Wouldn't you just be better off with a Chain of Vapor type card in that slot? If you ran several, you could even board them in after game 1.

[Ephraim]

A fine point, Mr. Orlove. If I'm going off, I don't really need to destroy anything. Bouncing it will typically be more than sufficient to allow me to win. I'd gotten myself caught up in the fallacy that the most efficient way to deal with an offending card in Magic is to destroy it. If I'm about to win the game, as long as I can remove it from play, I will be fine. I think that the particular card I'm going to select is Echoing Truth. The price is right (recall, it will be with a Helm of Awakening out) and it doesn't give my opponent any chance to inconvenience me by bouncing something of mine, like the aforementioned Helm of Awakening.

That also solves the problem of what to do with the excess sideboard slots, since against decks that are playing with any particularly difficult permanents and few particularly difficult sorceries/instants, I can confidently side in Echoing Truth in place of Duress/Cabal Therapy.

With Ancestral Knowledge in the sideboard, I intend to use it as follows: Versus non-combo decks, both of them will remain in the sideboard. Versus combo decks, one of them will replace Windfall in the maindeck and the other will remain in the 'board as a Death Wish target.

Versus control decks, I expect I ought to side in (as opposed to Wishing for) at least one of the Defense Grids. However, I also want to maintain speed against control. What in my maindeck should be considered most expendable in this case? The only card that doesn't really add to the deck's ability to go off is Duress and it'd be stupid to side that out versus Control.

New Sideboard:
1 Oxidize
1 Tel-Jilad Justice
1 Demystify
1 Aura Blast
1 Terror
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Mind's Desire
2 Defense Grid
2 Ancestral Knowledge
3 Echoing Truth

[Zelc]

You may also want Hurkyll's Recall in the sideboard.  One Hurkyll's Recall will bounce all of the Chalices, Spheres of Resistance, Null Rods, and, in the worst case, Trinispheres in play.  You can even use it to up your storm count.  It could replace the Tel-Jilad Justice, Aura Blast, or one of the Echoing Truths.

Also, you may want to have at least one Chain of Vapor in the sideboard.  Chain costs 1 less than Echoing Truth, and that 1 mana may be critical in allowing you to go off sooner.

[Ephraim]

If and when I start encountering heavier, powered environments, I'll worry more about dealing with that kind of resistance. Hurkyll's Recall might be the right solution, in that case. As an answer to artifacts, it would probably replace Tel-Jilad Justice. As far as Chain of Vapor goes, the difference in the casting cost is fairly negligible. With either card being retreivable primarily by Death Wish, it's almost a guarantee that I will be getting it only after I've got a Helm of Awakening in play and am attempting to go off. In that case, it won't cost any more. If there's a Sphere of Resistance or a Trinisphere on the table, I'd be digging for Oxidize anyhow.

[Ifflejink]

IMO, Chain of Vapor and Hurkyl's are both quite effective sideboard cards. They serve the purposes of Oxidize, Tel-Jilad Justice, and Aura Blast, etc., thereby freeing up sideboard slots. I see absolutely no reason not to run them, regardless of prior metagame considerations. Chain works against everithing except Chalice, and Hurkyl's does that, among other things.

[Ephraim]

I'm not convinced that the risk inherrent in Chain of Vapor is worth taking. It isn't as though this sideboard is packed with stuff. While I've agreed that Hurkyll's Recall is definitely worth consideration, I'm not going to commit to Chain of Vapor yet.

Since the discussion of anti-artifact sideboard cards started, I realized that having both Oxidize and Tel-Jilad Justice (or Oxidize and Hurkyll's Recall) is important. It provides defense against both Chalice for 1 and Chalice for 2. Certainly, Chalice for 1 is this deck's bigger fear, but a very fast Chalice for 2 prevents Helm of Awakening from hitting the table, which would be deadly.

I also think that Echoing Truth fills this position adequately, if not optimally. For myself, being able to randomly bounce Myr Tokens, multiple Platinum Angels, etc... will be worthwhile. If my metagame matures, that decision might change.

[Nazdakka]

Hi, I've been playing around with this deck on MWS, seems pretty good . I've found it utterly destroys the lower powered decks it comes up against, which is always a good sign, but tends to come up a little short against Force of Will. The play style which I tend to adopt makes this deck feel like a less-broken version of Long.dec - draw some cards, make some mana, wish up Yawgmoth's Will, win. I really don't feel that reliant on the Helms - I have gone off on several occaisions by simply playing 3-4 rituals, getting Yawgmoth's Will and going crazy without a Helm in sight.

Land: (14)
2 Ancient Tomb
4 Gemstone Mine
4 Glimmervoid
3 City of Brass
1 Tolarian Acadamy

Fast mana and acceleration: (17)
1 Lotus Petal
1 Sol Ring
1 Mox Diamond
1 Mana Crypt
4 Dark Ritual
4 Cabal Ritual
1 Grim Monolith
4 Helm of Awakening

Eggs: (17)
4 Chromatic Sphere
4 Mossfire Egg
1 Skycloud Egg
4 Shadowblood Egg
4 Darkwater Egg

Tutors and Draw: (10)
3 Thoughtcast
4 Death Wish
1 Frantic Search
1 Demonic Consultation
1 Demonic Tutor

Win: (2)
2 Tendrils of Agony

Sideboard: (Somewhat fluid at the moment)
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Mind's Desire
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Oxidize
1 Echoing Truth
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Duress
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Naturalize
1 Ancestral Knowledge
4 Xantid Swarm
1 Wheel of Fortune

The Lotus Petal and Mox Diamond have been absolutely superb for me - when are looking at dealing 15+ points of damage to yourself over the course of the game you have to minimize the chances of stalling for mana. I absolutely hate Lim-Dul's Vault - perhaps it's just laziness on my part but I tend to want one card NOW as opposed to several cards some time in the future.

Death Wish, though, is possibly the best card in the deck and is what reminds me of Long.dec. It serves as an answer to almost every problem I come across plus an unrestriced Yawgmoth's Will.

Thoughtcast seems to be a necessary evil - it's the weakest card-drawer in the deck by some distance and only seems to be good when everything is going well. I'm looking at replacing it with Night's Whisper.

A lot of all this comes down to metagaming though - the MWS environment tends to be a mix of a few good players with control/combo and hordes of bad people with Ponza or similar,

[Ephraim]

Thoughtcast is, indeed, a necessary evil. My current build actually only has two of them. From the list I posted above, I removed one more of the Thoughtcasts and replaced it with a Windfall. If I were going to add money to the deck, I would certainly replace the last two with Ancestral Recall and Timetwister (but then, if I were adding money, I would play a better deck.) I'm not sure that replacing it with Night's Whisper is a good idea. You noted yourself that this deck sometimes deals 15+ damage to itself on its road to victory. (My deck performs about the same, despite Lim-Dul's Vault, since I seldom need to spend more than two life on it and it often wins me the game right away.) Losing two additional life puts one well within the range of most burn spells, which isn't necessarily a good idea. Since mana colour isn't of great importance, due to the presence of so many five-coloured lands, Wheel of Fortune would probably be a good replacement. Having one copy of Thoughtcast might not be the worst thing. If you still don't like it, the last slot might be adequately filled by any of Brainstorm, Impulse, Opt, Sleight of Hand, or Serum Visions.

Your build seems very similar to Ifflejink's, in that you seem to be going for speed over consistency. I'm sure your build sees turn two wins far more often than mine does. However, you've mentioned a weakness to Force of Will. Note that while my build typically only goes off on turn three, that it also has room for four Duress or Cabal Therapy in the maindeck.

As far as your objection to Lim-Dul's Vault, understand that on the turn you go off, you do get the card now, or effectively so, since you have a whopping twenty one effects in the deck that draw at least one card. You fix your next five draws and then pop an egg or drop Thoughtcast. Situationally, you can set a Wish on top, set a Tendrils on top, or arrange several more eggs to increase your storm count. I know in testing, there were many times where Demonic Consultation was simply not a card I wanted to see. However, I have never been disappointed by Lim-Dul's Vault. I agree that it is a substandard tutor if you cast it the turn before you go off, but the benefits it provides on the critical turn are central to my build's success.

Finally, while the deck can go off with the mana generated by multiple rituals and/or Tolarian Academy, it is far more reliable if you aim for a Helm of Awakening.

[Ifflejink]

Nazdakka, I question your land count. Although you do run Mox Diamond, 15 lands is still too much, IMO. Although I like the overall decklist, I'd reccomend these changes:
-4 land, (your choice, besides Academy, of course) +4 Duress or Xantid
-1 Grim Monolith, +1 Mana Vault (Strictly better here)
-1 Frantic Search, +1 Night's Whisper
-1 Thoughtcast, +1 Night's Whisper
-1 Tendrils (MD), +1 Thoughtcast
I think that this would give your deck more consistency and some very sought-after maindeck disruption, though it doesn't seem like that's too much of a concern in your meta.
I second Ephraim on the comment about winning without a Helm. It may be possible, but it's extremely unreliable.
On the subject of Vault vs. Consult, I like Consult. One overlooked point about it is that it can fetch a Helm turn one. Although Vault fixes the next five cards, I find that it's just not as effective, though I do run 1 in my build. Consult can read "I win" in quite a few situations, most often when fetching a Death Wish.

[Mind_under_Matter]

First let me say that I love this deck from a budget standpoint, it's easy to build yet still leaves a decent challenge in playing it.

Now for the ugly part. I don't see Thoughtcast as a necessary evil. I actually run brainstorms over it for the more consistent mana cost and the extra card dig. The other problem I have is the Will in the sideboard. We all know that Will is auto-win in this deck, and paying the extra for the Death Wish seems foolish for me when you have upwards of twenty cards in the deck that draw a card for you, plus four to eight straight up tutors which can fetch it.

[Ifflejink]

Will is on the sideboard as a wishable because, even though it costs a bit more mana and some life, you can effectively run four. Not to mention that, if it was maindeck, you would only be able to use Demonic Tutor, Consultation, or Vampiric to fetch it, which just isn't near efficient enough.

[Ephraim]

Mind_Under_Matter, I'd like to address the points you made.

The reason that I do not run Brainstorm is that putting cards back on top of the library isn't beneficial to this deck at all. There are very few shuffle effects in the deck, so you can't get rid of dead draws and you're trying to draw as many cards as possible -- not dig as deeply as possible. Thoughtcast yields greater card advantage and so is preferable to Brainstorm even if you won't always be able to cast it for . It has been noted that Thoughtcast is really only useful if you're already in a position to go off. I concede that point, but it is also important to note that most of the cards in the deck are only useful once you're ready to go off. That doesn't make them useless, since casting many spells is integral to the deck's success.

On the other hand, while I don't like Brainstorm in this slot, Serum Visions deserves consideration for the slot as well. I feel that it is similar to Brainstorm except in the critical aspect that it can shunt two bad draws off to the bottom of the Library. Although other builders may disagree with me on this, I'm of the opinion that draw fixing is possibly the most important element of this deck. That said, Serum Visions isn't great at fixing draws and replacing a reasonably good card-drawer like Thoughtcast may be a poor choice.

A final possibility or this slot that just struck me is Thirst for Knowledge. This deck has an abundance of artifacts and could probably afford to discard one of them. Furthermore, this card will never cost more than three mana -- the most I'd be willing to pay for a Thoughtcast under normal circumstances -- and it will often cost two. It digs as deeply as Brainstorm, which is good, and has a drawback that is more palatable, given the way this deck plays. The question is: is the additional guaranteed mana cost worth the benefit? I believe it merits testing. If nothing else, I think this card is no worse than Thoughtcast and may be better.

I agree with Ifflejink on the matter of Yawgmoth's Will in the sideboard. I wish for Will more than I wish for any other card. This is clear evidence that my four Death Wishes are effectively four Yawgmoth's Wills. It is a costly way to cast it, but you may have noted throughout this discussion that I advocate stability and consistency over pure power. I grant that if Will were in the maindeck, you'd be better off every time you drew it than my deck is every time I wish for it. However, statistically, I will be able to cast it at least three times as often as you will (not four since I don't always wish for Yawgmoth's Will)

[PoLe]

Last week i have read for the last time the 5d spoiler. I found a little card maybe can replace some egg in tjis deck. The card is the Conjurer's Bauble.

i think  this is a great card with elm in play.

let me know


PoLe

[Ephraim]

It isn't strictly better or worse than any of the other eggs. It has the advantage of popping for free, which can be very useful. When I first considered this card, I didn't think that it would be tremendously useful, since despite popping for free, it doesn't filter one's mana. Furthermore, if you do have mana in your pool that you don't mind turning into other mana, Conjurer's Bauble is no better or worse than any of the other eggs. However, I've been reconsidering this card again lately, as I've occasionally run into the problem where I'd like to draw one more card (perhaps to get to a Ritual that I just put on top of the deck), but I haven't enough mana to pop an egg or by popping said egg, I would lose the black mana I'd need to cast the Ritual. In such a situation, Conjurer's Bauble would have been very useful. I intend to test with it to see if it improves the deck's consistency.

[PoLe]

i have tested it. i like it very very much. but i suggest u don't play the first ability (put the card on the bottom of your library) because it is very dangerous (with yawgmoth's win & cabal ritual).

PoLe

[Ephraim]

I agree entirely. Unless I have Demonic Tutor in my hand and a card in my graveyard that I would like to cast immediately, I will not place a card from my graveyard on the bottom of my library.

[unnameable]

I've been goldfishing Ifflejink's build listed on page 8 of this thread, which includes 4 Conjurer's Baubles.  I can't say that there's ever been a time when I've drawn a Conjurer's Bauble that I wished it was an off-color (Sungrass or Mossfire) egg instead.  Possibly after sideboarding in 4 Xantid Swarm that would change.  But with so many sources of 5-color mana in the deck, I don't think I'd prefer the marginal utility of mana fixing to the varied marginal utility of the Conjurer's Bauble.

Conjurer's Bauble is more resistant to stall when under a Helm (no need to have mana floating), and easier to use to dig to a Helm (no mana in activation cost).  The ability of the Bauble is optional, so it can really never hurt.  The Bauble's ability makes the infinite storm combo possible (empty library via Doomsday or an intentionally bad Demonic Consultation and two Baubles).  And being able to potentially recycle a key spell (the 1 maindeck Tendrils, or a countered Death Wished Yawgmoth's Will) is nothing to sneeze at, either.  While I wouldn't play with only Conjurer's Baubles and no eggs, I think including 4 Baubles to complement ~12 eggs (and 4 Chromatic Spheres) is a fairly easy decision.

PS.  Sorry for writing so much and acting like a know-it-all in my first post.

[Ephraim]

No need to apologize. Your input is quite welcome. I too have become a convert of the Conjurer's Bauble. Once I realized that nine times out of ten, the only thing in my sideboard that sees play is Yawgmoth's Will, I decided I didn't need to concern myself so much with off-colour mana. I put the Shadowblood Eggs back in the deck and made room for four Conjurer's Baubles. Specifically, I removed two off-colour eggs and the two Thoughtcasts. This leaves me with a net increase in Easter Eggs, more "free" spells, and more efficient, if less powerful card drawing. It is also noteworthy that I've found Cabal Ritual noticably more reliable with the two additional Easter Eggs in the deck.

Also due to the trend of fetching mostly Yawgmoth's Will, with Tendrils of Agony and Mind's Desire being second and third, I replaced one copy of Death Wish with Burning Wish. is much easier to come by than {B} and half of one's life.

I also acquired a Mana Vault, which replaced one of three Dark Rituals in the deck. It serves a similar function (generate three mana at a cost of one mana), but can be played for free under a Helm of Awakening.

The exact content of my current build is as follows (changes highlighted in blue):

Win Condition (2)
2 Tendrils of Agony

Easter Eggs (18)
4 Darkwater Egg
4 Shadowblood Egg
2 Sungrass Egg
4 Chromatic Sphere
4 Conjurer's Bauble

Draw/Search (10)
1 Demonic Tutor
3 Lim-Dul's Vault
1 Frantic Search
1 Windfall
3 Death Wish
1 Burning Wish

Mana Acceleration (13)
4 Helm of Awakening
1 Sol Ring
1 Grim Monolith
1 Mana Vault
2 Dark Ritual
4 Cabal Ritual

Disruption (3)
3 Duress

Land (14)
1 Tolarian Academy
2 City of Brass
3 Ancient Tomb
4 Gemstone Mine
4 Glimmervoid

Sideboard
1 Oxidize
1 Tel-Jilad Justice
1 Erase
1 Aura Blast
1 Hurkyll's Recall
2 Defense Grid
2 Ancestral Knowledge
3 Echoing Truth
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Mind's Desire

[giddygorgon]

I've been testing this deck recently. I really like it, but sometimes it seems like I'm in the middle of going off and either run out of mana, don't ever draw a tendrils or death wish, or just cant keep it going at all.   . I am currently testing with iffjinks build from page 8.

[PoLe]

this is my current list:

//egg
4 conjurer's bauble
4 darkwater egg
4 shadowblood egg
4 skycloud egg
4 chromatic sphere

//draw search
1 demonic tutor
4 spoils of the vault
3 dimishing returns
1 wheel of fortune
1 demonic consultation
1 burning wish
1 yawgmoth's will

//mana acc
4 dark ritual
4 cabal ritual
1 sol ring
1 mana vault
1 mana crypt
1 lotus petal

//combo
2 tendrils of agony
4 helm og awakening

//land
4 city of brass
4 gemstone mine
1 tolarian academy
1 swamp

i usally win:

30% first turn
70% second turn
100% third turn

PoLe

[Ifflejink]

PoLe, I have a few problems with your list. You have no Death Wishes, and aren't running any disruption. I find that disruption is extremely important in this deck due to it's vulnerability to hate. What does you deck do when a Trinisphere, Chalice, or Sphere of resistance is in play? The only option seems to be give up. Please tell me what you think of these suggestions.

[Ephraim]

Giddygorgon, I had precisely the same problem with Ifflejink's build, which is why I diverged somewhat. My build is designed to solve the consistency problems that Ifflejink's faces. Unfortunately, as a result it's a turn or so slower than Ifflejink's build.

It is important to note that this tradeoff may be unavoidable. It is the nature of Storm-combo decks in general to have engines devoted to playing and casting a great many cards. It is the unique province of Easter Tendrils to have your draw engine provide the spells you're casting at a one draw per cast ratio. This aspect of Easter Tendrils results in a fairly fragile deck, which is susceptible to the inconsistency that you've noticed. Furthermore, because the deck relies critically on cheap artifact spells, some of the most prevalent hate in Type 1: Null Rod, Trinisphere, Chalice of the Void for one, etc. will all stop the combo cold.

To improve the deck's ability to resist hate and to ensure that the combo will resolve once the deck starts to "go off" it is necessary to remove some of the draw engine (that is, the Easter Eggs) and replace them with tutor effects and disruption. More tutor effects ensure that the deck will always see the critical card it requires. (usu. Tendrils of Agony, Death Wish, or Burning Wish) Disruption ensures the ability to ride out hate.

These are precisely the steps I've taken to improve the deck's consistency and resilliency to hate. If I may make a numerical comparison of Ifflejink's deck to mine, I'll show the relative numbers of various types of cards in each of our maindecks.

Easter Eggs
Ifflejink: 19
Ephraim: 18

Card Drawing
Ifflejink: 5
Ephraim: 2

Tutors (including Wishes)
Ifflejink: 8
Ephraim: 8

Mana Accelerators
Ifflejink: 16
Ephraim: 13

Land
Ifflejink: 11
Ephraim: 14

Disruption
Ifflejink: 0
Ephraim: 3

Win Condition
Ifflejink: 1
Ephraim: 2

Ifflejink's greater number of  Easter Eggs, card drawers, and mana accelerators is likely to help him go off extremely fast, when he gets the cards he needs in his opening hand. In my build, although a "God" hand is possible, it's extremely rare. However, I've designed my deck to allow the deck to go off on turn three or four with no fear of either stalling out or of being shut down by the opponent's hate.

[PoLe]

Ifflejink, i'm not running any disruption and death wish because the deck is more slowly with them. the power of this deck is in his speed.

PoLe

[Ephraim]

The problem with that mentality, Pole, is that Fish can very easily go land, Mox, Null Rod, go. If that happens, your build has no recourse whatsoever. It really hurts any build of this deck, but at least with my build or Ifflejink's we can respond on our turn with land, Dark Ritual, Death Wish for Oxidize. (More experienced Type 1 players would probably advocate just scooping, but I'm not very experienced at the fine art of concession.)

It isn't much of a response, but then, Fish won't always get that down first turn, either. Our builds can always hold out hope that we can catch a Duress at a good time (particularly when going first) and knock out Null Rod before it ever comes online.

[Mind_under_Matter]

Ephraim, I was wondering about your choice of the off color egg. Since you are running Burning Wish wouldn't Mossfire make it just the little bit more consistent?