[Deck] Easter Tendrils

[Ephraim]

I don't have a Mana Crypt - if I build this deck, it will be the first thing I've ever built that even resembles a Type 1 deck. I'm afraid that I'm not going to be entering any credible tournaments, though. Our local shop runs "Type 1" tourneys, but they're really more of casual tournaments than anything else. At any rate, there's one fellow who's been showing up with a Tooth and Nail deck that takes advantage of Type 1's card base for acceleration and I just want something to one-up him. I'm afraid that the environment is really scrubby, so while there's an excellent chance that I'll win, it won't be against anything resembling a competetive field.

As far as moving one Helm to the sideboard, that seems like a very good idea. I'm still keeping my one Spoils in the deck, since cutting Burning Wish can save me a few bucks.

I'm aiming for a lot of Glimmervoids on Ebay at 7.50 apiece, so hopefully that will come through. I've also got a Tolarian Academy on the line. I figure that's worth the price I'll pay for it.

As far as the other accelerators go, as I said, I don't have a Mana Crypt. However, I could get ahold of a Mana Vault and a Sol Ring. I may be forced to cut corners for some of the other things. My meta is probably slow enough to use Worn Powerstone, which I may do.

[Ifflejink]

If you want to cut corners, don't use Worn Powerstone. It's too slow for even a group 1 deck. Use Grim Monolith as a substitute, as it's only slightly too slow for the deck.

[Ephraim]

Here's the build I'm testing with right now:

Kill (2)
2 Tendrils of Agony

Eggs (20)
4 Darkwater Egg
4 Shadowblood Egg
4 Skycloud Egg
4 Mossfire Egg
4 Chromatic Sphere

Draw/Tutor (11)
1 Demonic Consultation
1 Spoils of the Vault
1 Demonic Tutor
3 Death Wish
1 Windfall
4 Thoughtcast

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

Land (13)
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Gemstone Mine
4 City of Brass
4 Glimmervoid

Sideboard
1 Helm of Awakening
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Yawgmoth's Will
4 Oxidize
4 Defense Grid
4 Fire & Ice

One of the things I'm noticing is that even with 13 lands and a Lotus Petal I am often not drawing into enough early land to get the combo started. I am considering droping 1x Thoughtcast and 1x Windfall for 2x Underground River. I admit that they're very good, but with ready access to Yawgmoth's Will, because of Death Wish, I can afford a little bit less card drawing.

The sideboard is mostly tentative. Helm of Awakening, Tendrils of Agony, and Yawgmoth's Will are all sure things. Oxidize seems good, in general, but there's not a whole lot to target with it, around here. Platinum Angel's seeing play in one of the local decks, so it may stay to handle that. However, if that's the case, I may change out either Defense Grid or Fire & Ice for Terror, since Platinum Angel goes hand in hand with Leonin Abunas.

[Ephraim]

I am currently testing with a copy of Lim-Dul's Vault in the place of the single Spoils of the Vault I was playing with before. I really like having the extra search effect, but I'd like to try one that doesn't randomly kill me sometimes. I usually have enough mana to handle the extra cost and this deck can almost always handle saving one last egg to start drawing into the five cards I put on top. I have high hopes that at all times, there will be one block of five cards that will significantly boost my progress.

If it works out as well as my bogus theories predict it may, I might be compelled to cut Death Wish and Spoils of the Vault entirely (and maybe a Mossfire Egg), to make room for more Lim-Dul's vault and to put Yawmoth's Will and the fourth Helm of Awakening back in the maindeck. But, that's a revision that won't get tested for a couple of days, while I goldfish (at least) with the first revision.

[UdneekgniM]

Has anyone tested Night's Whisper in the deck?

I've played with it in a mono-B version of Easter Tendrils (more within my budget) on Apprentice, and it seems to work well with the deck.  It doesn't synergize quite as well with cards like Spoils, Necropotence, or Yawgmoth's Bargain, but to me, Night's Whisper is more consistent in terms of mana cost than Thoughtcast.  I havn't played against live competition, but in goldfishing, the loss in life didn't seem too much of a hindrance except for possibly a first turn Spoils that places me close to death.

Also, Vampiric Tutor isn't that bad in the deck because it can occasionally set up an egg, Spoils, or any other draw card, to draw Tendrils.  It also obviously helps to find Helm of Awakening.

I've also experimented with one Skeletal Scrying in my deck.  I know it takes away from potential Will targets, but if you can Scrye enough cards, then it replaces the cards removed from the graveyard with new ones.  It also requires mana to get a good Scrye, but in my experience, I've been able to generate enough mana to Scrye and keep the combo going.

Does anyone know what's supposed to be a decent goldfish for Easter Tendrils?  My mono-B version has averaged about 2.7 turns over 80 trials when going first and packing zero disupruption.  It has also loss 5 times to bad consults or spoils over the 80 trials.  I generally keep any hand that nets me a Swamp.

If anyone is interested here's my super budget, mono-B version of Easter Tendrils, which I like to call Black Sunday.  

//NAME: Black Sunday

// Kill
        1 Yawgmoth's Will
        3 Tendrils of Agony

// Tutor
        1 Demonic Tutor
        1 Vampiric Tutor
        1 Demonic Consultation
        2 Spoils of the Vault

// Draw
        4 Night's Whisper
        1 Yawgmoth's Bargain
        1 Necropotence
        1 Skeletal Scrying

// Draw Engine
        4 Helm of Awakening
        4 Chromatic Sphere
        4 Darkwater Egg
        4 Mossfire Egg
        4 Skycloud Egg
        4 Shadowblood Egg

// Mana Sources
        12 Swamp
        4 Dark Ritual
        4 Cabal Ritual

I have 3 Tendrils to safeguard against bad Spoils or Consults.  I see some builds having 4 Spoils, but 2 Spoils have worked well enough for me.  I have Yawgmoth's Bargain in my deck because I usually can build up enough mana to get it into play (Helm of Awakening helps too).  I would have Mana Crypt in the deck if it was in my budget, but I'm cheap.  I don't have Sol Ring, Mana Vault, or Lotus Petal in the deck.  They provide acceleration and might help to produce more turn 2 kills, but for some reason, I didn't like them after some goldfish tests.  The Skeletal Scrying is there for experimentation and has done a decent job.  I have yet to create a sideboard although it would probably contain Duress and any other cards that would help force through the combo.

The decklist is suboptimal for more serious meta's, but I'm a casual fan who plays with casual players.  

[Ephraim]

I've had Yawgmoth's Bargain suggested to me in the past, but it seems to work best in conjunction with Rector. In either case, for either of those builds to go off fast enough, they seem to require less budget-oriented builds. In my testing, I've gone off consistently by turn three or four, but the only time I've had the mana to cast a Yawgmoth's Bargain is immediately before I cast Death Wish to fetch Tendrils of Agony and win. I'm not sure I agree with Night's Whisper, either. I've never had problems with Thoughtcast during testing. Also, your build is mono-black, which means you don't have to rely as much on City of Brass as I do. Although my maindeck could fairly easily be made mono-black (with the replacement of Thoughtcast), my sideboard has some utilities that I may need access to, even during game 1 (via Death Wish), that cost off-coloured mana. Since I have to keep City of Brass, it is prudent for me to reduce the presence of other life-loss cards.

[Marco]

I must admit that this deck has caught my eye. I first saw a decklist for Easter Tendrils in Tempe's The Definition of Budget article (and I think it is the best decklist I've seen for the deck so far). I'm really into budget decks. I've recently returned to Magic over a year after selling my solid collection of Type 1 cards, including a full set of Power 10 (Black Lotus, Mox Emerald, Mox Jet, Mox Pearl, Mox Ruby, Mox Sapphire, Ancestral Recall, Timetwister, Time Walk, Library of Alexandria). My favourite/best deck right now if my Food Chain Goblins deck, which is a blast to play and super competitive. Easter Tendrils reminds me of Food Chain Goblins when it is "going off" with a Food Chain in play and several Goblin Ringleaders stacked by a Goblin Recruiter... I consider myself to be a knowledgable, informed, competitive Magic player, and I would like to help in the development of this deck, but I have not played tested/goldfished with this deck yet, so I will try not to sound too ignorant. (I don't believe people should comment on or criticize a deck if they haven't played it... there is a world of difference between theory, and what looks good on paper, and what actually works in play.) I am concerned about the deck's lack of disruption of any kind, but I played in a Type One Friday Night Magic tournament tonight, and I didn't see a sigle island, counterspell, and not many instants for that matter.

First, I'd like to discuss some potential card choices.

Unrestricted tutor for Helm of Awakening in one of your two primary colours (blue)? Fabricate

Tinker is obvious (and restricted), but what about Transmute Artifact? Reshape is (slightly) inferior to Transmute Artifact, but is more readily available. I don't think sacrificing an artifact is an issue, is it?

If only Artificer's Intuition read, "U, Discard an artifact card from your hand: Search your library for an artifact card with converted mana cost 2 or less, reveal that card, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library".

Instead of tutoring, how about playing with 8 Helms of Awakening? Stone Calendar is more expensive, but it only benefits you, and with a deck full of artifact mana acceleration and 8 Dark Rituals, is 5 mana really that hard to pull off in the early game?

The question is, what to take out of such a tight deck for all (or some) of these goodies? Well, it would require a major reworking of the deck, and I hope to come up with a decklist or two, and do some testing as soon as possible.

As for sideboard options, I think 3-4 Defense Grids and 4 Phyrexian Negators are necessary. I think if you play in a field with fully powered artifact decks (Mishra's Workshops, Trinispheres, Chalice of the Void, Tangle Wire, Smokestack, Mindslaver, etc.) or heavy permission/Control decks, this is not the deck to play.

[Ephraim]

I can't say anything about my deck's optimality. However, the Death Wishes are incredibly useful. I'm planning on sideboarding Seal of Doom and Oxidize (maybe Tel-Jilad Justice). Just to keep myself on my toes, I've been goldfishing, but pretending that the goldfish has a Leonin Abunas and a Platinum Angel on the table (something the current "best" deck in my meta fields.) Having Death Wish in the deck along with more general-purpose tutors (even though they're restricted) means that I can win the first game, even through such a formidable oposition.

[Driven]

Marco

You have some decent choices if you're looking for budget cards to play in Easter Tendrils, but what you take away in Speed...well...you take away in the likelihood of winning.

Take Stone Calendar for example.  5 open mana to cast is something even T1 powered players have to aim for in combo decks, and with a God hand it's easy, but other than that, hope for turn 2-3.  In budget, things go a little slower, but rely on Rituals largely for that mana.  To place in cards such as Stone Calendar, Transmute Artifact, and Artificer's Intuition, you're placing more mana-hungry cards in an area where you simply don't need them.  They slow you down too badly, and to be competitive, Easter Tendrils has to be fast - something that these cards mentioned just aren't for this deck.

However, the good thing is you're thinking outside the box, and that's how decks reshape and, hopefully, become more competitive:)  However, once/if Night's Whisper find's it's way into Easter Tendrils...what would you think about taking out?  You said major re-working?  Sadly, much of the deck can't really be worked out - at least a dozen eggs, helms, Rituals, mana, not to mention Tendrils, Tutors, and budget brokenness make up a large essential of the deck.  If you change this deck big time, it's a totally new deck - probably just utilizing much of the same engine.  However, if you think up anything, let me know - I'm a combo player at heart, and am eager of new idea's to revive it in area's where control is dominating ::cough cough:: New England ::cough cough::
~ Alden ~

[Ifflejink]

I like the idea of Lim Dul's Vault, but I don't think that cutting Death Wish is a good idea. It allows for the deck to actually respond to threats without giving disruption a maindeck spot. My sideboard, although still in developement, is almost entirely singletons. This allows for access to the perfect card for any situation. Death Wish just adds so much to the deck that I'm surprised it's not an automatic inclusion in most any build.

[Ephraim]

Having tested just a little bit, I've definitely concluded that cutting Death Wish is a bad idea. However, I'm not crazy about Spoils of the Vault. I like having four tutor effects in the deck, in addition to the Wishes, so I'm considering going down to 14 Eggs (-2 Mossfire) and playing with  1 Demonic Tutor, 1 Demonic Consultation, and 2 Lim-Dul's Vault. I've tested a little bit with this configuration and it seems to work all right. Having two fewer eggs doesn't do much harm to the deck, since Lim-Dul's Vault allows me to make sure that what I am drawing with the remaining eggs will be of greater help to me. Having fewer Mossfire eggs in particular also means that I have to do less mana-fixing, since I have less pointless red/green mana in my pool.

I am also toying with the following idea: There are currently three Mossfire Eggs in my deck. As mentioned above, I wouldn't mind cutting one of them for a second Lim-Dul's Vault. I am wondering whether it would be worthwhile to cut the remaining two for a fourth copy of Death Wish and a Conjurer's Bauble, which would provide the card-drawing effect of the egg without turning potentially useful mana into red or green mana. Considering my sideboard possibilities, below, it might even be better to use Sungrass Egg in place of any Mossfire Eggs that would remain in the deck.

I'm still working on a sideboard, by the way. If your one-of model is optimal, then I should have at least

1 Tel-Jilad Justice
1 Dark Banishing
1 Helm of Awakening
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Yawgmoth's Will

That leaves ten slots available? What sort of stuff deserves room in said slots? Aura Blast? I know that Defense Grid has also been suggested. I really don't know, since sideboards represent the weakest aspect of my deckbuilding skill.

[Ifflejink]

My sideboard is similar to yours, but here are a few differences:
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Diminishing Returns
1 Mind's Desire
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain
1 Naturalize
1 Oxidize
1 Doomsday (the "Doom Bauble" combo)
1 Lim-Dul's Vault (If not maindeck)
One thing to remember about a Death Wish sideboard is that it's very different from a regular sideboard. More than half of the slots are usually combo options that only work in specific situations.
On another subject, I have found about 20 egg effects to work very well. This is my egg base:
4x Darkwater Egg
4x Skycloud Egg
4x Shadowblood Egg
4x Conjurer's Bauble
4x Chromatic Sphere
Any comments? Any other egg base ideas?

[Ephraim]

Just that I've been having a reasonable degree of success with just 16 or 17 "eggs"

4 Darkwater
4 Skycloud
4 Shadowblood
4 Chromatic
1 Sungrass

I think that my four Tutor effects and my four Wishes help to shore up this somewhat lower number of eggs. Once again, there is glowing praise for Lim-Dul's Vault in this situation. The combined effects of Demonic Consultation and Index, with a minimal life cost is really potent in this deck. Once I find the five cards I like, it's easy to set them up so that I can make the most of my continuing chain.

I'm not sure if I agree with Mind's Desire in the sideboard. As a wish target, I think it's suboptimal. Anytime I've had a Death Wish in my hand and enough mana to cast Mind's Desire, it's always been the result of a large number of spells, so that it's just better for me to Wish for Tendrils of Agony and win. I'm against Yawgmoth's Bargain for the same reason. With that in mind, do you have one Tendrils in your sideboard (and forgot to list it), or are you not doing that?

As far as the other items in your sideboard go, I think that Doomsday's a good call, considering your four Conjurer's Baubles. I'm running lighter on the Easter Eggs, so I'm not going to bother with that. I'd put Lim-Dul's Vault in your maindeck, if I were you - in place of Spoils of the Vault if you're still running it. I can't really comment on Wheel of Fortune or Diminishing Returns, but theoretically, they should be good. I may pack Ancestral Knowledge in my sideboard for similar reasons, although I'm not sure there are a lot of situations in which I'd grab it before I'd grab something else. I am also up in the air about what's the optimal set of cards for artifact and enchantment hate. I love the idea of gaining/not wasting card advantage or fixing my draw, when I go after those spells, so as I said, I'm toying with Tel-Jilad Justice and Aura Blast. If you think Naturalize and Oxidize work better, let me know.

In retrospect, I think I'm going to put the fourth Helm of Awakening back in the maindeck. I've only ever wished for it once and that was in a situation where I should have mulliganed (Because I had to wait to get three mana to Wish for it, I was going off turns later than I should have)

Finally, I also think it's important that we start examining this list and seeing if there's anything that could be cut to make room for disruption. Even if only three or four slots could be cleared up for Duress, it would probably improve the deck's matchup versus some control decks and give it more credibility in the eyes of the combo-judging public.

[Ifflejink]

I just listed cards on my sideboard that weren't in yours. I wouldn't be caught dead without Will or Tendrils in my sideboard. They're both just fantastic.
About the Wishable Helm, I'm still testing how well it works. Theoretically, dropping Spoils for Death Wish reduces the chance of being able to get a Helm in play, but mana then becomes an issue.
Tel-Jilad Justice and Aura Blast both deserve sideboard slots, I think, and we can remove Naturalize.
About Duress, what would you cut for it? The problem I find is that it's simply dead when going off, but that could be less of a problem now that Death Wish has arrived. I'll test it out.

[Ephraim]

I don't think it's necessarily dead while going off. I've occasionally found myself having to push the envelope to get my storm count up to nine, so my Tendrils will be lethal. Having a 1cc spell of dubious utility would still up your storm count, whether it helps you disrupt or not.

Just considering the results of my testing, Lotus Petal is probably expendable. This deck doesn't need more mana than the Rituals can provide, one additional mana will seldom make or break you, and it's restricted anyhow, so it yields questionable utility. I would also drop a Thoughtcast (bringing my build to 2). In my case, with the fewer Easter Eggs, I am able to cast it for somewhat less often than I can in a 18+ Easter Egg build. I might then also drop a Skycloud Egg, but that would put me at 15, which is pushing the envelope, I think. Worth trying, though. Disruption is a necessariy element to making this deck tournament worthy. If it doesn't work, we can always look at other things to take out.

EDIT
Dropping Lotus Petal was okay. Dropping any more eggs and a Thoughtcast killed the deck. I was goldfishing with excellent consistency on turn 3 or 4. (Granted, without disruption, that's far too slow.) Having removed a Thoughtcast and an Easter Egg, that consistency went right out the window.

[Ifflejink]

After testing, the fourth Helm is absolutely neccessary maindeck. It's too slow and clunky to have to wish for it.
On another subject, since I haven't posted one in a while, here's my decklist:
//NAME: Easter Tendrils
Mana Sources
        3 City of Brass
        3 Glimmervoid
        4 Gemstone Mine
        1 Tolarian Academy
        1 Sol Ring
        1 Mana Crypt
        1 Lotus Petal
        1 Mana Vault
        4 Cabal Ritual
        4 Dark Ritual
Search/Draw
        1 Lim-Dul's Vault
        1 Demonic Consultation
        1 Vampiric Tutor
        1 Demonic Tutor
        2 Night's Whisper
        3 Thoughtcast
        4 Death Wish
Engine/ Kill
        4 Chromatic Sphere
        4 Conjurer's Bauble
        3 Skycloud Egg
        4 Shadowblood Egg
        4 Darkwater Egg
        1 Tendrils of Agony
        4 Helm of Awakening
SB:  1 Doomsday
SB:  1 Diminishing Returns
SB:  1 Aura Blast
SB:  1 Tel-Jilad Justice
SB:  1 Fastbond
SB:  1 Oxidize
SB:  1 Yawgmoth's Will
SB:  1 Tendrils of Agony
SB:  1 Windfall
SB:  1 Lim-Dul's Vault
SB:  1 Wheel of Fortune
The sideboard isn't finalized yet. As you can see, I still like Lotus Petal. I just find that it's helpful to up the spellcount, provide easy mana, and has synergy with Will.

[mrtransistor]

Ifflejink, nice build but I have a few questions.  First, why not drop one Death Wish for a Burning Wish?   Burning Wish is cheaper, gets all the good stuff (Will and Tendrils), and has the added bonus of not hurting you.  

Do you think that the draw7's are really better in the sideboard?  I'm never sad to draw into a Wheel or a Windfall.  Wishing for one seems inefficient.  I'm of the opinion that this deck is all about the draw7's. The eggs keep the combo going, but if you draw useless stuff a few times in a row, it fizzles. By useless stuff, I mean mana when you need draw, or draw when you need mana.  When you draw 7 cards, you almost always get something useful.  

How's Night's Whisper working for you?  It seems to me that this deck is a bit too suicidal already with City of Brass, Death Wish, Mana Crypt, Mana Vault, Lim-dul's Vault, etc.  I was originally pretty high on Whisper, but I don't want to make it too easy for someone who's holding a Bolt or even Fire/Ice.

Why Fastbond?  By the time you wish for it and cast it, it'll be hard to get back more mana than you've already spent.

I'm with you on the Lotus Petal. Too good to pass up.  You may want to re-consider Grim Monolith.  Earlier, you said it's too slow, but even without a Helm, it gives you a net gain of 1 mana.  With a Helm, it becomes another Dark Ritual.

[Ifflejink]

Most of the sideboard's disruptive options are instants, and I don't want this deck too have less disruption than it already does. Fastbond is there because I want an option for any situation on the sideboard, though Fastbond situations are rare.

Draw7's are sideboarded because they can often be drawn in inopportune situations, like when you have a fair amount of cards in hand. Also, there's the issue of many. Wheel of Fortune and Diminishing Returns are both a bit hard to cast and it's not fun too draw one when you don't have the mana to use it. Windfall is the only one that would really work maindeck, but there aren't to many ways of tutoring it. I just find situational cards more convinient sideboard.

About the deck's suicidal nature, all someone has to do is make sure that they don't drop below four life. The cards that force you to pay life (City of Brass, Death Wish, Mana Crypt, Mana Vault, Lim-dul's Vault, etc) either will cost you at most three life or win the game when cast. With the latter, being at low life isn't too much of a concern.

About Monolith, I have no idea what I could remove for it. All of the other mana accelerators work better, and the Rituals provide black mana. The fact that Monolith is colorless hurts it, and so does the fact the it's slower than other colorless accelerants like Sol Ring, Mana Crypt, and Mana Vault.

[Marco]

After some playtesting with a few different builds, I have decided that this is not the deck for me. Here is the deck I was working on, if it will help any of you with your builds.

1 Chrome Mox
4 Darkwater Egg
4 Helm of Awakening
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
4 Mossfire Egg
4 Shadowblood Egg
4 Skycloud Egg
1 Sol Ring
4 Sungrass Egg

4 Dark Ritual
1 Demonic Tutor
4 Duress
2 Tendrils of Agony
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will

2 Brainstorm
1 Mystical Tutor
4 Fabricate or 4 Ancestral Knowledge

4 Ancient Tomb
4 Polluted Delta
4 Underground Sea

Sideboard:
4 Defense Grid
4 Tormod’s Crypt
4 Phyrexian Negator
3 Hurkyl’s Recall

[Goatman]

Here is the build I am taking to the Starcity Tournament in July:

Eggs:
4x Chromatic Sphere
4x Darkwater
3x Sungrass
3x Skycloud
2x Mossfire
1x Shadowblood

4x Helm of Awakening

4x Death Wish
2x Tendrils of Agony

4x Duress
2x Brainstorm
1x Ancestral Recall (Proxy)
3x Thoughtcast
3x Spoils of the Vault
1x Demonic Consultation
1x Demonic Tutor

4x Dark Ritual
1x Lotus Petal
1x Black Lotus (Proxy)
1x Mox Jet (Proxy)
1x Mox Sapphire (proxy)

1x Tolarian Academy
5x Island
7x Swamp
3x City of Brass

Sideboard:
1x Diminishing Returns
1x Chalice of the Void
1x Yawgmoth's Will
1x Mind's Desire
1x Oxidize
1x Aura Blast
1x Wheel of Fortune
and 8 more, I cannot quite decide qhat else to put in

Any thoughts, questions, or comments on how it can be tuned to go off faster (it goldfishes 3rd turn consistently, 2nd on rare occasion), please let me know. I have a feeling the duress will help immensely on a competitive level to force through whaty I need, and I don't see taking them out as a way to speed up a deck with no other way to punch through a wall.

[Ephraim]

Since the Wish/Sideboard has a lot of slots open, I've been trying with one Oxidize, one Tel-Jilad Justice, one Aura Blast, and one Demystify. That way, I feel slightly better prepared for any situation, whether I have lots of mana, but haven't gotten all of the cards to go off yet (Tel-Jilad Justice or Aura Blast) or if I just need to get rid of a pesky Worship or Platinum Angel before I cast Tendrils for the win (Oxidize or Demystify). Now, take this idea with a grain of salt - I can't really predict whether it'll ever be helpful or not, since the use of those cards requires rather specific situations. Also, for the record, I may also be running Terror and Purge in my sideboard - Terror to deal specifically with Leonin Abunas and Purge  because I have space for it and it seems appropriate to have an answer to black and artifact creatures.

[majestyk1136]

A powered deck that only goldfishes on turn 3 consistently?  Why bother taking this?  Do you suspect that the metagame has some sort of hole that will enable this to perform?  Particularly with the fact that your disruption is pretty minimal...  Why not just proxy up the proper power and play a more proven deck instead of just getting shit canned, especially with all of the null rods that are going to be running around.  No offense intended, but maybe I'm just missing something here... On that thought why not try to play doom bauble instead, as with power that deck is practically a cinch to goldfish on turn 2 with all of the brokenness therein.  The deck runs most of the same elements and has multiple kill mechanisms instead of being a one trick pony.

[Ephraim]

I'm seriously considering dropping Demonic Consultation for a third Lim-Dul's Vault. Getting the second mana to cast Lim-Dul's Vault is seldom difficult and in this deck the quality of the card is unparalleled. Not only does it let you search for the one card you're looking for, it gives the deck a huge boost to consistency. One of the big complaints is that the deck stalls if you hit a pocket of bad draws. Lim-Dul's Vault totally counteracts this problem. By being able to search not just for one card, but to find an entirely good pocket of cards, you can ensure as many as five good draws. With the large number of card-drawers in this deck, it's seldom/never difficult to save at least one of them to restart the chain, once you've found a good pocket. Plus, Lim-Dul's Vault is an instant, so it means that if you've had a slow start, you can set yourself up for a good next turn, at instant speed, at the end of your opponent's turn.

On the other side is Demonic Consultation. I've never thrown away both of my victory conditions (not that it would matter, since I can always Wish for one), but I often find myself throwing away cards that I'd really like to have. The only big benefit of Consultation is the ability to consult for a Helm of Awakening on the first turn. With four copies of Helm in the deck and only one copy of Demonic Consultation, I've found this benefit to be slim. I typically find that it's more effective to just mulligan until I've found a Helm. Lim-Dul's Vault can also be used to find a Helm of Awakening (albeit, less quickly) and can also ensure that the cards arranged around the Helm of Awakening are quality and may be put to good use. Finally, Lim-Dul's Vault puts cards at the bottom of the deck where they're hard to get at, but at least they're not removed from the game. I might cast Demonic Tutor to get my Tolarian Academy, but I don't think I'd ever Wish for it.

On a side note, what do people use to keep track of amounts of each colour of mana? I used pen and paper today and it was pretty clunky. I'm thinking of getting six coloured dice to use, since it's easier to flip a die than to scratch out a number and write a new one.

[Jacob Orlove]

On a side note, what do people use to keep track of amounts of each colour of mana? I used pen and paper today and it was pretty clunky. I'm thinking of getting six coloured dice to use, since it's easier to flip a die than to scratch out a number and write a new one.

I have a whole bunch of dice, so when my opponent plays combo, I usually just lend him a few of the appropriate colors. It seems to work pretty well.

The other option is to use tally marks, and cross them off with each mana you use. That also makes it easier to keep track of storm, since each spell = one more tally mark.

[JDawg13]

When playing combo, I use a little piece of paper that I designed on Excel when I was really bored one day.  It's got boxes for Storm count, mana of each color, life totals, and notes for each game.  If you want it, send me a PM and I'll send it to you.

[Ifflejink]

Ephraim: I think that Demonic Consultation still deserves a spot. Here's why: 1. It gets you the card right away 2. You don't loose life 3. It's only B to cast. I can see your reasoning to run another Vault over it, but I still consider Consult to be a fast, efficient and useful tutor spell.

Goatman: I think that you deck would definitely run faster with less lands (I run 11) and a manabase more supportive of Wish targets. My manabase is:
3 Glimmervoid
3 City of Brass
4 Gemstone Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
Also, why did you drop Cabal Ritual? Even with power, it's still a needed and extremely efficient mana accelerant, and is an all around better Dark Ritual with a Helm in play. I see no reason to drop it considering the deck's relative lack of mana acceleration. The same (partly) goes for Mana Vault and Mana Crypt.
On the subject of your egg base, why have you ommited Conjurer's Bauble? It requires no mana to activate, and, on a much less significant note, recycles cards. I find it much more useful than say, Sungrass Egg.
If you're going to Starcity, I really think that you'll need to take some of my suggestions into consideration.
BTW, good luck, and thank you for being the first person that I know of to take Easter to a major tourney. A win would do wonders for the deck's credibility.

[Driven]

Ephraim -
Playing combo I've had the same problem, but I've been fortunate enough to have friends or opponents with either colored dice or glass beads for the tally if I don't have paper.  However, paper's still easy enough.  The others just make it not as cluttered  :lol:
~ Alden ~

[theorigamist]

I usually put out one of each basic land, one face down card, and one small empty space with no card.  Then use glass bead counters on whichever land to keep track of mana, beads on the face down card for colorless mana, and beads floating in space for spells played.  (Actually, I use cranes, but glass beads will work for the rest of the world.)

[Ephraim]

If you're got some jewelry in your deck, I agree that you could easily cut back to eleven or twelve lands. I run fifteen in my deck (4 Glimmervoid, 4 City of Brass, 4 Gemstone Mine, 1 Tolarian Academy, 2 Tarnished Citadel [I will be testing with 2 Ancient Tomb in place of the Tarnished Citadels]) , since I don't find fewer to be quite consistent enough, but with two Moxen, not to mention Black Lotus and Lotus Petal (I don't use Petal, either), you should be okay. Fifteen permanent mana sources have been very consistent for me.

Cabal Ritual is indeed very good. In fact, I would cut Dark Ritual before I cut Cabal Ritual. With a Helm of Awakening in play, Cabal Ritual is strictly better. With plenty of power, four copies of both might not be necessary, though. I'll leave that up to you.

Ifflejink, as far as using Conjurer's Bauble goes, I'm still happy with Sungrass Egg in my deck. The fact that the Bauble pops for free is of small benefit, since it doesn't generate mana, either -- so if you don't have two mana of some colour, it isn't going to help you go off any better than an Egg. I also am not impressed by the card recycling. There's not a whole lot of benefit to putting cards to the bottom of your library. If you've got a Demonic Tutor in your hand, there's a pretty good chance there's a second copy of the spell you want in your library anyhow. Also, since the sideboard contains quite a few green and white spells, without running nothing but 5-colour lands in the mana base, having Sungrass Eggs can help to ensure that one will be able to cast Oxidize or Aura Blast.

Goatman, on that note, I think that using Glimmervoids or Gemstone Mines in place of some of your basics would solidify your mana base.

Ifflejink, regarding the question of Vault versus Consultation, I'm going to keep testing, but I think I'm going to stick with Lim-Dul's Vault. I really like the draw-fixing and I've had some very bad Consultations. I'm not sure which deck-building principle is better for the deck, but it seems to me that you tend toward a faster, but somewhat more erratic build, where I'm aiming for a slower, more consistent build. Demonic Consultation just seems far too temperamental for me to be comfortable playing with it.

[EDIT]
TheOrigamist, that sounds like a really good idea. It means that I'll be able to play with cheap, white dice, rather than having to go to the game store and buy coloured dice at sixty cents a piece.
[/EDIT]

[Ifflejink]

My build, yes, is much more based on speed. Why? Due to the current prevalence of disruption and cards that say "you lose" to Easter Tendrils, I'm aming for a deck that can win before the opponent has a chance to disrupt. Right now, although I would like to find a spot for Duress, Wish targets are adequate disruption for me.