Need help picking a deck

[spankweasel]

Hey guys,

I know I have another thread open right now about running Rector Trix in a tourney, but after goldfishing and playtesting it, I have found it to be inconsistant and not worth running.  

So....

I have a tourney coming up and I'm having a hard time picking a deck to play.  The meta will consist of a dozen decks that are fully powered and optimized (Keeper, Madness, Dragon, Stax, etc.), a few people with quality aggro (Sligh, Suicide),  and about 40 people who run very bad aggro (Slivers, Angels) or bad combo (High Tide / Palinchron, Statis)

Here's my issue.  I don't know what to play.  This tourney is sanctioned, so I can't use proxies.  Here's what I have to work with as far as power:

Mox Jet
Mox Sapphire
Time Walk
Ancestral
Twister
4 Mana Drains
Duals ....

Is a Keeper deck playable without all the power?  I'm pretty sure I can get everything else for a Keeper deck aside from the last 2-3 moxes and the Lotus.

What I am looking for is a decklist that will be able to hold it's own against aggro, and yet is still competitive enough to be able to play against the big, fully-powered decks.

If you post a deck idea, and it has power in it that I don't have, could you please post alternatives for the power?  Chrome Mox, Mox Diamond, Lotus Petal, etc ....

Thank you for help on this!

[Frost]

Considering what you listed for power, I would play Hulk.  It is one of the strongest decks in the field and versatile enough to handle any environment.  As for a deck list, well, there are a number of them on this site so take a look at them and choose one that best fits your metagame and adjust the sideboard to beat your environment.

[Dr. Sylvan]

Just make sure a tournament that large gets the Top 8 decklists posted here!

One of the strong options is UR Fish. My cautionary statement would be that you should absolutely stuff your sideboard with anti-aggro cards in a budget-filled metagame, because you are sure to face some random monored kid, and blue isn't supposed to lose to bad colors like that. :) As for a decklist, this one T8'ed a large European tournament a few weeks ago, with the exception that I actually added in the Power.

4 Cloud of Faeries
4 Grim Lavamancer
3 Spiketail Hatchling
3 Voidmage Prodigy

1 Ancestral Recall
4 Curiosity
3 Daze
4 Force of Will
2 Misdirection
3 Null Rod
2 [card]Sigil of Sleep[/card]
4 Standstill
2 Stifle
1 Time Walk

4 Flooded Strand
3 Island
4 Mishra's Factory
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Strip Mine
4 Volcanic Island
4 Wasteland

I would not recommend a budgetized Hulk, however, because not only is it a deck that really, really wants more mana, but Psychatog is a notoriously difficult card to just walk into a room with and do well. Fish is much more intuitive than Tog, and you have the tools to run an optimal version.

(BTW, best decklist-request post I've ever seen.)

[spankweasel]

Oh, I forgot to mention.  I also have a Library.

As far as Hulk goes, I really don't have the practice under me to just go in and drop it down.  I'm concerned about play errors that I know I'll make, and I don't really like Mr. Tog all that much anyway....

As far as playing Fish goes, my buddy is going to run it and he has all of my Fish cards!  

Would some kind of Keeper variant  be viable without the remaining power?  Would Scepter Control be possible?  Or do you think that both of these decks require all of the power?

Thanks again for all your help!

[Dr. Sylvan]

Keeper is a similar story to Tog: loses a lot with missing Power, and hard to play correctly without experience (I embarrass myself every single time). I think a very appropriate alternate option would be EBA. Here's Seth Levy's second place list from January Waterbury.

1 Time Walk
3 Ophidian
1 Demonic Tutor
4 Brainstorm
4 Mana Drain
4 Meddling Mage
4 Force of Will
1 Mystical Tutor
3 Phyrexian Negator
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Swords to Plowshares
3 Duress
2 Vindicate
2 Exalted Angel
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Ancestral Recall

3 Underground Sea
1 Mox Pearl - throw in your Library, or an Island
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Sol Ring
4 Tundra
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
2 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
1 Island
1 Plains
1 City of Brass
1 Black Lotus - I'd go with an Island
SB:
2 Swords to Plowshares
1 Exalted Angel
1 Moat - another Exalted is a decent bet
1 Disenchant
1 Serenity
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Energy Flux
1 Blue Elemental Blast
2 Stifle
1 Ebony Charm
3 Damping Matrix

You have a better feel for your metagame, so change the board to fit better with your anticipated opponents.

[Nevyn]

You might also consider landstill. It will probably be less intimidating for you to play in terms of choices than tog, and can be played with the power you have. If you are looking for a non-tog control deck, and can't afford to optimize keeper, it would seem to me that this is the way to go.

Also, while it has game against good players and good decks, it also does very well against worse decks as newer opponents tend to play very poorly against it. There are some solid lists for it in the type one forum.

[spankweasel]

I looked at this version of EBA and it concerns me in a field of aggro.  Meddling Mage Is notoriously mediocre against aggro.   I'm also afraid that there's going to be a lot of old Sligh, new Sligh, and SRB (Stupid Red Burn)  so the Negator is a scary prospect as well.  If I was playing in a powered environment, I wouldn't hesitate at all to run this, but in a field of aggro, I'm concerned that I won't make it past the 2nd round to play the better decks / players this version of EBA is designed to beat.

I remember seeing some kind of RWU - LIghtning Angel / Phid deck that might hold some promise.  Anybody know of a deck like this that could work?

[Godot]

Dr. Sylvan beat me to it.  I was just about to suggest EBA.  Obviously in this configuration the deck could have some issues in an underpowered metagame, but when you're playing Ubw the options for tweaking are quite wide open.  Simply moving the Negators to the SB opens up several MD slots that can shore up its weaknesses--more StoPs, more angels what have you--against the early round decks while maintaining a strong anti-control game, especially post SB.  Hell, you can even just SB some CoP: Reds if theres gonna be that much burn.

Basically this thing is hella customizable and I think can be made strong in any field--especially considering it doesnt sound like you're gonna have to deal with much/any combo.

BTW, is this for the Denver tourney this weekend?

[spankweasel]

Yeah it is.  Mile High Comics at 10 am.  

Thanks again to everybody for their help.  If anybody else has any good ideas, I'd love to hear them.

[Flurp™]

You could try playing GAT, Its not hard to play if you have played other blue control before.  GAT is a viable budget deck, so with some power it could do fine.

[thejinhong]

I agree that Landstill is the deck to play with what you have.


You might want to loan out your jet in order to borrow a pearl for the tournament.  UW Landstill is very strong, and in such a big tournament, it would probably do fairly well.

[MuzzonoAmi]

You could play Oath...

4 Tropical Island
4 Flooded Strand
9 Island
3 Forest
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
4 Oath of Druids
1 Spike Weaver
1 Morphling
4 Accumulated Knowledge
1 Intuition
1 Mystical Tutor
2 Gaea's Blessing
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
2 Cunning Wish
4 Brainstorm
2 Back to Basics
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk

SB
2 Back to Basics
3 Stifle
4 Crumble/Naturalize
3 Ground Seal
2 metagame wishable slots

Thanks to SummenSaugen for the outline of the list.

[Mephistopheles]

Hehe, Oath v. Scrubby Aggro...

Landstill is definantly a viable option, although I would go with UR instead of UW, especially if you're worried about aggro.  And I think UR is stronger even against strong decks, what with the hate and Fire/Ice and all.  ShockWave just wrote a primer on Landstill, if you hadn't seen it yet.