Eureka! Skull.dec rises again...

[dicemanx]

It seems that the old threads dealing with this unique deck have disappeared from the archives, so I have decided to start up another thread after a few requests from some people. The deck in question is named "Skull", and it is designed to abuse the power of Eureka and Sneak Attack. It seems that the time has never been better for this deck - we are entering the "aggro" phase of the T1 metagame cycle, with the advent of powerful metagame decks like Oshawa Stompy and terrifying fully powered aggro decks like TnT and Madness. Skull is designed to crush aggro, and present quite a challenge to most control decks. It folds like a cheap tent against combo, but with the decline of Dragon.dec and the lack of a strong long.dec version, Skull might be a fine choice for the "Timmy" player that also wishes to be fairly competitive.

Without further ado, here's the decklist. It is by no means finalized, and there are still some questionable choices. This is because I haven't spent too much time working on the deck lately, but I intend to focus on it a bit more in the near future.


"Skull.dec"  by dicemanx
 
The engines (16):

4x Eureka
4x Sneak Attack
4x Oath of Druids
4x Survival of the Fittest

The beasts (19):

4x Penumbra Wurm
4x Symbiotic Wurm
4x Verdant Force
2x Ravenous Baloth
1x Silvos, Rogue Elemental
2x Crater Hellion
1x Squee, Goblin Nabob
1x Gigapede

The mana (26):

1x Black Lotus
1x Mox Emerald
1x Mox Ruby
1x Sol Ring
1x Mana Crypt
1x Mana Vault
4x Eladamri's Vineyard
4x Taiga
4x Wooded Foothills
6x Forest
2x Mountain


SB:

4x Carpet of Flowers
4x Null Rod
4x Chalice of the Void
3x Viashino Heretic

Other notable SB cards, depending on meta:

4x Artifact Mutation
4x Tormod's Crypt
4x Blood Moon
4x Ground Seal

The deck relies on 12 ways to get a big, fat creature into play. Eureka is the most powerful way to do this, but Sneak Attack is also very potent, especially with the Wurms. The Oaths are also amazing. Never before has the environment been filled with so many competitive creature based decks; apart from your stock Suicide and Sligh, we have stuff like TnT, Stacker, Madness, Oshawa Stompy, wMUD/Stax/Slaver, Gro, Fish, etc. Apart from the different ways of getting creatures into play, this deck is designed in such a way as to allow for the actual casting of the creatures directly. The SB Carpet of Flowers further supports this goal - most blue-based decks are creatureless control decks, so the Carpet assists in trying to overwhelm such decks by baiting their counters early with Eureka and Sneak while hitting them afterwards by hard-casting creatures. To round out the deck, the Survival engine is introduced as a way to generate card advantage and fetch some of the "Silver Bullets". Altogether, these 16 slots are the heart and soul of Skull.dec.

The creature base, on the other hand, is not set in stone beyond the mandatory Wurms and Verdants. Indeed, there are some strong choices that have been omitted here, but deserve consideration:

Woodripper (for artifact-heavy metas)
Xantid Swarm (anti-control measure)
Darksteel Collosus (powerful, but not castable)
Endless Wurm (very castable, but its upkeep cost might be problematic; the up-side is that it can be a great way of removing unwanted Oaths, especially if you Oath up a Verdant and the opponent is Oathing up chump blockers in turn)
Plated Slagwurm (anti-control creature, but with no evasion or cool abilites it's not too exciting)
Genesis (might be too slow to waste time recurring creatures, but makes sense with a lone Xantid or Slagwurm)


The mana base is questionable, but after much testing and tournament experience I've decided that basic lands are better than off-color Moxen. Also, the deck utilizes every possible accelerant that generates 2 mana, so that a Eureka or Sneak can be powered out on turn 2. This includes the following:

Lotus
Sol Ring
Mana Crypt
Mana Vault
4 Vineyard

The Vineyard is of course a debatable choice, but the problem is that there is nothing better to reach the critical 4 mana as soon as possible. This deck doesn't really care if the opponent abuses that mana. For instance, wMUD might drop that 1st-2nd turn Smokestack on you, but who cares if you're going to Eureka out a Verdant and a Symbiotic or two immediately after. The Vineyards are consistent with the balls-to-the-wall aggressive nature of this deck; you are simply making the assumption that whatever the opponent does with that mana will be negated by the bombs you will be dropping turn after turn afterwards.


The SB, apart from the above-mentioned Carpets, features some extreme hate cards to shore up specific matches. Artifact-based decks can be taken care of by the powerful Heretics and/or Mutations; Null Rods also help shut down decks featuring problem cards like Nevinyrral's Disk, Isochron Scepter, or the mana bases of wMUD and TPS/neolong.dec. Chalice of the Void is also a useful tool in battling control's creature removal or counterspell ability, not to mention strengthening your matches against aggro decks with very low mana curves. Blood Moon doesn't make the cut currently as most decks are prepared for it, and I have chosen not to go with Crypts because Dragon.dec is almost a hopeless match-up anyways. In any case, its very important for this deck to go with powerful proactive SB cards which retain the aggressive nature of this deck and offer the possibility of mass card-advantage.


I will start up another thread soon on an off-shoot of this deck, which features Timesifters, Sylvan Libraries, and Eureka coupled with Artifact creatures and Mishra's Workshop for acceleration. It's another mono-G deck that's been quite a blast to playtest so far. But, for now, all comments, suggestions, and criticisms regarding Skull.dec are appreciated.

[Tha Gunslinga]

I tried this deck out on Apprentice a bit.  A few ideas I had:

Gigapede is nuts.   Play it with Sneak Attack, then next turn pull it back again.  With Squee, it's even better.   It's also untargetable, which makes it STP-proof, unlike the rest of your army.  I was running 4.  I also really like Akroma, even though it's not hard-castable.  The problem I ran into was that this deck is straight aggro, and Duress and Mana Drain/FoW eat it alive.  Duressing that sole Eureka, or Draining it, kills you.  There's got to be a way around this.  What if you ran black, and used it for Duress and maybe Living Death?

Survival is nuts, by the way.  Oath I could almost see pulling.  Too difficult to work against combo and control, and vs aggro Eureka and Sneak are better.

[TheFram]

What about Furnace Dragon as a board option for post DS T1? It's also failry castable in the mid-game.

I also like the 4 Gigapede option, but plated Slagwurm is also good for an STP heavy meta.

[dicemanx]

Control poses a problem for this deck, which is why it's very important to run castable creatures. You are absolutely correct about the power of Gigapede, which is why I always include one in the MD. I've had games where I've been outdrawn 20 cards to 1 but still won on the strength of that creature. Slagwurm is not as effective as Gigapede, because it's much less castable. I'm not sure that I'd run 4 Gigapedes, because they are weak against creature-based decks, but its something to consider. Still, I'd shy away from this deck if I expect lots of control, or at least find some substitutes for the MD Oaths. I'm not sure if black has a place in the deck - you don't want disruption to force through your "combo", you want to run more threats instead. Living Death would be very cool, but its a very costly spell.


Furnace Dragon is something I completely forgot about - it seems like an excellent idea to totally wreck any artifact-based decks. Nice find.

[mouth]

Furnace Dragon has the "if you played it from your hand" clause, which is the same reason that Reiver Demon just doesn't work.

I play an extended Sneak Attack deck, and I use Academy Rectors personally. They punish your opponent's for playing with non-evasion creatures and in multiples help search out things like Remembrance. Of course, Eureka and Oath aren't extended legal, so the Rectors make good sense. In Type 1 though, if you're playing Rector you may as well just get a Yawgmoth's Bargain with it.

If you're worried about you opponents Oathing out creatures you might consider Crater Hellion or Bloodfire Cyclops.

[Edit]: Nevermind, just saw the Hellions.

[leviat]

It seems that the old threads dealing with this unique deck have disappeared from the archives, so I have decided to start up another thread after a few requests from some people

Or you're blind .

Skull v2.0
Skull -the return

[dicemanx]

Christ, I'm am inept. Yikes.

Oh well, I guess reviving the thread in the active forums can't hurt .

[Matt]

Ancient Tomb?

[dicemanx]

I'm still debating over Tombs. They are good, but the damage is surprisingly problematic. If another aggro deck gets the jump on you the Tombs decrease your life "buffer zone" before you can stabilize. Very much worth considering though.

[Dante]

Furnace Dragon has the "if you played it from your hand" clause, which is the same reason that Reiver Demon just doesn't work.

Yes, but Eureka and Sneak attack both put the Dragon into play from your hand.  It just doesn't work with Oath.

On the Ancient Tombs - I thought the point was to get to 4 mana on turn 2 quickly (Eureka and Sneak attack), especially with GG for Eureka.

Bill

[RoadTrippin]

Dante- I'm sure it's been gone over countless times before, but "put into play from your hand" is not the same thing as "played from your hand", which involves paying its casting cost to put it on the stack from your hand.

[dicemanx]

On the Ancient Tombs - I thought the point was to get to 4 mana on turn 2 quickly (Eureka and Sneak attack), especially with GG for Eureka.

Exactly. With Tombs it's not possible to accelerate out a turn 2 Eureka outside of drawing a Mox Emerald. Sneak Attack can come out turn 2 with either Mox and the Tomb, but that's a marginal improvement. The up-side to Tomb is the possibility of reaching 4 mana via three land drops and not having to rely on other acceleration.

If this deck ran Llanowar Elves or BoPs (instead of Vineyards, and with Oaths likely removed), then Tombs would gain in strength.

[mouth]

Have you tried ESG? It could help to get out turn 1 SotF or Oath or turn 2 Eureka. Kinda sucks to Oath up an Elf though.

You are running Mountains, and SotF, so Anger seems to fit. Like ESG he bucks the salls if he's Oathed out and makes your Survival chains longer, not to mention that Sneak Attack just makes him useless, but he can make Eureka into an "I win now".

One of the creatures I've played around with in extended is Nesting Wurm, but that's for Sneak Attack. He doesn't work with Eureka at all because the trigger doesn't resolve until after Eureka's done. Also, having RRRR seems unlikely in this deck. So, disregard this paragraph...

[Alfred]

Couldn't darksteel collosus make it's way into the deck? 11/11 trampling indestructable with no drawbacks is pretty good. Also, when it is sneaked into play, it shuffles itself back into your library. 4x collosus could also be useful against dragon, as you could have 4 turns to finish them off. My 2 cents

[dicemanx]

Darksteel Collosus is a possibility, although it is uncastable. Because of this, it competes with  another creature - Serra Avatar. The Avatar doesn't have evasion, but it's usually just a one-turn clock against creatureless decks (and can be cast post SB via Carpets). The indestructability itself is completely irrelevant in T1.

[Nastaboi]

Another beast that came into my mind is Sundering Titan. Though it is a bit risky with Sneak Attack, it has a devastating CIP effect and reasonable size and casting cost. Yet it has no evasion, but at its best its Ernham+Geddon in same card.

I have been testing with your older version with a Sylvan in place of 4th Oath in my not-so-aggro meta. Also, your decklist has 61 cards, I might see one Symbiotic being cut. And I'd still like to have one Woodripper, he's a beater and a beast thus being potential 4 life, not to mention his handy ability. Is Silvos so good or just 13th fatty? Should I still run one, if it means going down to 3 Verdant/S.Wurm?

[dicemanx]

I like Silvos because he's relatively cheap, and he's good vs Nevinyrral's Disk and certain aggro decks. Specifically, I've found that O.Stompy can jam the board up so much so quickly that it becomes a nightmare to punch through, and it can be tough to get the red mana to hard-cast a Hellion if you don't find Sneak Attack in time. Silvos is still experimental though; he can be replaced by a more suitable creature for the metagame. Endless Wurm might be a useful way of removing an Oath vs aggro decks, because sometimes you Oath up a Verdant and your opponent can start Oathing up a stream of blockers.
 
I wish that I could fit in a Sylvan or two again, but the list is just so tight as it is. You've even noticed that it is in fact 61 cards - this is because I'm not entirely happy with the mana ratios in the 60 card deck, although I too would cut a Symbiotic to go down to 60 if I had to. I cut the Woodripper because he's hasn't been as effective as I had hoped he would be, and because Stax/wMUD are in a decline in the local meta. However, this doesn't mean that he's not a strong choice theoretically. I tend to have periodical rotations in my creature base anyways, as I doubt there is an optimal configuration.

The Sundering Titan is interesting, although without any other disruption or Welder recursion he might not be very effective. He's still worth taking a look just in case.

[Ruinn]

The idea of throwing huge creatures on the board has always been a fun thought to me and I have been in a constant state of trying to find the best way to do it.  When I saw darksteel colossus I went back to the drawing board and came up with a solid decklist.  In seeing this thread I notice a lot of similarities and figured I might as well share my findings.

Free Fat.dec

Mana:
4 Yavimaya Coast
4 Tropical Island
4 Polluted Delta
4 Eladamri's Vineyard
2 Elvish Spirit Guide
1 Island
1 Forest
1 Chrome Mox
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby

The Fat:
4 Darksteel Colossus
4 Plated Slagwurm
4 Verdant Force
2 Silvos

The Stuff that makes the fat free:
4 Eureka
4 Show and Tell
4 Oath of Druids

Leaving them out would be silly:
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker

The obvious difference between my deck and the one originally posted is the switching of sneak attack for show and tell, plus the subsequent switching of the creature base due to this change.

You mention your leaving out the colossus because he is not castable, and I feel that his impact warrants his inclusion regardless.  First turn colossus is not that uncommon and second turn happens creature drops is basically guaranteed.  The two turn clock he creates is superior to any creature that could be put in this deck.  

The massive acceleration provided by the 30 mana sources in this deck gives a solid backup plan of just hardcasting either a verdant or slagwurm, turn two being fairly likely and third turn nearly 70%.

[dicemanx]

This looks like a pretty exciting off-shoot, worthy of its own thread. You can probably shave off some of those excess mana sources too. With U and Show and Tell over Sneak, the Collosus makes way more sense, especially since you can run Tinker. The one thing that's missing is card drawing - either Survival or at least Sylvan Library.

I'd suggest that you start up a thread on the deck, so that the discussion doesn't get mixed or lost in this thread. This looks to me like the best attempt at abusing Show and Tell compared to decks listed in other threads, because of the terrific redundancy and the resultant consistency.

[Ruinn]

Thanks for the encouragement, I will throw up another thread about this deck, and I appreciate the suggestions.  I am not sure which version functions better, with sneak attack you can abuse comes into and leaves play abilities that I cannot.  Show and Tell can also come back to hurt you although this is a rare occurance, but nonetheless should be noted.

[Jhaggs]

Dicemanx,

   I have been thinking about your Vineyards question in relation to its ability to obtain turn 2 drops.  Instead of running the vineyards have you considered or tested Orcish Lumberjack?

Orcish Lumberjack  R
Summon - Orc (1/1)      
tap: Sacrifice a forest to add three mana in any combination of red and/or green to your mana pool. Play this ability as an interrupt.

This is a "neat" little accelerator that fits the color scheme of the deck.  It also provides you with that turn two drop without having to allow your opponent to share in the mana increase.  Hell, you can even survival for it if needed?

[dicemanx]

Lumberjack is an interesting thought. So is the other Ice Age accelerant, Tinder Wall. Both lack synergy with Oath of Druids and offer "one-shot" deals, but they do fulfill the 2-mana acceleration requirement. Both deserve to be closely looked at, although they are risky against control where it's important not to lose resources. And while Tinder Wall doesn't "waste" your lands, the Lumberjack can be very useful for hard casting stuff, so I'm not sure yet which one would be better.

The up-side is that they could be excellent choices in T1.5, where there is a limit on the amount of double-mana acceleration. Nice catch. I'll test them in both formats.

[Jhaggs]

Giving credit where credit is due, Bebe actually turned me on to the lumberjack and tinderwall several weeks back.  Lumberjack can be a savage at times.  Let me know how the testing goes and whether or not jack/wall is t1 viable.

[Montana_Gamer]

I like running 2 Platinum angels main, also running 1 mox monkey and 1 xantid swarm main, while reducing the fat in the deck, it helps you win the control matchup which is one of the more difficult matchups. The reason I run 2 platinum angels main is that rector trix has increased in my area and getting an angel in play is one of the few ways I can win. I also like running a genisis main, not only because of its recursion abilty(which is a good reason) but also because he is a fatty.

[Mericarus]

Hello Dicemanx,

First of all, I like your deck . Your deck did motivate me to gather an Eureka.dec and yes, I'm still trying to get some ''hard to get cards'. Luckely I already have 3 Eureka's incoming. Because I'm not yet ruch enough :p, to get some cards of the P9 I decided to maker this deck powerless.

I also decided to make the deck more flexible, but on the other hand a little bit slower. As you can see my creature choice is different then yours. I also liked Reya, so if you get her in play by an Eureka then your Sneak Attack becomes even more powerfull, because the turn after that the creature comes into play.

I'm still planning to add on copy of Anger in this deck, but I don't know what will be the exchange. Anger can be very hard with Eureka.

Okay, I guess your deck is stronger, I don't use any P9 card , but what do you think of it?


Engine:
4#Sneak Attack
3#Oath of Druids
4#Survival of the Fittest  
4#Eureka

Creatures:
1#Squee, Goblin Nabob
1#Gigapede
1#Darksteel Colossus
1#Endless Wurm
1#Silvos, Rogue Elemental  
1#Crater Hellion
1#Platinum Angel
1#Genesis
1#Ravenous Baloth
1#Reya Dawnbringer
1#Serra Avatar
2#Penumbra Wurm
3#Symbiotic Wurm  
3#Verdant Force

Mana:
4#Eladamri's Vineyard
4#Taiga
4#Wooded Foothills
1#Sol Ring
1#Mana Vault
1#Mana Crypt
2#Mountain
6#Forest
1#Mox Diamond
1#Chrome Mox
1#Lotus Petal

Sideboard:
4#Null Rod
4#Chalice of the Void
4#Carpet of Flowers
3#Naturalize

[Bahza]

Carpet of Flowers seems good enough where you could run it main deck. Very few decks do not run islands, 7/10, Sui Black, Welder Mud and FCG. But none of these seem like threats as none can handle a Verdant Force, except FCG which could combo around it. The carpet would only be dead in a few match ups, but its strength against control cannot be ignored. On fourth turn you could be casting Verdants instead of Eureka, game 1.

[The M.E.T.H.O.D]

@The Fram and Others

Just to make it clear one more time, when furnace dragon/reiver demon says "play it from your hand" they mean for you to hard cast it. Yes if you used eureaka and sneak attack, the card is coming from your hand but technically its being played VIA Sneak Attack or Eureaka, not from your hand.  For you to use its ability you have to announce it as a spell.

That is the reason that this card isn't played via Tooth and Nail in standard as a board card.

Ive always thought it would have been easier if they would have just said its CIP ability only worked if you hardcasted it.

Just to clear things up.....

[Lamanai]

Oath constitutes one third of your abusive methods by which to throw  beasties at them, so anything that disrupts oath should be eschewed (read: ESG, Llanower, BoP, Anger...)  You're far better off using enchantments for these purposes.  Vineyards are a solid choice for mana production.  If you really need haste, your best bet is probably Dragon's Breath.  Almost all of your critters trigger its effect, and its synergy with Oath is amazing.  It's also extremely castable from your hand and comes out for free with Eureka.  The biggest problem is that it's dead if you're running on Sneak Attack.

[Mericarus]

hmm yes also a good option i guess

but I only put one copy of Anger in my deck so I can search for it with SotF

I dont have more place, for more breathes or more angers

greetingzzz,
tibor

[Mericarus]

yes its me again

why is it that you play only one squee in this deck, why not more, or why not zero

i mean one, is so less, you don't really have the chance to draw him

greetingzzz,
tibor