[decklist and questions???] Eureka/Show and tell

[kakeboy07]

I have been working quite hard to find a deck that could fit in Eureka in the current meta. My results have been varrying, however i need help, and therefore i felt the need to go to the masses.

I have read both versions of Show and tell . dec and enjoy them very much. In fact i play Show-and-tell/ Mask (another version that hasnt emerged yet) as well. However i felt that the deck was missing something. Control players were able to sit back and wait on a show and tell, and especially games 2-3 they had ReB waiting to counter show and tell everytime. This lead me to try and abuse the Non-blue version of Show and tell.  

Note: eureka is not for the weak of heart. It WILL burn you once in a while, if not more often than that. For this reason, im sure its not a tier 1 deck at the moment. But then again, thats why im posting it here. This needs work, and through work I feel that this deck might be able to be some sort of viable deck.

To start with: my current decklist

Show and Tell Day (std the green-mix)

2 Wooded Foothills
3 Flooded Strand
4 Tropical island
3 Forest
5 Island
3 Elvish Spirit Guide
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring

4 Mana Drain
4 Force of will
4 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time walk
1 Mystical Tutor
2 Misdirecton
1 Tinker

1 Regrowth

2 Eureka
4 Show and Tell

4 Darksteel Colossus
2 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
3 Plated Slagwurm


60 cards


Sideboard:

3 Blue elemental Blast
3 Stifle
4 Naturalize
1 Misdirection
1 Chain of Vapor
3 Ground Seal
(note that if i included cunning wish 1 of these would be berserk)

Now lets discuss.

Creatures is the most interesting discussion in this case. The # of creatures needs to be debated, as well as, which creatures make the cut.

I went with:

4 Darksteel Colossus
2 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
3 Plated Slagwurm


For the following reasons:

4 Colossus  11/11 trample is very fat, and not being able to be R&R is also a plus. He can be weldered out (and StoPed), but on the plus side stops laqutas from decking you.

2 Akroma, Angel of Wrath Comes in flying, haste 6/6 pro-black/red and doesnt seem to ever have problems making it a short game.

3 Plated Slagwurm Probably my most controversial decision. He doesnt get StoPed or weldered like colossus, and doesnt seem to have any problems in the power/toughness area. He has been hardcasted 3 times in playtesting. All following Drains for 3.


Some other creatures that have been mentioned in Skull/Other posts

1. Silvos, Rogue Elemental
2. Gigapede
3. Verdant Force
4. Symbiotic Wurm
5. Ravenous Baloth

Silvos, while regenerating, can be targeted, which makes it iffy, however in cases of mass removal that you can regerate from, or pinpoint removal that isnt RFG, he seems really good. I just see too many Swords to play him.

Gigapede: untargetable and very castable. Hes probably something i should look into. If nothing else, hed fit in the sideboard against alot of decks.

Verdant force: he doesnt seem to be better than colossus or slagwurm (mostly because he can die easily), but when he sticks around, those tokens add up FAST.

I really like Symbiotic Wurm. Mostly because Balance Leaves you with 7 1/1s and against most decks. Thats game. Keeper is a deck i would love to beat, and this creature seems like he would get the job done.

Ravenous Baloth seems like another great canidate. He's beefy without overdoing it, and he stalls  the game if needed. That +4 lifegain helps out alot in many situations. Id probably run some form of recursion if i was going to play him however (see genesis but regrowth would help too).


My Method For Playing Creatures:

1 Tinker
2 Eureka
4 Show and Tell

4 Show and tell makes this deck so much fun, as they can be pitched to fow on turn 1/0, and on turn 3 you can topdeck one for the win. Having 4 of these and not 4 eureka seems to be the right call, and with all the acceleration, its not uncommon to have a first turn Akroma or the like.

Tinker is also needed, however with only 6 artifacts i can sac to it, im going to have to test this more.  


The Green and blue spells i chose

4 Mana Drain
4 Force of will
4 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time walk
1 Mystical Tutor
2 Misdirecton

1 Regrowth

My thought process went like this. I need some counters (drain/force). I need some draw and fetch based randomness (brainstorm). Mystical is in there because he either fetches ancestral or goes and gets me show and tell. If i resolve a show and tell, and want to go get something, he normally gets misdirection or regrowth.

I think fact or fiction could fit in here, as well as cunning wish possibly, however i would like suggestions on how to make that base work more efficiently. Sometimes i lack draw and have too much mana, other times im drawing counters (drains) and nothing to use them on.


Sideboard:

3 Blue elemental Blast
2 Stifle
2 Hurkyl's Recall
4 Naturalize (artifacts eat up eureka, especially slaver artifacts)
1 Misdirection
3 Ground Seal


My sideboard is normally crap, however i am really liking this one.

Blue blast is obvious, and hurts welders/dragons/ and blood moons

Stifle really helps against slaver/dragon/wastelands.

Misdirection helps against decks with removal and something to put into play (ie: mis-d chain of vapor).

Hurkyl's recall is because Artfiacts burn you soooooooo bad with eureka. This seemed to be the answer, as it basically says, you know all that stuff you just dropped, well play it again... slower.

Ground Seal helps me beat reanimator/dragon playing as reanimator because they have a different gameplan than I do, and sometimes try to play their game/ even post side, instead of just drawing their massive verdant force.




So what is this deck going to do???

Well currently im looking for HELP. This isnt a primer, and i definately dont know everything. I really am looking for people who have some knowledge in the background of Show and tell based decks, as well as people who are good with blue based control. This is supposed to be timmy does blue aggro control.dec and maybe its not decent at all; however i have been spending a decent amount of time working this rough decklist out, and playtesting a little. Im sure ill get back to everyone once i am able to play in a tourney or 2 with this deck.




Thanks for reading this far... look out for the primer in about 3 weeks if it all goes well... which im sure it wont      

[/sarcasm]



EDIT:

because i didnt think it got enough publicity i also searched out the other version that i really like of this deck.

http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=16136&highlight=show+tell

Posted by Methuselahn


Show n' Tell Day. aka "STD"

Maindeck

4 Darksteel Colossus

4 Show and Tell
2 Future Sight
1 Tinker
1 Time Walk
1 Yawgmoths Will

4 Force of Will
4 Duress
1 Damping Matrix
1 Mind Twist
2 Cunning Wish

4 Brainstorm
2 Impulse
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor

7 SoLoMoxen
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
4 Underground Sea
5 Island
1 Swamp
4 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand

Sideboard

3 Chalice of the Void
2 Damping Matrix
3 Hurkyls Recall
1 Stifle
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Echoing Truth
2 Skeletal Scrying
1 Demonic Consultation
1 Echoing Decay

[Jakedasnake]

I'm not going to comment on this deck, as I have absolutely NO experience with it, but I will correct one thing: Hypnox in fact DOES NOT remove the opponent's hand from the game. The playing from hand clause means you have to pay the MANA cost, which is why you can't Sneak Attack one into play. You're putting it from your hand into play, not playing it from your hand.

Understand?

[kakeboy07]

THanks for the ruling... apparently the judge that i asked that to didnt understand the ruling. hmmmmm That changes my creature base again.

[Jakedasnake]

Have you seen DicemanX's Skull.dec? It really seems like a stronger build, utilizing a couple of different engines, not to mention crazy synergy, and makes a competetive Timmy style deck.

I don't have a link, but I'm sure he won't mind if you PM him.

[Jacob Orlove]

Have you seen DicemanX's Skull.dec? It really seems like a stronger build, utilizing a couple of different engines, not to mention crazy synergy, and makes a competetive Timmy style deck.

I don't have a link, but I'm sure he won't mind if you PM him.

http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=15021&highlight=skull
That took all of 2 seconds using the search function. Maybe I should write a primer.

[Methuselahn]

Skull is just a completely different type of deck in the way it plays out since it is without counters.  Massive redundancy in the form of 3 things: creatures, creature droppers, and mana. Kakeboy presents a deck that probably has too many creatures and is heavily counter based.  The deck is just too different to say: "do a search on skull" and "learn to search" when if you look at the link he provided, he clearly did.

kakeboy:  I really don't like the deck without black, personally.  First, black has great search and Will.  Duress; not only does duress act as a proactive means to nix a counter, it simultaneously removes cards for your opponent to put into play.  This makes it SOO strong.  Duress seems better, being that it is proactive because you are the combo deck, you don't want to wait around to drain someting to fuel your spells.  Force avoids this logic obviously.

If you are going to use Show and Colossus with control, then you gotta be super fast and be able to handle control decks.  Good luck.

Give the AK/intuition engine a thought.

[kakeboy07]

Jacob thanks for your vast insight and quality posting...



 [/sarcasm]


 (because i know you must have missed it in my 1st post)

btw:
http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=11001

http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=11735

the search function is sooooo good...  

Thanks a bunch for the heads up Jakedasnake, however the problems i was having with that deck were based around Swords to plowshares and Control decks. Diceman actually writes himself that his deck is geared towards a very aggro meta.

Having no draw engine and 4 oath of druids versus a control deck isnt always the best idea. Also running vineyard makes his deck weak against belcher combo (which im sure you dont see, however i do).

Additionally i dont feel that his creatures are as castable as he says they are (baloth is 4cc which is great, however everything else is a little bit on the high side (especially when youre on a clock like against slaver or another such deck)).

Even when he brings in null rod vs slaver or some such deck, his own deck becomes slower, and more suceptable to the frightening Mindslavered Eureka where the slaver player is able to cast 3-5 artifacts durning his opponents turn.

I have always loved sneak attack (especially with wurms (tokens are nice)), however its own cc is also higher than i would desire from a deck, and requires RR to play and use in the same turn, so essentiall the CC looks like 3 RR.


Joel (kakeboy07 from motl/tmd)


Edit:
@ Methuselahn:

After further analyzing your deck. Future sight seems great, but isnt it kinda conditional with 2 of them and only 4 real (feisable) ways (outside of drawing into lotus/tutoring for it) of getting your Colossuses/Future sight into play (without drains i dont think 11 is very castable). Also Tinker looks just too good to not be included in my deck. Additionally what do you side in chalices for and how much do you normally play them for??

Further: would you put in 4 drains for the cunning wishes and impulse? I would really want to fit drains in there. Could you cut a FS, Mana vault, and 2 Impulse?

Those are the 2 ways that i would think of going with it... however i have not goldfished or played your version... i am just speculating. I know that you have had some decent success with that list, so ill give you the benefit.

[Methuselahn]

After further analyzing your deck. Future sight seems great, but isnt it kinda conditional with 2 of them and only 4 real (feisable) ways (outside of drawing into lotus/tutoring for it) of getting your Colossuses/Future sight into play (without drains i dont think 11 is very castable). Also Tinker looks just too good to not be included in my deck. Additionally what do you side in chalices for and how much do you normally play them for??

showing a future sight is one way to get it out.  Hard casting it isn't THAT big of an issue mana or color wise.   The deck has plenty of blue sources, 5 of which are basic islands.  Often a FS on the table will puke out enough mana to hard cast a colossus even.

Chalices come in vs other tendrils type combo and control decks, usually at 1, then 2.  these settings help stop STP, Welders, and bounce amongst other things.

No, I still don't like drains here. sorry.  I would never cut Mana Vault. Go ahead and experiment with cutting a FS and an Impulse.