[Deck] Black Tower

[Robert the Swordsman]

I apologize for the name, but it seems dramatic and fantasy-oriented, so I suppose it'll fit for the time being.

Alright, this is an idea I had a long time ago. At one point, I had the deck (though terribly built) put together. Reminiscing on how enjoyable it was to play, I decided to give it another shot with a bit of a better idea on how this game works.

Deck: "Black Tower"
Mana Sources:
4 Dark Ritual
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mana Crypt (proxy)
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
1 Mox Diamond
1 Lotus Petal
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Bayou
7 Swamp
1 Forest

Disruption:
4 Duress
4 Hymn to Tourach
3 Oxidize
4 Hypnotic Specter

Draw / Search:
4 Night's Whisper
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor (proxy)
1 Diabolic Tutor
1 Regrowth

Combo:
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain
4 Ivory Tower
2 Spellbook

Win:
1 Channel
1 Fireball

The idea is to dig up and play Bargain with a Tower or two in play, draw a ton o' cards at the end of their turn, gain a buncha' life during your upkeep, then draw more cards and play more Towers for a turn or so until you have enough life to Channel and Fireball for the win ("Shinkuu Hadoken", if you will).

The problem I've been having is with creatures. You know, the ones that attack and deal damage. I've got no way to stop 'em and was wondering if anyone out there could think of a legitimate answer.

Card Discussion:
Hypnotic Specter: A 2/2 flyer that disrupts hands isn't bad, especially with a Ritual or a Mox to throw him out turn one or two. I'm using this over Swarm because it's just a bit tougher and can get rid of things that Swarm can't. Also, it's been an alternate win condition if things go wrong.

Diabolic Tutor: I'm not so sure about this, but so far it's been decent, at least. Consultation doesn't fit in the deck because I'd never be able to safely name anything. Like I said, though, so far it has been pretty reasonable. We'll see how things go in the future.

Spellbook: This is a somewhat terrible, but unfortunately necessary to do what you need to do. With the low count of it, though, it's been kinda' cool, 'cuz I rarely draw it unless I'm Bargaining up some cards.

Oxidize: I can't think of any enchantments I'd like to get rid of, or at least enough that'd warrant me using Naturalize over this. So far, it's been sweet.

Well, that's about the size of it.

Thoughts?

[rvs]

Why would you go to the trouble of getting a bargain into play, and then not winning with it?

I'd say if you resolve bargain, you should win on the spot.

[Ephraim]

I'm all about unorthodox uses of orthodox cards. As far as defending yourself against simple aggro, Wall of Souls, Wall of Essence, and Wall of Hope all assist the deck's goals while defending you. Angelic Wall is another cheap, solid defender. Unfortunately, many of those are white. If you want to stick with green, any of a number of spiders provides you with decent defense, although they're good for little else (unlike the walls I mentioned.) Since you don't seem to be attacking, yourself, you might consider Caltrops.

If you're having trouble with big creatures - things like Exalted Angel, you might use the ultimate chump blocker - Venomous Dragonfly and his earthbound cousing, Tangle Asp. If the double green of Cockatrice doesn't bother you, that'd be an even better defender.

[Sheik al Kaji]

Kaervek's Torch is more resiliant than Fireball.

[Silverdragon]

I think Will'O'the Whisp would fit in great. And as a win condition the torch is strictly better than fireball. Perhaps you could hava problems getting the red mana you need to cast your finisher. At least you should add a mox ruby (if you can afford it) or play some mountains (duals?). Even if you draw a lot of cards it could be possible, that your opponent can destroy the mox diamond or you already had to blow up the loti.

[rocknrossi]

To prevent creature damage there's a few different things you could run Ursa's armor was my inital though but, its casting cost is kinda high. Another card I was thinking you  could run is icy manipulators. And of course thunder staff is good against small creatures. One of the new rares in fifth down might good too though with the hyppies it might do more harm than good is the Silent Arbiter. Oh course none of these cards have anything on the power of Spincrusher. You simply can't compete with a metalic phallic symbol.

[ELD]

Hi Rob, I saw you playing this deck last night at scholar's.  

I think if you're going to win with the combo, you probably want to stream line the deck to make it do that as well as possible.  Hyppie doens't really make the combo happen so I'd leave him for the sui decks.  If you're really that hard pressed to handle creatures, The Abyss is a house vs alot of creature decks.  It isn't being played too much, so creature decks are even less prepared for it than in the past.  

I'd say that rector is a beating vs creatures.  If you went white you could have rector, so you could do the cabal therapy thing too.  I would personally like to see a rector deck abusing false dawn and scent of jasimine.  That would be a house with bargain.  You could gain a ton of life, draw some cards, gain some more, and end up with your entire deck in hand.  From there a yawgmoth's will lets you gain a ton more life and you can win with whatever you want.  

If you're going to keep the ivory towers, I'd say that time walk would be pretty important.  

Just some thoughts