@Dozer.
Relying on a "nearly MonoU" maindeck's configuration, I'm really loving the amount of mana available. 25 lands, with less ( Wastable ) duals, more fetchlands and some basic lands, are enough to let me play nearly anyone of the games in this way:
1) Play Basics and some Artifact mana accelerations and/or Chalices and/or cheap Brainstorms.
2) Play some better drawers during Opponent's EoT
3) Develop the mana base according on how many non blue spells you have in your hand.
The Pros of this configurations are
-the capability of fetching nearly undisturbed two or three islands to setup a solid mana base
-the need of non basic lands often ONLY during mid.game spells or end-game spells.
I revealed to my teammates a different list from the one proposed that had this configuration.
Maindeck
+1 LoA
+1 Brainstorm
+1 Mindtwist ( 61° Card )
-1 Mana Crypt
-1 Deep Analysis
Sideboard
+1 StP
-1 Skeletal Scrying
I made the changes that you read in my previous post because I found that you can get yourself clunked too often by the high number of 1cc spells and you need some other spells to feed your draw engine to let you continually "surf" through the deck. The sinergy between TFKs and Deeps is awesome and i choose to substitutes the LoA with the Crypt because of the need of another way to get rid of my own chalices when needed ( thanks to the colorless mana that the Crypt provides ) AND to let me hardcast Deeps, Tinkers and CoWs more often and faster than before.
I tried to leave the LoA in AND to cut the Wasteland #3, but I found that while I didn't have so often an high amount of cards, I would prefer destroying the opponent's mana base ( coupling this effect with the Chalices' one) rather than hoping to be able to draw one or two cards thanks to LoA.
A lot of decks ( especially MW.decs and some combo.dec ) have their own plan completely negated by a quick CotV for zero and a fast Wasteland on their own land ESPECIALLY if you can use a counter to stop their own first ( and maybe only ) playable threat.
...If you lock some of your cards with Chalice, for whatever reason, LoA seems perfect to take at least some advantage of that...
Even if in theory this argument seems true, playing this deck I realized that:
-Playing cotv for 1 and/or 0 stop few of your own cards BUT
-Your draw engine isn't stopped at all SO you continuosly deprive your hand of cards using TFKs.
-Opponent's Duresses or Mindtwist, if not stopped by your own chalice, are the best way to force you under 7 cards
-Chalices take care of future threats, while all the other cards in your hand would be used in order to survive to the ones resolved BEFORE the cotv hit the board. Usually isn't possible to both accumulate cards in hand AND take care of opponent's threats
LoA is a great addition if only my metagame would have not been caractherized by so many Fishes and Wasteland.dec. They can work around your non basic lands even when you own CoW is in play. While you are trying to reach 7 cards in hand, they can force you to consistently remain clunked at 5 or 6 cards.
Of course, all these arguments stop to be of some utility if you would add LoA as the 61° card of the maindeck.
I'm sure that it would be the better choice to do if you would insist on playing LoA, but my project on building this deck is based on minimizing the bad topdecks. Another card and (ANOTHER non fetchable ) land isn't needed imho, especially because it is a non coloured one. So I opted to force me playing with 60 cards instead of my usual 60 ones. If seems to funtion really well especially because I dropped a mana fonts from the total of mana available.
Going first, I usually play CotV for 0 against Ubr-Tog, Slavery, Oath and any other MW.dec, because I realized how good is gaining Tempo depriving them of their own acceleration. Going second, they usually were set at 1 but are usually a bit supar. My plan is to swap them out for other goodies from my sideboard.
While it may seems counter intuitive, ( if possible ) I usually don't play a CotV for 0 agaisnt any one of the common Storm.decs. Playing it for zero would let them play undisturbed all their own Dark Rituals and Duresses. They could play their own zero cc spells without any other porpouse than forcing them countered because of my own cotv but keep rising the Storm count as well. So I would prefer to set up a cotv for 1 maybe a turn later instead of playing a "blind" ( and stupid ) cotv for zero. I'll play it for zero ONLY if I have more than one chalices and I can be able to resolve both of them soon. I'm also conscious about their own good ability of bouncing my cotvs back, so the primarily porpouse of a cotv is to gain two or three turns in order to better setup my own defences.
On the other hand, I found CotV for 1 to be the perfect cc to setup a strong match against TPS and even against Tog isn't bad stealing their ReBs, Duresses, Brainstorms and Berserks. The Cons of this project is that usually they would work around your own chalices thanks to their own E.Es. and their wished higher cc artifacts' removals. IMHO, the tempo gained using a cotv is always golden against them, because it let you capitalize in a better way you draw engine and your ( few ) counterspells
I recently extensively tested in Solo Plays and againt real opponents to support my thesis, and I find that I usually have at least 3 or 4 mana on my second turn. Basic lands are usually untouched ( excluding Strip+CoW that is a lucky and unpredictable situation ) for long time and your own artifact mana is enough to let you play a fast TFK or a third turn opponent's Eot TFK AND Drain or FoW backup.
I would recommend you the use of Crypt and all the other artifact mana accelerations. They would provide you fast CoWs, Deeps, Tinkers, TFKs, Wishes and some good combinations of 2cc spells ( such as both Demonic and Walk during your own second turn letting you to untap and explode with another bomb in you Time Walk's turn
)
While relying on duals, less basics and more non-blu spells FORCED you ( and me of course ) to build up a janky, self damaging and less solid mana base ( because you NEED to topdeck lands after lands not to lose to stupid CoW+Waste recursion ), the presence of basics and more fetchlands let you keep the total amount of lands a bit lower and explode yourself with all the good accelerations that we have at our disposal, without being penalized by the opponen'ts denial strategy.
At now, I'm toying only about the insertion of my old Mindtwist into the maindeck or in the side in some place.
I don't know where or how I could be able to fit it in but it should be my only next change to the deck, because, while I found that CotVs can gain me the needed tempo to face better my own opponents, Mindtwist can seal you games with or without Cotvs in play.
@TheMethod
I tried to translate a bit your words and I don't know if I have understood well what you have said.
Basically you are suggesting me to play Scepters instead of some other drawers ( maybe some Deeps or some TFK ) and apply this game plan:
Turn 1: Drop all my acceleration available, play a Scepter imprinting something and play a cotv for zero to stop the opponent in his own mana development.
Turn 2: While your opponent is clunked at one land, you can get a "free" scepter's activation and then you can start palying "defending" you own scepter.
Turn 3: Opponent is forced to play at least one removal every turn to stop you from gaining the obvious advantage anyone of the scepters' activations.
IMHO, it seems a strong way to conduct the match but I don't know how well the interactions between the cards could be programmed. You should lose some 3cc and 4cc spells in order to maximize the Scepters and maybe you should add F/Is and Impulses and the full set of Brainstorms.
While these are the pros of playing with a Scepter-based configuration, I feel realyl bad when facing decks that had up to 6 artifact removals or too many ways to get rid of them. Even if I get some "free" activations, I felt bad "depriving me" of two cards because of 1 of his removals.
I thought about adding some Scepters could be used in my side to power-up the control mirror, when usually noone board in artifact's removals. Maindecking Scepters seemed as good as risky to me, especially because some of the most interesting cc I would setup the chalices were 1 and 2 ( if possible ) and the imprinted spells are always 1cc and 2cc spells
.
