Sensei's Divining Tog

[Mixing Mike]

After a lot of testing with Sensei Sensei, which was first seen at SCG Syracuse, I decided to take it to a tournament.  I’d rather not clog up the thread with decklists, but it was your fairly average Sensei build.  I ended up making Top 8 losing to Brassman in a close match of three games.

Anyways, after playing it in some events and a bit of testing, I feel that Sensei’s biggest problems are Chalice of the Void set at 1, Null Rod, and Damping Matrix.  Sometimes you’re just not able to fully control the game before your opponent has beaten you down or shut you out.  Outlaw has always wanted to try out something with Sensei, and we figured that adding a transformal sideboard to the deck would work wonders and clean up some matches.  What could you run?  Why Psychatog of course.  Here’s the decklist we have together...

// Mana (22)
3 Island
1 Tolarian Academy
3 Underground Sea
4 Polluted Delta
2 Tropical Island
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus
5 Moxen
1 Mana Vault
1 Mana Crypt

// Counters (8)
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will

// Tutors (7)
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
3 Cunning Wish
1 Crop Rotation

// Utility (5)
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Time Walk
1 Frantic Search
2 Intuition

// Draw Engine (12)
1 Ancestral Recall
2 Thirst for Knowledge
3 Future Sight
2 Deep Analysis
4 Accumulated Knowledge

// Other (6)
3 Helm of Awakening
3 Sensei's Divining Top


// Sideboard
SB: 1 Stifle
SB: 2 Annul
SB: 1 Berserk
SB: 1 Brain Freeze
SB: 1 Echoing Truth
SB: 1 Tolarian Winds
SB: 3 Psychatog
SB: 2 Ground Seal
SB: 3 Chalice of the Void

By adding Green, you add another way to find Academy every game.  Academy is possibly the most broken card in the deck, and should be in play as often as possible.

The sideboard is where all the action is.  With the Psychatog in the board, you end up taking out the 3 Helms, the 3 Top’s and sometimes all 6 of them depending on the matchup for things that totally ignore all of the things that were pesky in game 1.  The greatest part about this is that nobody sees it coming.  You also gain access to cards like Ground Seal.  The point of most of your Sideboard cards isn’t to keep your opponent from winning; it’s to force them to find an answer while you win the game before they get into any sort of a favorable position.

Matchups
I’m only going to touch on matchups that I feel improve from the inclusion of Green.  Remember that these boarding strategies are not something to live by.  Many times Outlaw and I have left a few Top’s and Helms in cutting Vampiric,  Mystical, and sometimes Fastbond so we could still combo off if need be, while allowing for an even more surprise attack from Psychatog.

Null Rod Aggro -3 Sensei’s Top, +3 Psychatog

This was probably the decks hardest matchup before adding Green.  Now you can play the matchup like you’re a Psychatog deck with Future Sights.  Rather than having Future Sight being your game winning goal, playing a Psychatog is.  Helm basically becomes a one-sided effect in this matchup, giving you such an unfair advantage.  They drop a River Boa for G then you play draw spells for 1-2 mana each, drop a Psychatog, and beat over with Berserk for the win.

Fast Combo (DeathLong, 2-Land Belcher, Meandeck Tendrils) -3 Helm, -3 Sensei’s Top, +3 Psychatog, +3 Chalice

Now in this matchup you take out both Top and Helm, allowing you to drop Chalice at o and 1 to stunt their game.  You’ve brought in Togs to help out Force of Will if need be and transform into a full fledged control deck, allowing you to take the match from that perspective.

Slow Combo (TPS, Sensei) -3 Sensei’s Top, -1 Crop Rotation, -1 Mystical Tutor, -1 Helm, +3 Chalice of the Void, +3 Psychatog

Everyone knows the mirror is a tough matchup.  So why not take the mirror, and make it into a totally different matchup?  You’re opponent will be totally thrown off guard by the entrance of Chalices to slow them down, while you feed off their Helm and beat down with Psychatog.  If you’re heading up against dragon you’d leave in the Mystical Tutor and bring in Ground Seals over the Chalices.

Slaver Control -1 Mystical Tutor, -1 Cunning Wish, +2 Ground Seal

After removing the Lim-dul’s Vault from the sideboard, we’ve already gotten this matchup off to a much better start.  Bringing in Ground Seals should help you from being Mindslaved until you can win the game, or set yourself up into an extremely favorable position.


Questionable Card Choices

Tolarian Winds   1U
Instant
Discard your hand, then draw that many cards.

I do realize the -1 CA the card has built into it, but I wanted some way to draw some cards for a cheap amount of mana when you’re digging for combo pieces.  This is a nice way to help get all those lands out of your hand when you’re digging through your deck to find something far more useful.  As a bonus, it costs a mere 1 mana under a Helm, making me want to try it even more.  Thus far it’s been nothing short of what it seems like it would do, but it’s all the deck needs to make a Wish something a bit more useful without having to run something that kills you when you get Mindslaved.  To date I have wished it was a Fact or Fiction once.

Other options and Discluded Cards
Maindeck

Merchant Scroll
This thing was pretty bad to me.  It was cut for the Crop Rotation, basically giving us Academy #2, something I think is much better than the Scroll could ever do.

Regrowth
I’d really love to play it, but I can’t really think of a situation where casting it would target anything but Lotus, Ancestral, or Walk.  If there was room in the deck I’d play it, but Outlaw feels otherwise. 

Echoing Truth
As much as I liked having one Maindeck to deal with any random hate cards or annoying permanents, it had to go in the long run.  It was cut for the second Intuition to help out any matches where Echoing Truth would be needed in games 2 and 3 by feeding our friendly Psychatog.

Fastbond
After Kowal’s suggestion of playing it, I tested it for a bit.  I ended up playing a whole 3 lands off it the whole night.  The thing is that no matter the game state was, whenever you go off, the opponent ends up scooping or makes you draw into with Yawgmoth’s Will or Black Lotus, both of which End the game with Wish -> Freeze.  Therefore, being able to play extra lands wasn’t as good as it seems.  Even when you have a Future Sight in play with the Fastbond, all it really does it keep you from totally stalling out that turn.  The biggest misconception about the deck is how people see it as either pure combo or pure control, when in reality, it’s really aggro control.


Sideboard

Oxidize/Naturalize
I had thought about running one of these cards, but figured that whenever I would want to get either of these out of the board, I could just bounce them back EOT with Echoing Truth and have the one turn I needed without that pesky perm in play, and all other copies of it as well.

Chain of Vapor
Speaking of bounce, any way to get Academy to untap is something I think shouldn’t be overlooked.  I may end up boarding this over Echoing Truth just to turn my Wishes into “Pay 1UU, untap Academy”.  The only thing I don’t like about it is if I need to bounce something my opponent has out in play, then they can bounce back my Future Sight/Psychatog, which basically reads as a play that’s keeping me from winning for another turn.

Blue Elemental Blast
I tested this card.  I’ll admit it was fairly useful for hating Welders and countering ReB’s.  Only thing is that Ground Seal is the current answer to Welders and Dragon, so there’s not much of a need to play a single BeB anymore.

Tormod’s Crypt
Again, Ground Seal cleans up just about everything you could ever really use this for.

Flash Counter
I never Wished for it, never looked back and found out that getting it was a better option, nor can I think of a situation where it would be all that useful.  Needless to say I cut it fairly quickly without any issues.  If anyone can find a valid argument for it please let me know.

[Demonic Attorney]

The transformational SB into Tog is an interesting idea.  Given the structure of the deck and its draw engine, it seems like it might be able to support Tog as a win condition.  However, I had a few minor points of disagreement.  They are:

Other options and Discluded Cards

 

Tormod’s Crypt
Again, Ground Seal cleans up just about everything you could ever really use this for.

[card]Yawgmoth's Will[/card]


And lastly, your deck seems a tad light on mana for something that operates at least initially on getting a 5cc combo piece out, and runs multiple Cunning Wishes/Deep Analyses.  I realize Helm might help with this, but I would still worry about getting bogged down with high-end cards early on without enough sources to power them out in time, if I ran this list.  Have you encountered any mana issues with the deck as you've been playing it?  If so, you might want to look into running 1 or 2 more sources.

[Grand Inquisitor]

Mike, I know you guys played this at the Newington tournament yesterday with good results.  I'm curious how much of your success was based on the addition of green, and the psychatog sideboard compared with the existing engine of the deck?  I'm well aware that some strategies work extremely well in practice while they don't look good on paper, but I have concerns with the following changes:

I feel that Sensei’s biggest problems are Chalice of the Void set at 1, Null Rod, and Damping Matrix

The only card in this list that bothers me much at all is Null Rod.  I find Chalice set at two to be much more problematic, and that should be happening with decreasing frequency due to trinisphere's restriction.  Also, if this is part of your reasoning for Psychatog, Damping Matrix stops it just as effectively as it does Top.  The only other hate card that is difficult to deal with is Arcane Lab.  However, resolving a psychatog against Lab is even more difficult than trying to time an echoing truth against it.

Sometimes you’re just not able to fully control the game before your opponent has beaten you down

This is the only real argument I could find in your post for the inclusion of psychatog.  However, it's not like Hulk has a great matchup against decks like affinity, madness, fish, etc.  In fact, those decks usually beat Hulk either through creature rush (which tog can't stop by itself), or mana denial.  In the first case, I'd try to play the combo route with Sensei, which is strictly faster than berserk>tog.  In the second case, I'd focus on getting around their mana denial with annul, stifle, basics, etc.

The fact that you don't bring in annul against null rod decks (which often also have standstill, curiosity...) baffles me.

The only other argument put forth:

The greatest part about this is that nobody sees it coming ...only works until you post your list on TMD.

Fast Combo (DeathLong, 2-Land Belcher, Meandeck Tendrils) -3 Helm, -3 Sensei’s Top, +3 Psychatog, +3 Chalice

Now in this matchup you take out both Top and Helm, allowing you to drop Chalice at o and 1 to stunt their game.  You’ve brought in Togs to help out Force of Will if need be and transform into a full fledged control deck, allowing you to take the match from that perspective.

Slow Combo (TPS, Sensei) -3 Sensei’s Top, -1 Crop Rotation, -1 Mystical Tutor, -1 Helm, +3 Chalice of the Void, +3 Psychatog

Everyone knows the mirror is a tough matchup.  So why not take the mirror, and make it into a totally different matchup?  You’re opponent will be totally thrown off guard by the entrance of Chalices to slow them down, while you feed off their Helm and beat down with Psychatog.  If you’re heading up against dragon you’d leave in the Mystical Tutor and bring in Ground Seals over the Chalices.

While chalice is certainly good against combo, which means you'd board out at least some of your tops, Psychatog is not an answer to combo in and of itself.  I find just leaving in one and bouncing the chalice when you're about to win works just fine.

Merchant Scroll
This thing was pretty bad to me.  It was cut for the Crop Rotation, basically giving us Academy #2, something I think is much better than the Scroll could ever do.

Nothing would help this deck more than more Academies, I'm with you there, but is this the only reason for running green?

Tormod’s Crypt
Again, Ground Seal cleans up just about everything you could ever really use this for.

Except the bazaar/squee engine, replenish, academy rector, and the aforementioned yawgwill.  Ground Seal is great, don't get me wrong, but I think Tormod's crypt is as good and more flexible, but for less mana and no color requirement.

As for a few of the other choices:

Chain of Vapor

I can't see how this untaps your academy, but I can see how it allows your opponent to bounce your Future Sight

Flash Counter
I never Wished for it, never looked back

Hmmm, during the tourney yesterday Kieth came over to me during a match and said that you guys obviously weren't running Flash Counter because if you were you would have just won a game with it.  Was he mistaken?


This is certainly an interesting direction to take the deck, and there are many ways to skin a cat.  However, as good as crop rotation is, I don't see much else that green adds, and I really don't see where psychatog completely turns around any of your bad matchups.

[Outlaw]

It is true that I had put this together, and it was a brainstorming session along with many others that we had for the deck.  Currently we believe to have found a more smooth transition with adding Quirion Dryads rather than Psychatogs, because its a cleaner swap over.  Dryads will cost G under a helm and all of your pump spells will add up quickly.  The problem I see with tog is that it is reb-able, and it does cost for a spell per turn under arcane lab, at least with a Dryad you have the safety vs. reb, but still not safe vs arcane lab.

[Mixing Mike]

Your deck seems a tad light on mana for something that operates at least initially on getting a 5cc combo piece out, and runs multiple Cunning Wishes/Deep Analyses.  I realize Helm might help with this, but I would still worry about getting bogged down with high-end cards early on without enough sources to power them out in time, if I ran this list.  Have you encountered any mana issues with the deck as you've been playing it?  If so, you might want to look into running 1 or 2 more sources.

So far I've only run into issues when a Sundering Titan has come into play, and once when my opponent Wastelanded my opening land.  Thus far I've been one mana away from casting Sight multiple times.  I'm looking for some way to add another mana source into the deck.

I'm curious how much of your success was based on the addition of green, and the psychatog sideboard compared with the existing engine of the deck?

I ended up winning 3 games because of the Psychatogs, one of which I was probably unable to win otherwise. Note that this was out of 6 sideboarded games.

The only card in this list that bothers me much at all is Null Rod.  I find Chalice set at two to be much more problematic, and that should be happening with decreasing frequency due to trinisphere's restriction.  Also, if this is part of your reasoning for Psychatog, Damping Matrix stops it just as effectively as it does Top.  The only other hate card that is difficult to deal with is Arcane Lab.  However, resolving a psychatog against Lab is even more difficult than trying to time an echoing truth against it.

After some testing today against a Keeper-esque deck with maindeck Damping Matrix, I'm probably going to have to agree with this.  I guess I overlooked the fact that 'Tog also fails to Matrix.  I do like the idea that Outlaw put fourth about Dryads.  Chances are they'll be a bit better for this deck.  Arcane Lab is a very good hate card indeed, and is difficult to play around with mostly any boarding strategy.

The fact that you don't bring in annul against null rod decks baffles me.

This is where playing the Psychatogs comes into play.  I play the card that totally ignores whatever hate they have against me, allowing me to win through.  I know having a transformal board loses it's strongest factor once it's revealed, however the strength of the transformal board was the reason why we added Green in the first place.

Kieth came over to me during a match and said that you guys obviously weren't running Flash Counter because if you were you would have just won a game with it.  Was he mistaken?

No, this is true.  Though I ended up winning the game anyways, I would've ended up winning the war over a Sight, ending the game on that turn.  After Kieth pointed this out to me I'm going to take another look at the card.

As for the Tormod's Crypt issue, I'll try it out, though I don't think it'll be a useful as Ground Seal is right now.  If I run into someone playing the Replenish deck I'll be fine.  I took that deck to two Top 8's and lost to FCG and R/G Beats.  After playing that deck I know how to just play around their cards.  Though Crypt stops Yawg's Will, that's really all it stops that Ground Seal doesn't.  Seal shuts down random things like Salvagers, and then all the way up to Dragon's enchantments, all of CA's recursion, and forces CS to find Tinker against you.