Curio Kobolds

[bebe]

I think we need to look at the possibilities of playing Curio in a Kobold deck as it obviously fits the archtype well ... I'll start with a rough build and some thoughts and we can go from there.

4 Polluted Delta
2 Bayou
2 Underground Sea
1 Mishra's Workshop
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Channel
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
4 Dark Ritual
4 Elvish Spirit Guide

4 Cloud of Faeries
3 Crookshank Kobolds
3 Kobolds Of Kher Keep
3 Crimson Kobolds

1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Crop Rotation
1 Ancestral Recall

4 Glimpse Of Nature
4 Cloudstone Curio
3 Skullclamp
1 Hunting Pack 
1 Brainfreeze
1 Death Wish

4 Duress

sb:
4 Xantid Swarm
4 Planer Void
4 Naturalize
3 Echoing Truth

I think Faeries will have a place in a Curio deck as two Faeries and Brainfreeze can win the game and bypass a Chalice for 0 if need be. I've also found when I played Belcher that a Channel can sometimes be enough to fuel out a win and if I add Channel Hunting Pack can be a secondary win condition - I won a few games this way in the past
I've stripped the deck down as much as possible and added Death Wish on a whim as an extra bit of security so I don't autolose to certain cards. Testing on Apprentice the deck seemed consistent and was capable of some very fast wins.
Okay ... why would you play this over a conventional Tendrils deck? I have no counters ( could not find the room) only a single wish and a mana base that can be easily disrupted. Its easy to say the deck goldfishes well. It does and is even capable of a first turn win  ( although a highly unlikely scenario ). I think a fair bit of work needs to be done with archtype but their is little doubt in my mind that Curio adds a dimension to the deck that makes it seem playable.
Comments?

[Revvik]

Multani's Presence defeats the Chalice of the Void set at zero.  This plan interferes with your Curio plan, but then, Skullclamp also interferes with your Curio plan.
You can have some Presence's in the board and sideboard out a couple Curios and some other spells, relying on the Presences to dig for 2 Cloud of Faeries, which can then repeatedly re-play each other in lieu of a Chalice of the Void for zero on the board, generating storm count for a kill.

Although personally, Chalice of the Void for one was always a much better play against a Kobold-based deck.

Hunting Pack - is this better than Tendrils of Agony?
Death Wish - with this maindeck, should your board have a kill condition present?

[bebe]

There is a lot of green mana sources in the deck so yes , I prefer Hunting Pack even though I need to wait a turn to win ( I think the nfact no one uses it appeals to my dark side). It is after all the secondary win condition and could be put in the side. A second  Death Wish could replace the Pack and Tendrils could be added to the side.
I have considered both Multani's Presence and an extra win condition in the side. For now, I use Death Wish to ensure that I can play my win condition.
The deck as it stands has some interesting interactions and possibilities but I would hardly call it tweaked and the meta will determine what should be included and excluded.
As to Skullclamp/Curio not being a good combination - really you should have the two creatures availble to you if you are drawing cards at the rate this deck draws. Really Skull is a redundant condition to ensure that you can go off and I'm even thinking that two Skulls might be enough of a fallback. Curio/Glimpse pretty much ensures you win as you can draw out the whole deck and avoid stalling which can be a problem with Clamps - though not that common.
I would add that the following cards merit testing -
Tendrils over Pack
Fastbond
Brainstorm over Skulls
Second Death Wish
Multani's Presence

I would add the deck's weakness is that no matter how you play it you are looking at a two card combo -
Glimpse/Skull
Glimpse/Curio
Null Rod at least is less of problem with Curio. Pithing Needle is less of a problem. There are workarounds for Chalice. The question is how fast does the deck need to be in today's meta. Will it be able to beat Stax or CS?

[Liam-K]

Another important consideration with this sort of deck is what are the chances it can gather up the gas and go lethal after having a large amount of resources destroyed by a defeated combo attempt.  I don't know much about kobold decks but they look like they need a lot of cards in hand to start ramping... is one force of will the end of the game?  I am fairly confident with a Long list that I have a decent "second try" if I get stopped on turn 2.

[Cr0v4x]

Well... I think that the idea is great.

First of all we should face all the hate cards that might be plyed against this deck:

1. Chalice of the Void: a chalice set at zero isn't that bad. Basically you just have no creatures which you can use the Clamp on but that doesn't prevent you from playing your Kobolds, drawing cards with Glimpse of Nature and getting your Storm Count up to infinite by using the Fairie-Recursion. A Chalice at 1 isn't that bad either and a Chalice at 2 isn't the end as well. This is a great advantage of this deck. It really doesn't die to one Chalice because it can simply suucceed by using another winning condition. The most likely set of chalices you are going to be faced with as soon as your opponent knows your deck would be Chalice for 1 and Chalice for 2. Then you have some serious issues as your list does not suggest how handel this. Therefore playing Rebuild would be a solution to this problem.

2. Trinisphere: Well the Trinisphere isn't that bad either. You simply have to get to your 3 mana to Bounce the Sphere eot. Nevertheless you have to get to 3 Mana at first which might to porve a litte difficult without a Workshop which can easily spit some 0-mana artfeacts providing you with the necessary mana on the table.

3. Arcane Laboratory: You can handel this one just as all the other threads by using some sort of a Bounce Spell just as well.

4. Counters: I think that there are several cards your opponent should counter. The Curios, the skullclamps and last but not least the Glimpse of Nature are cards which should be countered by your opponent. Since these are like 11 cards you can assume that your are going to get the combo through. Therefore I don't think that counters are that bad of a problem. They get a problem as soon as the counter your bounce-spells.

[NicolaeAlmighty]

I do believe that you need off color Moxen, for acceleration reasons (not to mention building storm). Wait a minute... Am I missing something? Why no Yawgmoth's Will? I see you have Planar Voids in the side, but still... Will would be amazing! Especially with that supposed maindeck Tendrils  ... I think the Duresses could be sideboarded to make room for some Draw 7s. Wheel of Fortune and Timetwister could do some good in this deck. I like the concept! Cloud of Faeries and Curio... very nice!

[Cr0v4x]

Furthermore playing for the Tendrils-Kill in the TPS-Style as well will distract your opponent from playing Chalice 2 so that you can set up the Combo with the Cloud of Fairies.

[policehq]

Priest of Gix would sit at 3cc, dodge Chalice, and fix your black mana-needing problems.

Quirion Dryad would win the turn that you go off, unblocked. You wouldn't have to wait on the Pack.

Using Tangleroot as an engine, and playing Workshops for Curio and Tangleroot, allows you to do insane things with Eternal Witness and your Kobolds.

[balrog]

this is a very interesting idea. Ive been trying to get kobolds to work and i think this gives it s slim shot. that said i would say the following about your build. i would bring yawgwin in and run some other form of grave hate( crypt?) to replace the voids, i think this deck needs swarm main and costing one it can fuel the engine in a pinch. i don't think the artifact count is high enough to justify academy and maybe workshop (tho i like the shop better than the academy for the curio accel.) the best thing i can see about this deck is its resiliency to stax and difficulty to hate. the prison effects do very little and can easily be bounced when your ready to go. the worst part is its weakness vs. control. thats what the swarms help. tendrils is IMHO far and away better than pack and should definitely be added.  not at all a fan of your sideboard.  i think that death wish should either be upped (and the side adjusted for it) or cut. also i think that the off color moxen are essential. those are my thoughts
much love.

[Arvid]

I've been working on this deck ever since I saw the Ravnica spoiler. However my latest decklist differs from yours on more than some point, first of all I cut black. I don't think this is an opted build, but hopefully it can give you some thoughts and/or new ideas and maybe you could give me some criticism too.


CREATURES (20)
12 kobolds
4 cloud of faeries
4 xantid swarm

ARTIFACTS (9)
4 cloudstone curio
4 skullclamp
1 memory jar or Darksteel Colossus

SORCERIES (6)
4 glimpse of nature
1 timetwister
1 tinker

INSTANTS (6)
2 brain freeze
1 ancestral recall
1 crop rotation
1 mystical tutor
1 rebuild

MANA (19)
4 ESG
4 tropical island
2 gaea's cradle
5 moxen
1 black lotus
1 chrome mox
1 lotus petal
1 mana crypt

[bebe]

Well, just a few thoughts ...
The deck is far from ideal. I did say that that it eas just a peliminary build yo begin testing with. I agree that all the moxen should probably be included.
Things I'm not a fan of ... Wheel and Twister ... these effects are way to symetrical for my liking and if i don't go off the turn i play them i may be victimized by my opponent's draw. I never felt they wee autoincludes in any combo deck that lacked counters.

Swarms or Duress ... both are quite good here ... I alweays left Swarms in the side when playing Dragon and relied on  Duresses or redundancy for the win.  Is this a poor personal preference or the better plan? There is not a whole lot of room maindeck for changes.

Hunting Pack vs. Tendrils ... A channel will get my Pack off ev ery time. This why why I actually included it in my first Belcher builds over Tendrils. I do not need the Curio/Cloud to play it. Just a few Kobolds and a Channel will do. This adds a little versatility. Is it better than Dryad or Tendrils? Not sure, but with the amount of bounce and removal i see it is better than Dryad for sure.

I'm not a fan of the sideboard either. I just hastily put together some useful cards for certain match ups. Does Crypt belomg over Void? The deck can get a lot of mana quickly and I'm rather fond of the Voids but tuern one is probably better than turn two and they can upo the storm count so crypts are probably better.

I agree that another Wish would be nice main decked (mentioned this earlier) and some win conditions stuck in the side. Also Yawgs Win deserves a spot in any build running Clamp/Kobolds. Don't know how i forgor to stick it in ... a brain fart von my part.

The deck as posted is not a deck to take to a tournament yet ... it is a work in progress that needs a hundred or so games of testing to maximize. Its probably a good five or ten cards off the ideal build. But any deck capable of comboing off turn two or three with some consistency needs to be examined at the very least.