Eye of Sauron aka "Eye of The Storm", post ravnica vintage deck

[Rafka]

I'm new here so I thought I'd type this up on the vintage newbie forums. BTW, this is a cheap vintage deck since I don't have the power 9 and it could probably be much better if tweaked to include the mox/black lotus and ancestral recall.

I've been trying to break the new card "Eye of The Storm" and I eventually came up with a decent decklist

_____________________________ __

The Combo:
4 Academy Rector
1 Eye of The Storm
3 Twiddle
1 Turnabout
1 Tendrils of Agony

The Draw:
4 Brainstorm
4 Merchant Scroll
4 Thrist For Knowledge

The Tutors:
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor

The Counter:
4 Force of Will

The Creature Kill:
4 Innocent Blood

The Artifacts:
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
1 Grim Monolith

The Lands:
4 Polluted Delta
1 Flooded Strand
1 Windswept Heath
3 Tundra
4 Seat of The Synod
4 Gemstone Mine
4 City of Brass
2 Reflecting Pool
_________________________


Now I will explain why this pile of junk seems fun to me.

The Combo:

Rector search for Eye of The Storm. Cast Merchant Scroll for Twiddle. Use Eye of The Storm activations to get 2 more Twiddle, then Turnabout (infinite mana at this point), get draw spells (Thirst for Knowledge/Brainstorm) until you draw Tendrils of Agony and win.

Use Academy Rector to get Eye of the Storm. Cast Merchant Scroll for a Twiddle#1, cast Twiddle#1 and use Eye of The Storm activation of Merchant Scroll for Twiddle#2, cast Twiddle#2 and use Eye of The Storm activation of Merchant Scroll for Twiddle#3 and Eye of The Storm activation of Twiddle#1 to untap, cast Twiddle#3 and Eye of The Storm activation of Merchant Scroll for Turnabout and Eye of The Storm activation of Twiddle#1 to untap and Eye of The Storm activation of Twiddle#2 to untap, cast Turnabout and go infinite mana and draw until you cast Tendrils of Agony.

The Draw:
Merchant Scroll is needed and Brainstorm+fetchland is great. Thirst for Knowledge is pretty good too with the Seat of The Synod or spare artifacts.

The Tutors:
I only need Academy Rector, Merchant Scroll, or Force of Will, so I don't need Enlightened Tutor.

The Counters:
Force of Will for combo security

The Creature Kill:
Innocent Blood is cheap and can even help you sacrifice your own Academy Rector.

The Artifacts:
The only accelerated artifact mana that I have...

The Lands:
Seat of The Synod for the Thirst for Knowledge. Fetchland because of Brainstorm (they're the only ones that I have so the Flooded Strand and Windswept Heath are random). Tundra for fetching (I only have 3 of them). Gemstone Mine/City of Brass/Reflecting pool for black/white/blue mana (I don't have that many dual lands).
_____________________________ ____

I was thinking of using either Innocent Blood or Diabolic Edicts for the creature kill. Thirst for Knowledge might be changed for Condescend or Duress, not sure yet.

Please tell me how I can make this better without adding the power 9, Mana Drain, or more dual lands.

If you'd like to, show me what this can be like if made with the power 9, but don't criticize my current decklist just because it doesn't have them in it.

Thank you for reading this overly long post (esprecially the part where I tried to explain the combo).

PS: I forgot to put in a sideboard but I need help for that anyways. Probably some Red Elemental Blasts versus control, Pithing Needle against Stax, and probably more anti Stax cards like Suppression Field/Chalice of The Void/Sacred Ground/Aura of Silence.

PS2: take out the 4 Innocent Blood and put in 4 Cabal Therapy. This still helps with sacrificing Academy Rector as well as adds a touch of disruption. Thank you Jacob Orlove for your input.

[Jacob Orlove]

Cabal Therapy is a good way to sacrifice Rector.

[Rafka]

I've thought of Cabal Therapy, but since I have a friend that plays Oath of Druids with Forbidden Orchard and Dragon Breath, the thought of a hasted Spirit of The Night or Akroma, Angel of Wrath on third turn scares me. I could take the TFK out but then I'm not sure the Brainstorms would be enough draw to get the combo going.

[Jacob Orlove]

Just as an aside, Dragon Breath is pretty silly there because both have Haste and Akroma has Protection from Red.

Cabal Therapy actually helps against Oath, though, because if they have to tap their Orchard for mana (likely in the early game), you can just sacrifice the token on your turn.

As for what to cut--probably the Innocent Bloods. If you can't get to combo going fast enough to make creatures irrelevant, then you should really play a different deck.

[Rafka]

I guess you're right on that point. I shouldn't worry about creatures so much and cabal therapy would have been a better call. I ruled it out earlier on during deckbuilding because I wanted to use diabolic edict as an instant during their end of turn to kill my rector. I later switched it to innocent blood for cheaper cost. This was all prior to getting the idea of merchant scroll+3 twiddles.

I play a lot of multiplayer games and letting a oath deck run lose sometimes leads to bad endings. I shouldn't think about using this deck in just multiplayer since those kinds of decks aren't the same as normal ones.

[Rafka]

I just got an idea but I'm not sure if it's the right call. I could replace 4x merchant scrol with 4x cunning wish and put turnabout and 3x twiddle into sideboard. That could open up 4 card slots but slow me down 1 turn. Would this be worth it? What cards should I put in instead? I'm thinking 4x duress but that's just because I like that card.

[Arvid]

What does this deck/combo offer over Academy Rector for Yawgmoth's Bargain, drawing ~19 cards, eventually casting Tendrils of Agony? I don't mean to be negative, I think it's fun using a new card and all, but is it on par with the bargain combo or is it better/worse?

[Nastaboi]

If you can afford some UG seas, then you should definitely adjust the mana base to include Dark Rituals. Second turn Rector it is what are you aiming for, isn't it? And then I would add Mind's Desire, which is a neat draw spell when going off, but also good in situations when you don't have the Rector but can generate some mana and storm via Rituals, Twiddles and such.

Remember, that you can always use your Twiddles to tap Oath creatures to survive one critical turn. Still I would make room for a bounce spell, Chain of Vapor, Echoing Truth, Rushing River or whatever suits you best. It is Merchant Scrollable, so one will do.

[Xenoben187]

I see 2 possible advantages of using this card over Bargain.
1:  it's not dependant on life, even if you're at 1 you still win.
2: if you have 3 mana and a merchant scroll when rector hits the sack, you win, nothing more to it, no fizzles.

[andrewpate]

I'm still a bit confused as to how you are activating Academy Rector.  Your runthrough of the combo seems to take it as a given that the Rector just dies somehow, but you seem to have no plan to do that aside from chump blocking (which is impossible against more decks than against which it is possible).  Remember that for Rector Trix, Rector Tendrils, etc., sacrificing the Rector is the hardest part of going off.  Cabal Therapy is a must, if nothing else as -4 Innocent Blood, +4 Cabal Therapy (which is still probably not optimal).  I would also consider a copy or two of Diabolic Edict, which can both sacrifice the Rector and get the first Merchant Scroll you need to go off at the same time.  In this deck, it is probably superior to Mystical Tutor.

My suggestion right away and without benefit of testing would be -4 Innocent Blood, +3 Cabal Therapy, +1 Diabolic Edict.  You can move forward from there.

@Xenoben
You are correct on both points.  I think that this could be an interesting alternative to Yawgmoth's Bargain in Rector-powered decks, the Bargain builds of which have always come out too weak.  And while it is certainly a weaker card than Bargain, the potential for abuse is definitely there.  I look forward to seeing if this deck can do anything.

The problem with Rector builds in general has always been the lack of consistency.  First you have to find the Rector (a hard card to tutor for), then you have to find a way to sack it, then you get Bargain and have to have enough life and lucky enough draws to win right then.  I've been experimenting with Rector Oath to try to fix the first two of those problems (Oath finds Rector and fills the yard with Therapies to sack it to), but in so doing it unfortunately exacerbates the third (sometimes the Bargain hits the bin, or there aren't enough cards left in the library after the Oath to win).  Eye of the Storm doesn't really work in an Oath build, but it does solve the third problem.  Perhaps other methods can minimize the first two sufficiently.

[Limbo]

I'm still a bit confused as to how you are activating Academy Rector.

I don't think Academy Rector has "Protection from Innocent Blood"...

[Rafka]

Arvid:
it's true that's bargain is a great card. if you rector up the bargain, you can draw into your win conditions. in my deck, you need to get a merchant scroll to go off. how does the rector/bargain deck work? i mean even if i draw the cards, how do i cast the spells with limited mana? i'm not being sarcastic, i'd just like to know. some kind of basic decklist to compare to would be nice. i'd also like the pros and cons of that deck, just to see its advantages.

Nastaboi:
using mind's desire is a high casting cost and a sorcery. when going off, i don't need anything extra and mind's desire would be a "i win more" card in that situation. if it helped enough when i don't have rector yet, then it's good. i can't see that situation where i'd be able to cast more than 2 spells prior to the mind's desire, but is a 3 storm count high enough to warrant that? i haven't had much experience with the storm mechanic since i took a break from mtg after onslaught and just  came back at the end of the kamigawa block.


after some calculations, i think i can even drop 1 more twiddle. i don't even know which cards i should add into the deck now. i'll probably add in y.will just in case i need to recast from the grave due to too much disruptions, such as losing my rector/merchant scroll to discard or counters. would that be a good decision for additional safety?

btw, if you make suggestions about other cards to add in, please suggest which card to take out in order to take its place. the addition of certain cards would always be nice but keeping it at 60 cards is always the tough part.

PS: what did you guys think of cunning wish instead of merchant scroll?1 turn slower but i can take out turnabout and the twidles to free up 4 card slots.  i've been thinking about that one quite a bit lately...

[Ocat]

Sorry for my noob question, but how do you go infinite?
And, in the text below you use your merchant scroll three times, but I thought you only receive 1 copy with Eye of the Storm?

Rector search for Eye of The Storm. Cast Merchant Scroll for Twiddle. Use Eye of The Storm activations to get 2 more Twiddle, then Turnabout (infinite mana at this point), get draw spells (Thirst for Knowledge/Brainstorm) until you draw Tendrils of Agony and win.

Use Academy Rector to get Eye of the Storm. Cast Merchant Scroll for a Twiddle#1, cast Twiddle#1 and use Eye of The Storm activation of Merchant Scroll for Twiddle#2, cast Twiddle#2 and use Eye of The Storm activation of Merchant Scroll for Twiddle#3 and Eye of The Storm activation of Twiddle#1 to untap, cast Twiddle#3 and Eye of The Storm activation of Merchant Scroll for Turnabout and Eye of The Storm activation of Twiddle#1 to untap and Eye of The Storm activation of Twiddle#2 to untap, cast Turnabout and go infinite mana and draw until you cast Tendrils of Agony.

[Rafka]

Ocat:
each time you cast an instant/sorcery, you trigger EoTS. so after you get twiddle from the deck, you cast it to activate EoTS and it lets you get another twiddle with the merchant scroll copy. then you cast the second twiddle, which gives you a copy of twiddle and merchant for another twiddle. cast last twidle with EoTS for 2x twiddle and merchant scroll for turnabout. cast turnabout, go infinite with it and merchant scroll (already at storm count 10 here), get mystical tutor with merchant scroll for brainstorm, cast brainstorm with mystical on top for tendrils and merchant scroll on top for FoW or just keep on going infinite draw into all your counters so you can cast tendrils of agony with all the remaining force of will in your deck and all the blue cards to discard for them.

i'll try to make a powered version later so you people can critique it. i'm guessing that some people don't like the restriction  of a card pool. i might play some proxy vintage tournies, so it could always be nice to have on the side.

PS: with the cunning wishes, i actually do have a sideboard that's pretty tight. I'll post it after i get off work.

[Limbo]

If you feel merchant scrolls and twiddles should be put in the SB for Cunning Wish main, then maybe you could add dark rituals main? Not only does it increase the speed of your combo, it also provides another instant to use EotS with.

One thing I find quite dangerous is the thing that you only play one EotS. If somebody duresses you, you are in big trouble.

Also, in a fully powered version, it might be nice to have both bargain AND EotS available, as both have very nice options for the way to victory. I know that is not something you personally are striving for because of the lack of power, but if one wanted to build a fully powered version, bargain addition is something to consider.

The last point that I fear is actually the interruption of an opponent. An opponent that pays good attention can throw a huge wrench in your machinework by casting a brainstorm, mana drain or Force of Will at the wrong moment and abuse your engine to draw his/her own deck...

All those things set aside, I think with some work / tweaking, this could be a good and fun combo-deck...

[Ocat]

So copies trigget EOtS aswell?
I dont understand how you will go infinite sice the card says *Whenever a player plays an instant or sorcery card,* instead of *spell*

//edit
Nevermind, I understand it now. Thanks for your extra explaining.

[Necrologia]

One card I've always been a fan of in Rector based decks is Balance. It can function as another way to sac rector (beyond 4x Therapy which you really should have), and besides that it can randomly win you games where you had no business winning.

Bargain's great, but in order for it to win on the spot you need some acceleration. Rituals seem really good in here, especially if you cut a few land for them. 23 really is quite a bit more than combo wants to see, as you should hopefully be winning before you've had a chance to drop more than 2 or 3. Rituals help on that one big turn when you're going for the win, where extra lands just sit there.

Assuming you add Rituals then, you'd most likely be running Bargain, Eye, and in the worst case scenario Necro as Rector targets. Aside from some redundancy, that would give you a few more broken opening which is always good.

[Rafka]

adding bargain as an alternate win condition would be good.

still unsure about switching merchant scroll for cunning wish, but if i do, i can put in the dark rituals. problem is the dark rits will only be used for rector, or hard cast bargain/EoTS. it also does help when bargain is out and i need mana. if i add bargain, i'll probably add y.will too.

i probably have too many mana sources, which ones should i cut off? seat of the synod is just for TFK, but is it enough of a reason to run it in the deck?

i could probably stand to put in pithing needle if i cut something out. they seem to help game 1 against stax and CS. i'm thinking that if i run cunning wish, i could always echoing truth in SB to take care of meddling mage.

i was also thinking about adding brainfreeze in SB if i run cunning wish as an alternate win condition.

Should i retype the whole decklist to update it a bit, there's been quite a few changes made to it already since i posted last night.

PS: should i post the powered but unworked version of this deck version with cunning wish with sideboard on vintage open board? i haven't playtested though, so i don't know if it's appropriate to post it there.

[Rafka]

i thought about it, and cunning wish version lets them interrupt me during my combo. with merchant scroll, they can't search their library since it's a sorcery during my turn. at least they'd only get to counter me with what's in their hand if i use merchant scroll.

even though it will let me put in more cards in my deck by using the sideboard, is using cunning wish worth the gamble?

[Limbo]

The usability of cunning wish is highly dependent on the protection you run. If you use a combination of duress and cabal therapy instead of the FoW compliment you have, you can make sure they can't interrupt you with instants when you get going, just by tearing their hand apart of any annoying stuff.

[Rafka]

by running cunning wish, i slow down 1 turn and running duress/cabal therapy on the fundemental turn slows is down 1 more turn per dsruption. this is a tough call to make, slowing down the combo a bit too much. i feel that twiddle/EoTS/ToA in hand can be pretty bad, especially EoTS in hand due to discard.

i'm probably going to fit y.will in the next revision i post due to this issue. should i run more copies of EoTS just in case? y.will will help me get to it from the grave, but that's still 7UUB and mana to cast cunning wish/merchant scroll to combo off.

[Arvid]

@Rafka:
Here comes a decklist, as you can see it's not very hard to get 2BB and storm count 9 when drawing ~19 cards. This decklist came second in a swedish proxy 10 tournament. Personally I think it has some odd card choices such as 3 FoW, no Duresses, Wheel of Fortune. As I rememered the deck from some years ago it was only 3-colored. Anyway, since I havn't played the deck for some years I think it's better to post a decklist that actually has been played/tweaked than some old decklist.


CREATURES (4)
4 Academy Rector

ENCHANTMENTS (3)
1 Future Sight
1 Necropotence
1 Yawgmoth’s Bargain

SORCERIES (14)
4 Cabal Therapy
2 Tendrils Of Agony
1 Timetwister
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Wheel Of Fortune
1 Windfall
1 Mind’s Desire

INSTANTS (14)
4 Dark Ritual
4 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
3 Force Of Will
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Chain Of Vapor

ARTIFACTS (13)
1 Memory Jar
1 Chrome Mox
1 Mana Vault
1 Lion’s Eye Diamond
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mana Crypt
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Lotus Petal

LAND (12)
4 Gemstone Mine
4 City Of Brass
2 Forbidden Orchard
1 Glimmervoid
1 Tolarian Academy
   
SIDEBOARD
2 Oath Of Druids
1 Form Of The Dragon
3 Seal Of Cleansing
1 Force Of Will
1 Balance
3 Xantid Swarm
2 Chain Of Vapor
2 Ray Of Revelation
 

[Rafka]

I tested the powered version of the deck and it was hard for me to make the cut for some cards. the use of cunning wish allowed for the "dead" cards to be put into the sideboard. the problem is that it slowed the deck dramatically, the fundamental turn is 1 full turn later.

combo:
1 tendrils of agony
1 eye of the storm
1 yawgmoth's bargain
1 yawgmoth's will
4 academy rector

disruption:
4 force of will
4 cabal therapy

card drawing:
1 ancestral recall
1 time walk
4 brainstorm
3 thirst for knowledge
4 cunning wish

tutors:
1 demonic tutor
1 vampiric tutor
1 mystical tutor

artifact mana:
1 black lotus
1 mox emeralk
1 mox jet
1 mox pearl
1 mox ruby
1 mox sapphire
1 mana crypt
1 mana vault
1 sol ring

lands:
4 polluted delta
2 flooded strand
4 underground sea
4 tundra
4 scrubland

sideboard:
1 brain freeze
1 merchant scroll
3 twiddle
1 diabolic edict
1 echoing truth
4 pithing needle
4 annul

i found this version to go off a bit slower. i'm also thinking about adding in mind's desire and dark rituals, but i don't know what to take out for those. this deck still has a lot of work that needs to be done to it. casting y.bargain when i'm missing combo pieces or have EoTS in hand is great.

i'm thinking that the merchant scroll version worked a little safer, but that might be just first impression without enough playtesting.

[Rafka]

i'm thinking about revamping the deck quite a bit. probably add in 4 rav UB dual/pain lands.

i also want to add in mind's desire and 4 dark rituals. if i add in the dark rits, i might switch TFK for night's whisper or careful study and the merchant scrolls for cunning wishes.

would that be a good good choice or just too much gamble while trying go off faster?

[andrewpate]

My suggestion would be to take advantage of being a combo deck capable of running substantial disruption.  The deck is never going to be as fast as Storm or Belcher, both of which aren't even really that good right now, so if you want the deck to do something interesting, concentrate on what distinguishes it from other combo decks, namely the fairly small number of core combo components.

[Rafka]

so is 4 Cabal Therapy and 4 FoW enough disruption?

[vartemis]

Eye of the storm, while cool, is not a very viable card.  For this deck to go off, you would have to remove every instant out of your opponents hand.  Otherwise he could just let your combo go off, then in response after everything is stacked, cast any instant and they get a copy of your kill, stacking it in any order they want.  You set up for tendril, they cast brainstorm or any instant for that matter in response after you stack your tendrils, killing you.

you cant even counter this because it is when the spell is played that the card triggers, so the spell they cast doesnt even have to resolve.  your only hope would be to cast another instant in response, thereby putting another tendrils stack on top of your opponents copied tendrils.

maybe i just dont get it.

[prosbloom225]

My team has been working on a version of a deck with Eye in it.  Imagine gifts with eye.  Basically cut the burning wishes for cunning and throw in some more tutors/eye's.  Its insane if you get a time walk/time warp on the eye. The deck is just amazing, and it runs 8+ counters.  If it weren't too bad for the fact that eye comes out about a turn too late most times.  Ill post a list when i decide to type one up.

[Rafka]

vartemis:
if you fear that they will wreck your combo with an instant with ToA on top, just use Merchant Scroll/Cunning Wish EoTS activations prior to tendrils to get counters or other instants. I have mana and more cards that way and so I'll still come out as the last player to play a spell. I've thought about Abeyance/Mana Short but it's just not worth slowing down the deck.

[or-line]

Hello everyone this is my first post here on the mana drain, but i have been reading the forums from quite a while. while reading this post i notice something that i don't think that anyone post has noticed about eots. I had to check with the FAQ on the cards to make sure that my thoughts were correct before saying anything, but here it goes.

according to the FAQ the initial spells cast that are removed from the game by eots never resolve and also the copies made by eots don't activate eye of the storm

just so that everything is clear i willl post the FAQ section for eye of the storm so that it can be clear


Eye of the Storm
{U}
Enchantment
Whenever a player plays an instant or sorcery card, remove it from the game. Then that player copies each instant or sorcery card removed from the game with Eye of the Storm. For each copy, the player may play the copy without paying its mana cost.

* The ability triggers when a player plays an instant or sorcery *card*. A copy of a spell (such as those generated by Eye of the Storm itself) won't trigger this ability. The card that was played is removed from the game and won't resolve, but the player will get a copy of the spell from Eye of the Storm.

* When the ability resolves, the player copies all cards removed from the game with Eye of the Storm, not just the cards he or she owns. That player then chooses which of those copies to play, if any. All chosen copies are played in the order the player chooses.

* The player chooses modes, pays additional costs, chooses targets, and so on for the copies when playing them. Any X in the mana cost of a copy played this way will be 0. Alternative costs can't be paid.