Sullivan's SCG Article on the Day 1 winning deck

[Dante]

http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/12105.html

Discuss!

Maindeck:

Artifacts
1 Black Lotus
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire

Creatures
4 Dark Confidant
4 Dimir Cutpurse

Instants
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Brainstorm
1 Chain Of Vapor
1 Darkblast
4 Force Of Will
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Rushing River
2 Shadow Of Doubt
4 Stifle
1 Vampiric Tutor

Legendary Creatures
3 Erayo, Soratami Ascendant

Sorceries
4 Duress
1 Time Walk

Basic Lands
1 Island
1 Swamp

Lands
2 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
1 Strip Mine
4 Underground Sea
3 Wasteland

Legendary Lands
1 Tolarian Academy


Sideboard:

2 Skullclamp
1 Energy Flux
3 Planar Void
1 Darkblast
4 Diabolic Edict
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Rebuild
1 Shadow Of Doubt
1 Massacre

[Shock Wave]

It seems like a decent little pile. It has a huge advantage over most of the other decks in the field: the list is original. When you're playing a deck that is sufficiently different from standard lists such that your opponent has no idea what to expect, you're already at an advantage. Combine a good, innovative list with a competant player and you have the recipe for a successful tournament outing.

[Siral]

This deck is based on a single idea: card advantage

Dark Confidant + Dimir Cutpurse can create a great card advantage but my question is if this deck can kill before the Confidant kills the owner

[AngryPheldagrif]

Average damage taken off a Confidant is approximately 1.2. You're fine.

[Machinus]

I have some questions for the designer:

1) There are only eight artifacts in the deck. Why did you run Academy over the fourth Wasteland?

2) Is it really worth the synergy with Erayo to cut DT in favor of Vamp?

3) What is Engineered Explosives for? (If it's for Chalice 1, why didn't you use Truth/Hurkyl's?)

4) Shadow of Doubt is much narrower, and more expensive, than the other disruption you use. Did you ever think a cheaper/more versatile card would be better in it's place?


Good work, and congratulations to Tommy on the win!

[Mantis]

Alright so after the success of URBana Fish and now this I think the successful recipe for Fish is found at last (if we can still call this Fish..). The key is the full package of Moxen + a LOT of card advantage. The curve should be something like 1cc spells and 1 + colored mana 2 cc spells.

I truly like this deck and I'm really curious to see how it works under my testing. Congratulations on the win, I think we can now truly say Vintage is a really innovative format with SCG tourneys giving us another top deck every tourney!

[ramon]

and why not an arcane laboratory in the main deck?

[Dozer]

and why not an arcane laboratory in the main deck?

Because it's a dead card before you flip Erayo. You don't need the hard lock in this deck. The soft lock between Erayo and Cutpurse should be perfectly sufficient. Also, it limits the usefulness of your own Confidant & Cutpurse duo, taking away the advantage of playing more than one spell that you have just because of your card drawing. Even as a singleton, it does more bad than good.

What I really like about this deck is the super-heavy LD component. Stifle, Shadow AND Wasteland make any Fetchland a very risky proposition. On the other hand, with only seven real mana-producing lands, how is the Stax matchup? Any deck with 5 Strips has almost as many LD effects as this deck has lands. I'd imagine Stifle to take on a very protective role, right?

[Evenpence]

What I really like about this deck is the super-heavy LD component. Stifle, Shadow AND Wasteland make any Fetchland a very risky proposition. On the other hand, with only seven real mana-producing lands, how is the Stax matchup? Any deck with 5 Strips has almost as many LD effects as this deck has lands. I'd imagine Stifle to take on a very protective role, right?

Quote from Tommy, who placed 1st Day 1 of Richmond:

Id  first like to say that this deck is ridiculous and anyone that underestimates its strength is dead wrong.

to evenpence yes the stax matchup is bad if not horrible, but anyone that knows who i am knows how much i myself play stax which made the match far easier. i played stax rounds 3 and 6 in the swiss and beat both opponents in 3 games. first game is horrible and after the board it gets much better.

I've done extensive testing against the deck, and I can confidently say that the matchup is almost a bye as is.  The only thing that scares me with this deck is Energy Flux, and that only in multiples, as I can easily handle singleton Flux.  Vroman wrote a masterful little piece on it in his Ubastax primer.

I love this deck though.  Seriously, I absolutely love it.  Severe props to Sullivan and TK.

[Methuselahn]

Impressive maindeck.  He lost me when he suggested Planar Void and Skullclamp as sideboard answers to Oath though.

[ashiXIII]

Impressive maindeck.  He lost me when he suggested Planar Void and Skullclamp as sideboard answers to Oath though.

Planar Void RFGs everything except for creatures when they Oath, and Clamp eats Orchard tokens. I think both are terrible, though, because if they're Oathing, they're already winning, and Clamp can't eat tokens that are given to you during your end step.

[scutakicker]

Do not underestimate the power of this deck post-board vs Oath. I played Adrian first round of a South Milwaukee tournament--he was playing SS and I was playing Oath. Game 1 was easy: he lays a creature, I lay an Oath and go nuts. The second game between Stifle and strip effects he forces me to give him tokens and then clamps them for 4 or 6 cards. He counters an early Oath and lays Bob for more card advantage. Bob beats down and I finally lay another Oath. First he beats, then stifles the Oath to get some more draws/beats off Bob. The turn I'm ready to activate he swings then clamps both Bob and the token for more cards, lays a planar void and passes turn. At this point I have probably 1 or 2 cards in hand and he just discarded 2 cards to get down to 7. I give him a token on his EOT and Oath, whereupon he promptly Edicts me with counter backup to RFG the creature. Then he clamps the token, bounces the Oath and Duresses it away. It was unquestionably the most savage display of raw card advantage I'd seen in a long time.

[vartemis]

Do not underestimate the power of this deck post-board vs Oath. I played Adrian first round of a South Milwaukee tournament--he was playing SS and I was playing Oath. Game 1 was easy: he lays a creature, I lay an Oath and go nuts. The second game between Stifle and strip effects he forces me to give him tokens and then clamps them for 4 or 6 cards. He counters an early Oath and lays Bob for more card advantage. Bob beats down and I finally lay another Oath. First he beats, then stifles the Oath to get some more draws/beats off Bob. The turn I'm ready to activate he swings then clamps both Bob and the token for more cards, lays a planar void and passes turn. At this point I have probably 1 or 2 cards in hand and he just discarded 2 cards to get down to 7. I give him a token on his EOT and Oath, whereupon he promptly Edicts me with counter backup to RFG the creature. Then he clamps the token, bounces the Oath and Duresses it away. It was unquestionably the most savage display of raw card advantage I'd seen in a long time.

"For every action there is a reaction...and a pikey reaction is quite a fuckin thing."

That would have been crazy to watch.  I just may have to proxy this deck out. and give it a run.  Does the creator or any other people who helped with it have any post tournament tweaks?

j

[AngryPheldagrif]

The anti-Oath plan is extremely effective but also overstated. Oath players lose to it because they are utterly blown away by a crazy combination that can kill Sky Swallowers beyond redemtion. Oath players horribly misboard and end up getting wrecked by the hilarious strategies this deck wins with.

[Kieranwolf]

No SSG Premium. Doh.

I was going to say something about 3cc cards beiing way too slow, but it looks like there's only five cards in that casting cost slot, and Cutpurse is a beating.

This deck has four mainboard answers to Tinker aside from counterspells.

I'm going to presume that this deck is made to keep up with Control/Combo rather than try to slow it down to a managable level. Erayo closes the noose after the opponent is in topdeck mode.

Edict is the best answer to sided in SSS agaisnt Oath. Except for surprise factor, maybe?

EDIT: Just in case anyone totally missed the Skullclamp motto, it's "I'm going to get tokens when I play against Oath, therefore I am going to draw stupid frickin' amounts of cards off them and win."

The rest of the deck looks like it has awesome synergy with the whole card-drawing plan.

[warble]

Nice disruption, shadow of doubt has been kicking my ass lately . . . about time it won a tournament.  The cutpurse is nice, but I can win through him.  The shadow, though . . . no way to win through that.  Only problem I can forsee is that workshop is a beating, but then again if you draw enough power and win the die rolls you can always beat workshop.  The deck looks really nice, but I just can't see it winning through an early darkblast unless you deny the black mana.  The draw engine is incredibly fragile, and one pyroclasm has a tendency to end matches against this type of draw engine.  I wonder if you have any thoughts about holding back confidants in situations where you have resolved a single cutpurse.  I certainly don't know what I would do there.

[scutakicker]

I agree that the case shouldn't be overstated. When I played Sullivan in South Milwaukee he had something like 10 sideboard slots for Oath hate since he rightly expected a lot of Oath. He had also just spent 4 hours the night before specifically testing the match with I@n. In Rochester I also faced the deck and nothing like that happened since the guy had no idea how to sideboard and chalice @ 0 on the play and maindeck Darkblast can be a beating. My basic point is that for a deck that eventually wins with smallish creatures and the combat step, Oath should not be feared as an awful matchup.

[ramon]

and why not an arcane laboratory in the main deck?

Because it's a dead card before you flip Erayo. You don't need the hard lock in this deck. The soft lock between Erayo and Cutpurse should be perfectly sufficient. Also, it limits the usefulness of your own Confidant & Cutpurse duo, taking away the advantage of playing more than one spell that you have just because of your card drawing. Even as a singleton, it does more bad than good.

What I really like about this deck is the super-heavy LD component. Stifle, Shadow AND Wasteland make any Fetchland a very risky proposition. On the other hand, with only seven real mana-producing lands, how is the Stax matchup? Any deck with 5 Strips has almost as many LD effects as this deck has lands. I'd imagine Stifle to take on a very protective role, right?

Great answer! Thank you 

Tomorrow I will start to play the deck here in Valencia (Spain), I hope it will be a big surprise for all my friends 

[yespuhyren]

So far my testing against ICBM got me about 5/6-0 against it with a Shop Aggro variant of The Jester

[AngryPheldagrif]

So far my testing against ICBM got me about 5/6-0 against it with a Shop Aggro variant of The Jester

Gilded Claw beats it too. Luckily for SS, no one plays Shop Aggro.

[AJFirst]

Yeah this thing is going to start popping out here in the Midwest, then Stax will make a rise again, and then maybe...just maybe....Slaver will be viable again!
-AJ

[Kieranwolf]

I'm not actually very afraid of this archetype. I tend to do well against decks that draw lots of cards, since my opponents never actually see the cards they need to win (even if they end up drawing like, their whole deck or something).

Null Rod would be my most valuable tech, even though this list doesn't really need moxes to drop its threats.

Oh, and Pyroclasm/Darkblast maybe. Those might be helpful.

I love my stupid aggro. 

[arkmagus]

It won a modern vintage tourney with no MWS or drains and isn't red.  How sweet is that?  This should help dispel the notion that ours is a staid format.  Kudos to the designer and the pilot.   

[RThomas]

I'm interested as to how well this deck has performed against the Ichorid deck.  Besides Stifle, what does this deck gain/lose from other builds of fish that make it better or worse against the Ichorid deck?  Planar Void is good in the sideboard; was the black Leyline ever tried?

[kirdape3]

I'm absolutely certain (and ICBM can flame me all they want, but they're wrong) that Planar Void is inferior to Leyline of the Void.  Planar Void costs mana and can be responded to - Leyline of the Void only has to be in your opening hand.  Neither card is particularly stellar past the first turn, so the only real reason that Planar Void could be superior is not bolting yourself in the head when you flip it off Confidant.  Leyline gives you a shot against combo decks on the draw, reinforcing your Force of Wills in a matchup that actually is not that amazing for you.

[LordHomerCat]

You can also get slaver locked and have Dragons killing you in response to Planar Void, which doesn't happen with Leyline.  About the only advantage to Planar is that you can replay it if it gets chained to your hand (but really, who chains the thing, then lets you take your turn and just replay it?  Don't most people chain it EOT and then untap and either win or go nuts with the yard so it doesn't matter if it comes back?)

[Mantis]

Planar Void over Leyline:
First of all you have about 40% of drawing it in your opening hand when sideboarding 4 of. That's a 60% chance of not drawing it and having 4 cards in your deck that you really don't want to draw. This means cardisadvantage when you draw them as they are hard to cast. They also deal you 4 damage if you flip them over with Confidant and are not synergetic with Erayo.

Leyline is a more powerful card if you draw it in your opening hand as Planar Void also conflicts with the mana curve and Leyline is better when it's in play.

[TK]

i believe i already adressed the issue of why leyline of the void is a bad choice for this deck. First off i dont care for leyline at all i think the card is garbage and a waste of space. Thats jsut my opinion however there is valid reasons y void is better in this deck. void is more often used as part of a strategy is this deck such as in the oath matchup. Also in matchups like slaver and gifts void may not be the most effective card but still is good enough to usually bring 2 or 3 in. i can honestly say that the entire day i never really boarded in all 4 voids there was 2 reasons we made sure to have 4 there though. 1 was that we expected plenty of dragon (and yes i know dragon can win around this i myself won 2 starcity side events plus other power with dragon and i know how strong the deck is and how it works) void may not be the best card ti kill dragon with but its usally an annoyance they have to deal with. Plus be careful while dealing with void thye dont walk into a stifl or edict of there dragon. I think we said something like 80% in are favor against dragon. The second reasons void was in the sb as a 4 of was out last minute addition to help the ichorid mathcup. we didnt expect to see a lot of it but wanted to be prepaired knowing it would be pioloted by a few.

So if you look at the matchups where we board in 2-3 planar voids why would we want to be boarding in 4 leylines. if you use leyline you need to board in all 4 and y board in that heavily when the card only is part of your strategyu for victory and not your entire plan.

And as metioned above it does suck a lot more to flip a leyline with bob.

Kirdape3 first of all before you tell me and team were dead wrond with a card choice and no matter what we say your right maybe you should give some data and game examples to show me. Maybe unkown to me uve had this list for a year and have all sorts of data to back up your statement. but in the long run i dont think you understand the use of planar void in this deck but i will be happy to debate this issue with you if you want

[AJFirst]

I'm with Tommy here. Leyline is rubbish. Especially in a format with Tormod's Crypt and Planar Void, which are just more effecient at what they do. SUre, Void is a triggered effect while Leyline replaces which makes it easier to play around, but it's a one mana one card investment from your at any point during the game before they need their yard, meaning 9-10 cards is usually ok (except against Long, then you want to see them in the fan of 7), but with Leyline you auto lose if you rip it in a top-deck war, it walks into Drain for Slaver, it gets in the way of the whole, you know, "game-plan" thing, and can be bounced (while void is easily recastable).

This is an Agro-control deck that rides CA. Planar Void will buy more than enough time to generate a strong hand of counters and answers while continuing on a quick clock.
-AJ

Also, if you play leyline than you have to play 4, while voids can be trimmed from the board if you expect lots of Fish or something, and allows you to only bring in a few to minimize dead cards, and still get a great effect if drawn/tutored out.
-AJ

[Kieranwolf]

Not to be too redundant here, but I thought I'd put my two cents in.

I love Leyline of the Void. It's one of my favorite cards right now. It drops before turn 1, is night impossible to EE and difficult to Deed out, it's an enchantment and the ability is static, not triggered. It also eats a bounce spell and while useless on its own, it often has a cozy home amidst most of my other favorite disruption cards.

This deck can't abuse Leyline beyond the uncounterable effect of it starting the game in play. Planar Void is at times still good if you draw it turn one or even two. It still needs to be dealt with or played around (often with a Tinker fatty for the control/combo strategy, which this deck answers readily).

Leyline is ideally for decks that want an uncounterable graveyard-nullifying enchantment out first turn, that need to keep their own graveyard around, and that can somehow make use of a 4cc black card that's useless to play mid to late game.

If a deck doesn't meet at least two of those criteria, then Void or Crypt or some combination  of the two (or even alternatives like Withered Wretch) will most likely be much better. The fact that Void is triggered matters little if you're shooting to kill powerful cards like Y. Will and Intuition.