Magus of the Jar.dec

[BreathWeapon]

This is the list I have used to break Magus of the Jar,

2 Tendrils of Agony

1 Yawgmoth's Bargain
1 Necropotence
1 Yawgmoth's Will

4 Magus of the Jar
1 Memory Jar
1 Tinker

4 Corpse Dance (or 3 Corpse Dance and 1 blue restricted card, still testing)
4 Shallow Graves

4 Intuition
1 Demonic Tutor

4 Careful Study
1 Ancestral Recall

1 Windfall

4 Force of Will

4 Dark Ritual

1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus Petal
1 Lion's Eye Diamond
1 Sol Ring
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
1 Mana Vault
1 Mana Crypt

3 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
2 Underground Sea
2 Island
1 Tolarian Academy

SB
4 Wipe Away
4 Hurkyl's Recall
4 Xantid Swarm
1 Tropical Island

The deck is rather academic to use, the objective is to Careful Study or Intuition to place a Magus of the Jar into the graveyard, and then use Corpse Dance or Shallow Graves to reanimate him, activate him and then continue the chain with additional reanimate effects until you build sufficient storm and mana for a Tendrils of Agony.

The deck is superior to Dragon, because it uses two times the number of instant speed reanimates to play around Tormod's Crypt, if you reanimate a Magus into play you are immune to creature removal, you can hardcast your Magus, and you have more broken plays with Yawgmoth's Bargain, Necropotence, Yawgmoth's Will, Memory Jar and Tinker in the deck.

Intuition is for all intents and purposes superior to both Wheel of Fortune, Timetwister and Windfall as well as Vampiric Tutor, Imperial Seal and Mystical Tutor, because it finds your Draw 7, is an Instant and doesn't generate card disadvantage (as well as pitching to FoW). You can also Intuition for Yawgmoth's Bargain, Necropotence, Yawgmoth's Will or Tinker or Memory Jar to avoid Pithing Needle or Leyline of the Void.

The deck uses 2 Tendrils of Agony to be certain that you don't have to Jar with a Tendrils of Agony in hand and lose the game, and with Intuition and Yawgmoth's Will you can tutor your Tendrils with Intuition. You also don't lose the game to Hide/Seek or Extract, and are more likely to win after you Jar, you can build a double Tendrils hand with out Yawgmoth's Will and you can cast a single Tendrils to buy you time against your opponent.

I don't use Lion's Eye Diamond in decks with Force of Will, but if you do remove a Corpse Dance or Swamp for it. (Edited list later to include LED)

I'm not interested in hard casting Magus of the Jar unless I have to, so I use a 12 land count to avoid drawing lands off the Jar hand. Hard casting Magus of the Jar is not efficient, so you should consider hard casting him a plan B in case Leyline of the Void is in play.

Leyline of the Void and Pithing Needle are the only two cards in people's SBs that you should be afraid of, and they are only useful for buying time, because Wipe Away will answer them with no conerns.

This deck is easily competitive in this format, and it is better than Long against mana denial while being worse than Long against graveyard hate; which is an incredible trade off considering no one MDs graveyard hate.

[ErkBek]

Get Bazaar of Bagdad in that deck. And play some Xantid Swarms too. Maybe some Infernal Tutors should be run then too?

-1 Walk
+1 Entomb

for sure

[zeus-online]

How fast does this thing goldfish? You're a little light on disruption, would it be possible to squeeze in some duress's?

/Zeus

[BreathWeapon]

@Kobe

You can't use Magus in a Dragon shell, Dragon beats Stax because it only has to resolve one spell. I'm positive this is the way the deck has to be built in order to compete against Stax, because with out Force of Will you are in a difficult position to win against a Sphere of Resistance or Chalice of the Void, and with out Force of Will you are conceeding the game against Long (Force of Will isn't going to stop Long, but atleast if the opponent knows you have Force of Will he isn't going to go off all over your face with complete disregard for your deck)

I can't believe I forgot Entomb, that's what I get for adding Time Walk to combo, slops for me.

It should be noted, that just because Bazaar of Baghdad and Xantid Swarm aren't in my MD, and for good reason, that doesn't meen they aren't in my SB

@ Zeus

The gold fish is a consistant turn 2, turn one you Careful Study or Intuition to set up your Magus of the Jar and then you go off on the following turn.

There isn't anything I would cut for Duress, the only reason I have any disruption in this deck is because I don't want to struggle against Stax or conceed to Long. I would use a Duress as an answer to the combo mirror, which makes the card a SB card. Against control, you either want to use all of your animates as counterspells and buyback Corpse Dance thru' counterspells (don't quote me on that, I've never played with a card with buyback and need to look up the ruling) and use Force of Will to protect your outlet (it's the smart counter target for their Force of Will, otherwise they have just given you 8 more "counters") or you want to SB in Xantid Swarms and a Tropical Island.

With the exception of the Time Walk for Entomb slops, I'm dead set on the MD, the SB is really up in the air, Wipe Out and Xantid Swarm are the only two cards I would use with out question, then either Duress or Hurkyl's Recall if there is Long and Stax and then Lion's Eye Diamond and Bazaar of Baghdad in any remaining slots.

Edit: Before anybody brings it up, no, Research is just a bad Study or Intuition.

[SiegeX]

Against control, you either want to use all of your animates as counterspells and buyback Corpse Dance thru' counterspells (don't quote me on that, I've never played with a card with buyback and need to look up the ruling)

Only quoting for reference, not to hold you to it =p

According to the comp rules:

502.16a. Buyback is a static ability of some instants and sorceries that functions while the spell is on the stack. "Buyback [cost]" means "You may pay an additional [cost] as you play this spell. If you do, put the spell into your hand instead of into your graveyard as it resolves."

Note the part in bold.  Since countering a card removes it from the stack, never letting it resolve, the buyback replacment effect never happens; ie. it goes to the GY not your hand.

[zeus-online]

Have you tested the deck against real opponents, or have you just goldfished?

Just wondering if it could keep the turn 2 goldfish up against heavy disruption.

/Zeus

[BreathWeapon]

I played against Long, Stax, Slave and Oathr. I played against Long so I could have an idea of how bad the combo mirror was, and I playd against Stax to see how badly Sphere of Resistance and Chalice of the Void was. Against Long you usually wont make it to turn two if they win the coin flip, and against Stax your goldfish rate is completely dependant on whether or not you had the FoW for their first lock piece. So, your goldfish rate is consistatnt turn 2, and your average turn win after that is competely dependant on what the opponent does to you in the first 2 turns.

That's more or less true for every combo deck, I've had prolonged counter/reanimate wars against Slaver and Oath and have managed to come out on top once I broken thru' their counter wall with my 4 Force of Will and 8 animate effects.

It's also really important to note how amazing Intuition is, it puts a Magus of the Jar in your hand as well as in your graveyard, so not only do you gain all of your animate effects, but if you manage to exhaust those against their counter wall you can just hardcast the Magus of the Jar in your hand, and if you resolve a Magus of the Jar with an animate effect and can't win off the Jar hand you can play out your acceleration and land and then play the Magus of the Jar in your first hand.

This deck is really strong, you may have more trouble with Leyline of the Void than Long, but with Wipe Out that may be completely irrelevant.

[chrissss]

What about adding megrim?

I am the only one here who likes megrim it seems, but why not use him?
Its always at least 10 damage, and with a tendrils follow up, it should be an easy kill.

Just an idea though, but I would like to hear the counter arguments of megrim.

[Khahan]

What about adding megrim?

I am the only one here who likes megrim it seems, but why not use him?
Its always at least 10 damage, and with a tendrils follow up, it should be an easy kill.

Just an idea though, but I would like to hear the counter arguments of megrim.

Counter arguments:
Its a 3CC enchantment
It doesn't do anything on its own
You win already w/out it
If he's winning turn 2 or 3, he doesn't have the spare mana lying around to cast megrim.
Its just a 'win more' that will cause you to lose more by being a dead card in the deck.

[zeus-online]

Megrim was the ol' jar kill....but i think tendrils is alot better, so i wouldn't bother.

/Zeus

[dicemanx]

The gold fish is a consistant turn 2, turn one you Careful Study or Intuition to set up your Magus of the Jar and then you go off on the following turn.

Too bad this isn't actually true.

This card will almost certainly spawn a new archetype, although the extreme claims made in this thread are yet unfounded. I've been working on a number of lists myself, and while the deck is very fun, it still suffers from shortcomings - the Magus can miss with the 7 new cards drawn, or insufficient mana is drawn when "going off". It will be tough to match WGD in strength, consistency, resiliency, and goldfish rate with the Magus-Animate route.

[zeus-online]

The gold fish is a consistant turn 2, turn one you Careful Study or Intuition to set up your Magus of the Jar and then you go off on the following turn.

Too bad this isn't actually true.

Have you tested this? I haven't, but i too doubt that it can actually do this.

/Zeus

[cssamerican]

I totally agree with Dicemanx. Also what happens when someone names Magus with a turn 1 Pithing Needle. Carefull Study become a bad way to filter through your deck, and your animate spells become virtual dead draws. It is going to be difficult to win any other route after that unless you just have a busted hand because you have dedicated 16 cards to that engine.

[Liam-K]

I just did some goldfishing.  I made the following changes really quickly: -1 island, -2 fetchland, -1 intuition, +3 cabal ritual, +1 windfall.  It does indeed goldfish turn 2 fairly reliably.

Unfortunately, it does so almost invariably without protection (4 force is not enough and blue count feels just a little low).

Unfortunately, finding a tendrils is a fucking nightmare because your deck contains exactly 1 tutor and you have to do it by drawing your whole fucking deck.  That gives you like 5 chances to miss on your draw7, and there are a lot of places to miss.  No reanimate spell?  No ritual?  Less force of will than your opponent?  Good luck next turn.

Also, the deck is rammed with dead cards.  Magus is terrible without careful study.  Careful study is terrible without magus.  Reanimate spells are terrible without something going in your yard.  And intuition is terrible period, intuition -> reanimate takes 3 out of your deck and makes you miss on draw7 and you can't intuition for 2 tendrils.  If you weren't already hurting for blue count I'd say make it buried alive.

Last but hugely significant, the deck has neither bounce nor any way of finding a singleton bounce.  It loses to hate.


Goldfish the deck, but roll a dice to see if your opponent has a force for your first business spell (say 50% chance to account for mulling).  See how well you do.  Then do the same, except roll a dice to see if your opponent gets a force off their 7 every time you jar, I'll let you decide on fair odds.  If you pass your forth turn you lose.  Lets see some numbers, and remember this doesn't factor in random losses to pithing needle, chalice, leyline etc.

[parallax]

The lack of Brainstorm in this deck is an obvious error. Brainstorm belongs in every deck running islands. It can also put a redundant reanimate spell on top of your deck to use in your next hand, and can stop you from removing a Tendrils from the game. You should also be running Vampiric Tutor, Mystical Tutor, and Imperial Seal. There's nothing better than casting a topdeck tutor before a draw7. They all guarantee you won't fizzle off your next hand. They will also help with finding the Tendrils.

[orgcandman]

Have people read the card? He's not legendary. He's reanimatable. He has a creature type.

Voila bidding / living death.

Why run corpse dance in the hopes of having 5 mana to play and buy it back? Why not just run, say, buried alives, and some other tutors, find a living death or bidding, and put 3 of them into play. Seems to me that surviving one turn with 3 magus on the board is pretty good.

As for things like hasting, etc, you could always run 1 anger and a badlands or two.

Like, I'm just brainstorming here, but it seems to me trying to put only one into play is going to make this seems like a terrible jar, whereas putting 2 or more into play at once is the winz0rs.

[ReAnimator]

It would acctually be better if he was legendary then you could run Goryo's vengance instead of corpse dance, most likely he isn't legendary exactly for that reason so he doesn't ruin extended.

Since you have to go with multiple jars in a turn which makes force really bad, I think running Defense grid Orim's chant or Xantid main is necessary.

I agree that there needs to be the max amount of tutors as well as 8 rituals, and you probably want at least 2 bounce spells main, Chain of vapour and rebuild look like the best, but if you do need to run defense grids than maybe etruth or the split second boomerang would be better.
Multiple rebuilds seem like they could be insane considering how much artifact mana you are going to end up with, it doesn't address Leyline but that probably isn't an issue pre board. With multiple rebuilds you would probably only need to 'jar' once or twice to get lethal storm (if that) 

Does this even need blue? How would a mono black splash blue version look? you could run burried alives, bazaar's and if you really wanted putrid imps for additional outlets or zombie infestation.
ZI is acctually pretty funny as you could jar a bunch make a ton of zombies find timewalk and win.

[Harlequin]

Also you might think about going with Non-baisc, Non-Dual lands, and run like 1-3 Sundering titan's in the main.  In a case where something like Arcane Lab, Pithing Needle, or the threat of savage Stifle/Orim's chanting... the "I throw my 7/10's at you" plan might be good enough to win (oh and of corse he takes a ton of land with him in the process).

[Liam-K]

It would acctually be better if he was legendary then you could run Goryo's vengance instead of corpse dance, most likely he isn't legendary exactly for that reason so he doesn't ruin extended.

Since you have to go with multiple jars in a turn which makes force really bad, I think running Defense grid Orim's chant or Xantid main is necessary.

I agree that there needs to be the max amount of tutors as well as 8 rituals, and you probably want at least 2 bounce spells main, Chain of vapour and rebuild look like the best, but if you do need to run defense grids than maybe etruth or the split second boomerang would be better.
Multiple rebuilds seem like they could be insane considering how much artifact mana you are going to end up with, it doesn't address Leyline but that probably isn't an issue pre board. With multiple rebuilds you would probably only need to 'jar' once or twice to get lethal storm (if that) 

Does this even need blue? How would a mono black splash blue version look? you could run burried alives, bazaar's and if you really wanted putrid imps for additional outlets or zombie infestation.
ZI is acctually pretty funny as you could jar a bunch make a ton of zombies find timewalk and win.

The deck suffers from space issues already, I mean shit brainstorm is cut for careful study.  3x disadvantage tutors are mandatory but there's no way you're fitting more than 1 bounce spell in there.  The worst spell in the deck is clearly intuition but cutting more of those makes getting things in the graveyard a serious issue.  Though the presence of entomb makes them serve in a pinch so cutting some intuition is probably correct.  I'm kind of ashamed I didn't think of them myself.

Orim's Chant seems better than force, you're right.  But cutting blue loses careful study, and I think land drops are going to turn out to be too precious to allow for bazaar.  5c might be the way to go.

ZI looks worse than tendrils and I don't think time walk will make the cut anyway.

[BreathWeapon]

@DiceManX

When I said the deck "wins" consistantly on turn two, I meant it consistantly gets a Magus of the Jar turn one and reanimates him turn 2; everything after that is obviously up to the cards you draw in your next hand (I thought that was obvious so I failed to make the disctinction)

Adressing other points,

Megrim, doesn't have the power level to be in T1, let alone any format.

Buried Alive, This card is terrible, it's a black sorcery that does nothing but put three creatures in your graveyard, Intuition is a blue instant that puts 2 creatures in your graveyard, 1 creature in your hand and can be used to tutor for any other card combination in your deck including three restricted bombs. Also, for the guy who said the deck can't tutor for Tendrils in the Jar chain, you can tutor for 2 Tendrils and Yawgmoth's Will with Intuition, that's one of the reasons you play with 2 Tendrils. You can also just play a Yawgmoth's Bargain, Necropotence, Tinker or Memory Jar and stop where you are and go off again on your next turn, which is something that the old D7 deck use to do a lot.

Brainstorm, yes, Brainstorm is a terrific card, but Careful Study has the same function and more synergy with the deck. This isn't Long, you aren't relying on the power of individual cards, you are relying on the synergy of your cards, you have no space for Brainstorm no matter how good it is because Careful Study and Intuition must be in the deck.

Cabal Ritual, this card is amazing in this deck when you take into account Careful Study and Intuition create Threshold, but there is one problem, what do you cut for it? Dark Ritual? No. Artifact acceleration? No. Land? Maybe. Corpse Dance? Maybe. You also have the problem of not even playing with Lion's Eye Diamond or Chrome Mox, so if you are going to include more acceleration you are going to start there first.

MD Bounce, worthless, you don't have Grim Tutor or the top deck tutors, so you pretty much have to rely on Force of Will game one and then SB in 3 Wipe Out. This isn't that bad against Stax, because you have Force of Will and the coin flip, against Fish I have never really used bounce MD, other than Burning Wish, because if they resolve Meddling Mage it is usually GG after you waste the mana and the tutor to find the Chain of Vapor. Once again, you have Force of Will, just pray they don't Duress you or Force of Will you to protect the Meddling Mage.

Pithing Needle, it's a SB card, all SB cards are answered by Wipe Out.

Xantid Swarm MD, Xantid Swarm is a SB card, if you MD it you auto-lose to Long and have a hard time against Stax. You have Force of Will MD, it does the job well enough game one to give you a chance, at which point you SB in Xantid Swarms for game 2 and 3.

Top deck tutors, these things are slow and clunky, I usually just want to cast Careful Study or Intuition and go about my business, because there is never a single card I am looking for and I already went over my philosophy on bounce. The only cards I would cut them for are Careful Study or Corpse Dance, and that is only because I can do non-Magus based plays like find Ancestral Recall, Necropotence or Black Lotus, but if you compare finding Ancestral Recall to Careful Study and discarding a Magus of the Jar, the latter play is usually better. I would play with Imperial Seal and Vampiric Tutor because I like being able to find Necropotence or Black Lotus, but Mystical Tutor is really sub par. I don't know what your problem is with Intuition, Intuition is one of the best cards in this deck, it discards Magus and puts a Magus in your hand, it finds Tendrils, it puts a restricted bomb in your hand, it finds acceleration, it finds land, it finds reanimates, it finds Wipe Out, it fuels Yawgmoth's Will; it's fucking McGiver with a roll of duck tape.

Sundering Titan, doesn't work, you deal maybe 7 damage and blow up a ton of land, that doesn't put you in a position to win, because the LD is symmetrical. The only legimate reanimate target I can see is Xantid Swarm, and that's really pushing it.

Blue, what deck in Vintage doesn't need blue? Ichorid? Stax? Do you want to be a coin flip combo deck?

Blue count, 18 is a lot for a combo deck, Pitch Long only plays 18. If you want to you can cut a Corpse Dance for a Mind's Desire, Windfall, Frantic Search, Time Walk or Mystical Tutor. Even tho' Mind's Desire doesn't set off a D7 immediately with Magus of the Jar and the animate effects are worthless if you don't have a Magus of the Jar in your graveyard, I think it should still be in the deck, because revealing a Magus of the Jar is still good enough to win on your following turn, you just Time Walk your opponent, and you still have enough business to make turning over reanimates an acceptable draw back. It also gives you another way around Leyline of the Void, and uncounterable win conditions are just too damn good not to include in any storm combo deck. Windfall is a card I want in this deck, but it is fighting for space with Intuition. I think the appropriate space for it is the Entomb slot, and I have come to hate Entomb, because even tho' it puts a Magus of the Jar into your graveyard it doesn't do anything else, every other card puts a Magus of the Jar in your graveyard and does something else.

So, my suggestions from here are -1 Entomb, +1 Windfall, -1 Corpse Dance (4 is a lot, with 3 you can still Intuition for it to start your chain and leave the 2cc ones at 4x in your deck to chain with) +1 Mind's Desire and -1 Swamp, +1 Lion's Eye Diamond.

Dead cards and bad cards, Yes the animate effects are dead cards with out Magus of the Jar, tough shit. Dragon has the same problem and it managed to win more than its fair shair of tournaments and top 8's. Careful Study isn't that bad with out Magus of the Jar, it isn't the best card in the word, but at the very least it isn't dead. Magus of the Jar does not suck with out an outlet or a reanimate, that is the entire point of playing with the card, you can just hard cast him on turns 2-4 and go about your business.

Dragon, Magus gets around hate Dragon doesn't, and it gets to use Yawgmoth's Bargain, Necropotence, Yawgmoth's Will, Mind's Desire, Memory Jar and Tinker. Yes, the win isn't guaranteed like Dragon, but you always get your first hand back, so even if you didn't manage to win you still have really good odds of getting back into the game with all of that acceleration you played off your Jar hand.

If you try building a similar deck or actually playing this one, you'll answer a lot of your own questions. I'm positive Entomb and the Swamp suck, the jury is still out on Mind's Desire. If you want to play with top deck tutors, be my guest, but I think they are card disadvantage, tempo disadvantage and mana disadvantage.

[parallax]

When I said the deck "wins" consistantly on turn two, I meant it consistantly gets a Magus of the Jar turn one and reanimates him turn 2; everything after that is obviously up to the cards you draw in your next hand (I thought that was obvious so I failed to make the disctinction)

Have you tested actually winning after getting an active Magus? I still think you have a decent chance of fizzling after your draw7 without Brainstorm or the Tutors to stack your deck.

If your animate spells cost two mana, why are you animating Magus rather than Worldgorger Dragon?

[Moxlotus]

When I said the deck "wins" consistantly on turn two, I meant it consistantly gets a Magus of the Jar turn one and reanimates him turn 2; everything after that is obviously up to the cards you draw in your next hand (I thought that was obvious so I failed to make the disctinction)

Have you tested actually winning after getting an active Magus? I still think you have a decent chance of fizzling after your draw7 without Brainstorm or the Tutors to stack your deck.

If your animate spells cost two mana, why are you animating Magus rather than Worldgorger Dragon?

It has been said multiple times on this website why animating Magus can be better than Dragon.  Dragon needs Bazaar or the win already in the yard.  Dragon is vulnerable to bounce and StP while Magus is not.  Dragon doesn't get to play with amazing cards like Rituals, Necro, Bargain, and Will for other random wins.

[BreathWeapon]

When I said the deck "wins" consistantly on turn two, I meant it consistantly gets a Magus of the Jar turn one and reanimates him turn 2; everything after that is obviously up to the cards you draw in your next hand (I thought that was obvious so I failed to make the disctinction)

Have you tested actually winning after getting an active Magus? I still think you have a decent chance of fizzling after your draw7 without Brainstorm or the Tutors to stack your deck.

If your animate spells cost two mana, why are you animating Magus rather than Worldgorger Dragon?

You have to trade stacking the deck with Brainstorm and top deck tutors for the shear draw power off Magus of the Jar and the 7 other animate effects after you start to go off. I don't fizzle once I start the chain unless I meet Force of Will, and even then you don't fizzle, you go back to your starting hand and you have more acceleration on the board. If you Intuition, you get to put one Magus of the Unseen in your hand, one Magus of the Unseen in your graveyard and another card of your choice to pad your graveyard for Yawgmoth's Will. From there, if you go off with the chain, and you fail to combo out, you just play the Magus of the Unseen you had in your first hand and go off again. The deck is really, really redundant and has several fail safe mechanism incase you fuck up, it's an incredibly forgiving deck.

The next person who asks why to play this over Dragon gets a cream pie to the face.

[ill_Dawg]

Have you tested Burning wish? it seems like with all of the RFGing of hands, being able to tutor through them for that will/tendrils/desire/etc. would be some good, as would wheel..  Just a thought.

-=ADAM=-

[Hi-Val]

Burning Wish has a very non-intuitive and bad interaction with Jar hands. You basically cannot use them on face-down turned over cards, aside from Death Wish, which RANDOMLY gets one. If you check the rules forum you can see the extent of it.

[BreathWeapon]

I have thought a lot about using a 5c manabase so I could use Wheel of Fortune and Xantid Swarm, but the problem is you start to become Long at that point, and you are better off playing with Grim Tutor. You really don't need the top deck tutors, Brainstorm or wishes to cheat your D7 hands, you draw so many cards off chaining your animates you will find your Tendrils; it's really a question of being able to fight thru' their counters than it is finding any particular card, but even if you can't fight thru' their tutors, you just gain acceleration, a land and go back to your original hand.

This deck is a really hard sale over Long, it is slower, it is easier to hate and it has 8 dead cards. It's definately more powerful, and you have a fail safe mechanic, but if you are playing against combo you hardly give a shit about either of those aspects.

It is however really fucking good in 1.5.

[Heavy_Z]

Since reliably getting a magus in the yard seems to be difficult at times, I have been trying this deck with two Dragon Mage as extra reanimation targets.  You can only use one of them in a turn, but they do offer a few more reanimation targets that act as draw 7s.