Dark of the Matinee - UGW Gro, metagamedeck for the Drain and Fish meta.

[LSD/Cruise]

What is this deck?

It's a spin-off Bird Sh*t. Due to the fact that UW Fish is currently packing Jotun Grunts in their maindecks, we've cut the Threshold creatures for Dryad and Jotun Grunt. Sad to say, the draw engine of Bird Sh*t is unable to chain into more draw cards, making Dryad awful. I have decided to revamp the disruption and the cantrip base into a more aggressive disruption strategy.

Why the hell is the deck's name Auf Chse?

I like EBA, but this isnt EBA. In fact, I was going to continue the tradition of naming metagame decks like EBA into songs, hence Dark of the Matinee, by Franz Ferdinand. Auf Chse was the original name, but it was distasteful.

Perpose of this deck?

To beat Drain, Combo, and Fish metas of course. Combo and Drain are this deck's best match-ups. Fish is probably 50/50, depending on the Sideboard. This deck can whip decks like Pitch Long and Gifts.


The list?

Here ya go!


// Mana 19
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Emerald
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
4 Windswept Heath
1 Flooded Strand
4 Tundra
2 Tropical Island


// Creatures 11
4 Quirion Dryad
4 Meddling Mage
3 Jotun Grunt


// Spells 31
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Gush
4 Brainstorm
4 Daze
4 Force of Will
2 Misdirection
2 Predict
3 Stifle
4 Shadow of Doubt
3 Null Rod
2 Swords to Plowshares


// Sideboard 15
2 Swords to Plowshares (Aggro, and Bomberman)
1 Stifle (Oath, Stax, and Storm)
3 Ray of Revelation (Oath. Cron Stax)
3 Trygon Predator (5c Stax, Cron Stax, Uba Stax, pseudo mirror)
3 Chalice of the Void (Combo, Slaver, Gifts)
3 Pithing Needle (Stax, Slaver, and maybe Drain just to call Fetchlands. Sideout the lone Strand)


The Mana Base:

It's Gro. You cheat on your land count. With so many cantrips in here, and Time Walks, why would you hav a problem with yor mana base? But LoA should make it's way back in here, this deck draws a lot of cards. Moxexs are there to help you with the occasional 1st Turn Dryad, which can easily ensure you a 1st turn win, as they try to be proactive, you disrupt them. If they dont, just slowly cyce through the deck to fnd MM and Null Rod, and other unorthodox tempo answers.

The Men:

Meddling Mage: Fuck Combo, Control loses some Sexiness, And Aggro loses like 4 men, and soon to be 12 others after that.

Jotun Grunt: This is a midgame deck in the aggro match-up, give Will decks a hell. Bomberman dies.

Quirion Dryad: Win on turn 4, and have fun. She grows big, and will be a hell for Old Man of the Sea to deal with. Make sure the Gifts player is smart enough to FoW this gal, cuz I have so much disruption, I can ride her to victory within a matter of time. Tempo + Creatures = awesome. That's why 9 Land Stompy has Winter Orb. Ths deck has the whole deck in general. I love her, but I think I love Geese more, but she's like the girl I'll never have forever. Wait till' he meta shifts.

The Disruption:

Daze: Be aggressive with them. Daze whatever business spell you can when they're tapped out. Chances are, they will be because this deck puts them in a clock. Works with Null Rod, and wins Counter Wars.

FoW: The glue of the format.

Misdirection: Helps with Counter wars, and makes Ancestral Recall fun.

Stifle: Hit Tendrils and Fetchlands. Chalice too, and give yourself a Time Walk versus Oath. Make sure you Stifle a Jitte trigger, it can easily save you.

Shadow of Doubt: These proved to me. They kill decks with Tutors, hit fetches, and Pitch Long sucks.

Null Rod: Tempo. Moxes and Lotus in the format. Slow them down.

Draw:

Ancestral Recall, Time Walk, Gush: yeah...

Brainstorm: Card Quality.

Predict: Also hits Tutors, and goes along with Brainstorm. They seem sorta win-more. They should be dropped for other things. I'm thinking Portent, because it can make your card quality decent, and put your opponent in a soft-lock. But this deck cuts them from what they need. My meta is infested with 15 card proxy decks. Expect MD Gifts to be everywhere. One thing this deck needs is better draw cards. That's something to debate.

Anyways, theres the deck, I hope you guys can help me out here. I'm also eager for people to actually try the deck out, as it's insanely good.

[SonataOfTheCathedral]

When your playing Quirion Dryad, you want to be as proactive as possible. The deck might have problems when your sitting around with a pair of Stifles and an STP in hand. 6 lands with only five fetches? You are definetly going to run into intense amounts of mana problems, Wasteland will make you scoop it up without a doubt.

It's Gro. You cheat on your land count. With so many cantrips in here, and Time Walks, why would you hav a problem with yor mana base?

I really actually don't see very much card draw in this build, where are the Merchant Scrolls? I hear chaining Gushes with Jotun Grunt, off multiple scrolls is good.

And there is only one Time Walk that I see. Bomberman doesn't really die to a Jotun Grunt, an intelligent Bomberman player will just research out the combo components.

That said, I do acknowledge that Quirion Dryad+Jotun Grunt are one hell of a clock, I did end up cutting Meddling Mage from my build because I felt he was too weak and poor on the beats...I was even playing Duress in my build which made him fully optimal, but still scrapped him.  I might go back to Sideboarding him, just for the Gifts matchup.

[LSD/Cruise]

Against Stax, I roll over and die. It's been a problem, always. My answers to Wasteland has always been Stifle versus Fish, and Shadow of Doubt hits their fetches. I hardly crack my fetches aggressively, but Wasteland can still pose a problem.

The Merchant Scrolls and the Gush chaining.... OMFG, that is the coolest tech ever. I wsihed I was smart enough to actually think that up. I may try that out. Thank You very much, it's not sarcasm. I'm going to try this tech out, it seems very solid in this deck.

Versus Bomberman (I play against bad players sometimes), I usually Stifle their Trinket Mage activations and disable their Shuffle effects with Shadow of Doubt. It can still pose a problem.

I'm thinking that I should raise the Mox count to 5, and add the Lotus in. I'm also thinking of running a full set of Merchant Scrolls and going Meandeck Gifts here.

I was thinking of doing that too because of so many lock components in this deck, I think Meddling Mage would better off being in the Sideboard. I'm also thinking of running Null Rod. I may cut the Mages for more Lands and Moxes.


// Mana 22
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
4 Windswept Heath
1 Flooded Strand
3 Tundra
3 Tropical Island


// Creatures 7
3 Jotun Grunt
4 Quirion Dryad


// Spells 32
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Gush
1 Fact or Fiction
4 Merchant Scroll
1 Rushing River/Wipe Away/Echoing Truth
3 Misdirection
4 Force of Will
4 Daze
4 Shadow of Doubt
3 Stifle
4 Chalice of the Void


// Sideboard 15
3 Pithing Needle
3 Ray of Revelation
3 Trygon Predator
3 Meddling Mage
3 Umezawa's Jitte

This looks much better. I really like the Merchant Scroll tech you gave me, that's just cool.

[zeus-online]

Your creature count is getting dangerously low...i've played against Birdshit with 7 creatures, the deck just dosn't work with so few threats, althought i must admit that your threats are much better then the normal mongeese and werebears.

/Zeus

[wethepeople]

Something that I had a random urge to try out in this deck is Defy Gravity (see below). It gives Dryad two counters and gives it flying to work for the final swings. It may seem kind of stupid, I know, but it actually worked for me to get past Fish because Dryad doesnt have flying or trample, so small critters tend to get in the way of her.

Defy Gravity = Jump+flashack
CC: U
Instant
Target creature gains flying until end of turn.
Flashback U

I hardly changed my list I am running at all. I added another Swords maindeck, minor metagame changes. I will post my experiences when piloting the list and go from there.

[LSD/Cruise]

Your creature count is getting dangerously low...i've played against Birdshit with 7 creatures, the deck just dosn't work with so few threats, althought i must admit that your threats are much better then the normal mongeese and werebears.

/Zeus

Then again, you must realize, these threats last a long time, as well as my insane momentum to protect them through counters and mana disruption. I'm still testing this build. Also, I would like to add to the fact that I draw threats very often.

@wethepeople: Versus Fish, i just counter things like Swords and opposing Grunts, as well as Counters on my stuff. In this match-up, I'm not aiming to win ASAP, because my threats are better, and I have momentum and velocity. They just have Brainstorm. Game 2 may be a problem though. Now for my new and current build. Anyways, I'm thankful your trying this list out, but I recommend that you try my current list here...

// Mana 21
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Strip Mine
3 Wasteland
1 Polluted Delta
1 Flooded Strand
4 Windswept Heath
3 Tundra
3 Tropical Island


// Creatures 7
3 Jotun Grunt
4 Quirion Dryad


// Spells 33
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Gush
1 Mystical Tutor
4 Brainstorm
4 Shadow of Doubt
4 Daze
4 Force of Will
2 Misdirection
4 Merchant Scroll
3 Null Rod
3 Stifle
1 Wipe Away


// Sideboard 15
1 Tinker
1 Darksteel Colossus
1 Null Rod
1 Stifle
3 Swords to Plowshares
3 Trygon Predator
3 Ray of Revelation
2 Crucible of Worlds

Another option is to replace the Null Rod, Tinker, and DSC for 3 Nantuko Monasteries... I personally dont think that's a good idea, but Monasteries are awesome in the Fish mirror and Drain sometimes.
 

[wethepeople]

I like the idea of running Tinker/DSC in the board, it certainly isnt expected coming out of a Birdshit variant, and it kills Fish. I will try that list out a bit more on MWS, but its late now, so I cannot provide any feedback quite yet.

I used to have a Birdshit list that used Dryads and several cantrips, just not nearly as many as this. The idea was too pump Dryad without really trying, and at the same time gain threshold for Mongeese. I dropped the idea because I simply got bored of the deck itself, but I must say it worked out fairly well.

I havent found much luck in the mana denial plan because when using so many cantrips I tend to need colored mana, and Wastelands certainly dont help in that situation. I suggest just cutting the Wastes for LoA (a strong card in this deck), and some Duals/Fetches. This brings me to my next question. Why no Brainstorm? In my list I had more fetches because I hated drawing land when "going off" with cantrips. If you shuffle away land/unecessary shit with fetches, Brainstorm basically will work as an Ancestral Recall.

[LSD/Cruise]

I like my Chalice for 1. But that decklist up there was a rough draft. The actual list was the one with DSC and Tinker in the board. With 5 Moxes and 3 Null Rods, I dont think I had a problem. As for Brainstorm, it's in the 2nd list. I felt bad for cutting it from the rough draft list, but I dont seem to like it very much. run the 2nd list, it seems more optimal.

I would also like to point out that it was branched off Bird Shit due to the fact that Jotun Grunt was in the meta. UW Fish was a beating for me, and Drains just topdeck some ridiculous crap when I run out of answers, like Yawgmoth's Will. So I needed something that had a late game, and has control over the pseudo aggro mirror. Enter Gro. You have Control over the board and an insane amount of disruption.

As for the Mana Denial plan, you must understand that the mana denial plan was designed for setting your opponent back, not screw them over. This isnt a LD + Tempo theme deck. This is a regular Tempo deck. It uses the clock to slow your opponent down, making Vertual Advantagous "Time Walks" to ride your guys ftw.