[Deck] 13 Balls!

[yespuhyren]

This deck is built to basically be a prison deck.  First off, the list:



// Lands
    3  Wasteland
    1  Strip Mine
    4  Bazaar of Baghdad
    2  Riftstone Portal
    2  Maze of Ith
    4  Mishra's Workshop
    1  Forest
    1  Plains
    4  Savannah

// Creatures
    4  Gaddock Teeg
    4  Glowrider
    4  Aven Mindcensor
    4  Solemn Simulacrum

// Spells
    3  Crucible of Worlds
    1  Mox Emerald
    4  Thorn of Amethyst
    4  Sphere of Resistance
    1  Black Lotus
    1  Mox Jet
    1  Mox Pearl
    1  Mox Ruby
    1  Mox Sapphire
    1  Sol Ring
    3  Null Rod
    1  Trinisphere

What you will notice for lock pieces:

13 Spheres (4 Resistor, 4 Glowrider, 4 Thorn of Amethyst, 1 Trinisphere)
3 Crucible
3 Null Rod
4 Gaddock Teeg
4 Mindcensor

Basically that is exactly what the deck wants to do.  Lock down the game and swing for the win eventually.  This deck in testing has been able to lock down the other decks in the meta fairly well, though it definitely will need more testing.  The most simple way to put this deck is its a fish style lock deck.  Just try and get them dropped as fast as possible and you should be ok.

Maze of Ith's are mainly there to handle big creatures like Dryads, Colossi, and the like.  The SB will likely have 4 STP though it will always vary depending on metagame. 

Feel free to post some ideas here!

[meadbert]

Would any of the Affinity creatures have nice synergy here.

Resistor basically does not effect Affinity creatures and Thorn actually makes them less expensive.

[Dante]

So pyroclasm = gg?  A bunch of workshop aggro decks seem to be coming back into vogue, at least for testing and using Thorn.  Seems like an opening of Workshop, Mox, Juggernaut has "let's head to game 2" written all over it - have you run into any of these?

[Everrid1234]

What about a creature-heavy deck with Magus of the Moon, Mindcensor, Grunt, Kataki Glowrider, Trini, In the Eye of Chaos and Amethyst?

[vroman]

you have 4x jens and 2 basic lands. this is beyond excessive. my first reaction is
-4 jens
-2 basics
+4 factory
+1 karn
+1 crop rotation

explain why null rod is worth running today, over plowshare main or tanglewire etc

[Kotch]

Where is the synergy between the 13 Spheres and Gaddock Teeg??? Your objective is purely mana denial, so anyway, your opponent won't be able to cast his "expensive" spells... Or if he can, it means that you are already dead... right?
By the way, I think that not playing Red for 3 Mox Monkey instead of the Null Rods is a mistake, with so many spheres... It would allow you to have a better mana base using your jewelry. BtW I find your current mana base quite risky, I don't see how you can cast so many non-artifact spells with all these Spheres, even if most of them don't affect your creature spells... Why not cut Workshops for Ancient Tombs? They still allow you to cast first-turn Spheres, and second-turn Glowrider or Mindcensor... Which can't be played so quickly with Workshops.

I also agree with Vroman about Jens and Null Rod.

[squeegee]

I recently encountered a deck similar to this, but it was more disruptive with duress and Mox Monkey.  I was playing an odd version of Boberman, and games two and three I wrecked it with massacre.  I had to pay 2 or 3 mana to cast it, but not a big deal to wipe the board.  I think something like tanglewire would be very helpful, because then it's hard to cast the massacre(or mass destruction of choice.)

Now, the deck I was playing is probably not tier 1, but I didn't have to much trouble post board.  I was just annoyed a lot, especially the game he had 4 sphere's in play.

[linsi]

massacre is no big deal because of gaddock teeg, the bigger problem can be pyroclasm as said before by dante.

[Holmes]

massacre is no big deal because of gaddock teeg, the bigger problem can be pyroclasm as said before by dante.

Could Absolute Law be of any help? I've been getting promising results in recent legacy games with it, especially against Pyroclasm. The problem is that it's pretty spesific and mostly useless versus anything else.

[Guli]

That is why you need cards like meddling mage and Spell Snare.

To stay on topic. A very similar deck list was posted in the early days of Lorwyn. I am going to make the same comment.

Gaddock Teeg is not finding its highest potential in these kind of lock decks. Sphere effects are spell denial in a wide scale. Gaddock Teeg targets a more specific card variety. What makes teeg good is the group of cards being targeted by teeg are win conditions, protectio or/and mass destruction. Examples are Force of Will,Massacre,Tendrils of Agony,Empty the warrens,... Conclusion? Teeg shuts down storm decks and does splash damage to for example;
Ichorid, stax, gush

With 13 sphere effects you are already doing a lot damage to storm decks. You know what i think? You just grabbed some spheres throw in aven and teeg and called it a deck.

Nothing personal but i have posted much deeper deck ideas and had problems with moderators because they decided it had to be moved blabla. I think this deck is badly constructed. It is a mix of some themes and we all know how a cocktail of decks work out. Sometimes you get that godly opening hand and think, wow this deck is very nice. And then after playing enough games you realize there are serious gaps and that you are winning a lot in 1 math cup and losing almost everything to another archetype.

I am determined the gaddock should go with mage and aven and should not left unprotected on the board otherwise they will be removed by bounce, creature removal or mass removal.