Your thoughts on a FoW'less/red TPS deck

[LennoxLewis86]

Hey,

I'm currently testing a rather odd build of TPS.
I am just going to write down my thoughts and experiences with the deck.
I’m not the best player out there but also not the worst so I hope you’ll find it useful.

First off, I don’t use FoW. I kind of dislike the fact that it's such an ''extreme'' card.
It is either very good, or very bad in your (opening)hand. No in-betweens. It is a very good spell to protect your
powercards with but when you know how to play a well-timed Duress, which I don't, I believe that is a better
TPS card in terms of cardadvantage. EVEN to protect because it is so friendly in terms of manacost and color.
You can do it turn 1 but also when combo'ing out. This is why I play four! In TPS I don't like Thoughtseize really...
The lifeloss is very important in a deck with suicidal ideas like Necro, Bargain and Confidant.
I SHOULD beat creaturebased decks and besides Welder, Confidant and Darksteel Colossus I can't really think of any creature
I desperately want them to discard.
Yes, the DSC part was a (bad) joke, but creatures just don't scare me enough for me to run Thoughtseize...
FoW'ing an opponents Duress just sucks, only if you save your castable Necropotence/Bargain it's worth it
because the card-advantage is big enough. Saving some draw7's against specific decks works too but Ancestral Recall isn't even
worth protecting in some situations.. Please correct me if you think I'm wrong..

Duress can also be used to take away your opponents Duress, which still is an honorable mention.

I also play 4 Confidant, without FoW in my deck I haven't flipped a 3 mana+ spell in ages! The big difference I feel is that I
can really compete with the top controldecks, I actually manage better. I remember playing Drain-TPS and having 8 counters, it had
a harder time with it because I couldn't win counterwars anyway..
Now I just resolve a Confidant, ''draw'' 2 cards per turn and fearlessly try to resolve nasty stuff without thinking too much about it..
It doesn't matter, your opponent is not amused, trust me.
I think the TPS player should be the fearless one, knowing that you have the absolute nuts in your deck each and every game!
Stax for example is feared by many, but Stax fears TPS and is really sweating the artifact bounce because they know... ''Now I'm dead.. =(''

I have played some good Tez and MUD match-ups and I believe that running lots of draw7's and other bombs is good against them.
Draw7's can't be Commandeered or Misdirected anyway, which make them good. A Wheel is also stealth since Painter's REB can't touch it.
I'm trying to think of any excuse to be able to play Wheel, and that last one was a bad excuse..
Still, you gotta love Wheel ^^

Confidant makes sure the deck doesn't run out of gas soon and also makes the library control better since 3 tutors place their targets
on top of the deck, missing a draw and therefore some time...
This is my list:

1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Timetwister
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Lotus Petal
1 Memory Jar
1 Tinker
1 Darksteel Colossus
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Necropotence
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Windfall
1 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Imperial Seal
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Mind's Desire
2 Tendrils of Agony
4 Dark Ritual
2 Cabal Ritual
4 Duress
4 Dark Confidant
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Hurkyl's Recall

4 Polluted Delta
1 Bloodstained Mire
3 Underground Sea
1 Badlands
2 Island
1 Swamp

I have some MWS succes with it, taking the serious matches into account..
My SB is all messed up, so if any of you have some ideas on that.. Please

I've always have been a bad sideboardplayer, TPS can go many different directions..

I was thinking of a Rebuild, some creature removal, some big guys like Negator and also Jailers..
An Empty the Warrens as extra killer is good, maybe an extra basic land to not roll over and die to (walking) Moons?

Suggestions are welcome, I'm curious whether you, as advanced players, think there should be any discussion
whatsoever about FoW'less TPS and if you think, keeping your own metagames in mind, you could pilot this build
to a top 8 finish.

At least believe me when I say that this build allows you to suck out on your opponent very often. Do this game 1 and chances
are you have your guy steaming and you can take home the match

Luck, skill, whatever..
We all love winning

[Duncan]

I think reading this report will be very insightful for you, as I think it is the direction you want to go with your deck:

http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=37738.0

[LennoxLewis86]

Thanks, I've read your report with a lot of pleasure and interest! This literally answered every single question. I'll definately go give it a try!

[jamestosetti]

This is a lion's eye diamond away from grim long isn't it? I'd critique the list but this is just grim long without a lion's eye diamond so you cannot maximize your yawgmoth's will. It's a pretty good deck but it definitly has it weaknesses like being duressed and countered out of games. I wish I wouldn't have deleted the list I made when ad nauseum came out. I used 1 demonic tutor I think, a bunch of manamorphose and repeal and It would turn 1 kill about one in three to four games and nearly always on turn two or three. It was probably the best goldfish deck I've played. It used gemstone mines and city of brass for lands. Any way it's funny all these grim long lists are showing up now when it was already proven inferior to tps in the metagame.

[LennoxLewis86]

Can you tell me the main differences between TPS and Long because I can't, yet..
I've read Duncan's report and have tried his strategy. I haven't tested Ad Nauseum but from what I think and read, he's expensive but good. Maybe a bit too expensive to really make good use out of it. Some players have cut their Timetwister and a Necropotence, but run 4 Ad Nauseum instead. I don't know about that...
Demonic Consultation is a nice addition to the deck, especially to find Rituals. And you are definately right about the LED, it is very good in a deck in which resolving Will is one of its main strategies.
I can't see how City of Brass and Gemstone Mine are any good, which extra color(s) were you playing? I like that extra land in my yard when I hit threshold and Cabal for 5. They don't work with fetch at all making them easy targets for Magus. I won't even go over the other minor drawbacks duallands don't have.
I have a Bayou in my SB, I can 5 fetch into it so I should be able to cast a Swarm, if I needed too. With Lotus, Petal and Emerald that's 9 ways of casting it turn 1.

[jamestosetti]

 The differences are I guess is that long was more of a goldfish deck having wheel of fortune and all. Grim long is a very fast deck that wasn't as resilient in the metagame that tps or long. The deck with city of brass was a deck that used empty the warrens, two or three tendrils and some repeals and manamorphose and ad nauseums. It also used chrome moxes and mox diamonds in some ratio. It is good to just play tps and goldfish it with no opponent and to just keep trying because beleive it or not you are learning every tiime you lose or play against something new. The big thing with tps is being able to identify the deck your against.

[LennoxLewis86]

I think in this metagame, goldfishing is a good way to improve your handling with the deck but there's no real use in preparing that way.
Too much tez for it. Luring counters has been more useful but I know how to go off with different strategies. Random decks, creature decks
and other disruptionlight decks has been the easiest to learn to defeat. Goldfishing was very important to learn how to go off asap, even with minimal resources.
Now I'm trying to beat those heavy counter combo decks like Tez and Painter. Like you said, many different decks so many ways to play.

[jamestosetti]

Goldfishing will help you learn the deck and playing other decks will make you even better with storm decks beleive it or not because you know what your up against. Playing the version you posted doesn't mean I'm saying your not good at vintage I was trying to say it's not as versatile so it has limited potential. It took me a good while to learn it. You'll probably learn it quicker than I did I'm still working on it.

[LennoxLewis86]

It could be true I'm not good at vintage. But I'm learning.. In this phase I'm combining general ideas with own preferences.
I like Wheel and think Badlands is a nice looking dual. I'm not going too far with it and that's why I post this here for you to read.
When I've improved I'll follow mainline more because I know there are better builds and decks for that matter. Goldfishing remains a
thing I often do, I've transformed it into GWSx deck but kept Bargain for example, haven't tried Top it Daze cus yes, I've read at lot of
their articles about it.