Doomsday 2009: The Ultra-Streamlined Combo Deck

[Stormanimagus]

Hey Guys. So I've been considering the cool decks that could arise from an environment of unrestricted Gush where BS and Ponder on still on the Restricted list.

One deck I keep coming back to is Doomsday. The win is just so consistent and can easily be pulled off on turn 3 by going: Turn 1 Duress effect. Turn 2 D-Day. Turn 3 Win!

I think the deck is well positioned to give Tezz/Drain decks fits while smoking the random crap the field has to throw at it. I admit that this deck is far more susceptible to hate than other combo decks, but it also runs a pretty healthy disruption suite of its own. Here's my current list. I think it's pretty optimal, but are there any things you'd change to improve it?

Doomsday 2009 Update

Land (13):
4 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
3 Underground Sea
1 Swamp
3 Island

Artifacts (5):
1 Black Lotus
1 Lion’s Eye Diamond
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire

Creatures (4):
4 Street Wraith

Instants (20):
4 Dark Ritual
1 Cabal Ritual
1 Brainstorm
4 Force Of Will
1 Misdirection
3 Gush
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Research / Development
1 Hurkyl’s Recall
1 Rebuild

Enchantments (1):
1 Necropotence

Sorceries (17):
4 Doomsday
2 Duress
2 Thoughtseize
1 Mind’s Desire
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Time Walk
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Timetwister
1 Imperial Seal
1 Ponder
1 Tendrils Of Agony

SB
3 Yixlid Jailer
1 Tendrils Of Agony
1 Hurkyl’s Recall
2 Smother
1 Massacre
1 Wipe Away
3 Phyrexian Negator
3 Pithing Needle

In case you can't gather it the stack that wins for you on the same turn that involves Gush is as follows:

LED
Ancestral
Lotus
Will
R & D

If you have two islands out (one of which is an Underground Sea) you can simply go:

-->Ritual + D-Day + make the above stack
-->Float a blue mana + cast Gush drawing LED and Recall
-->Crack LED for BBB and cast Ancestral drawing the rest of your deck exactly.
-->Cast Lotus and crack it for either UUU or GGG
-->Cast Will with B + either UU or GG to leave BBG or BBU floating
-->Replay Lotus + Replay LED
-->Crack Lotus for either GGG or UUU (whichever you didn't crack it for before)
-->Cast R & D and crack LED in response so it gets RFGed
-->Shuffle LED, Lotus, and Tendrils in to your Library.
-->Spend floating Blue (that you should still have) to replay Ancestral from the GY.
-->Draw your deck. Produce more Black mana with Lotus for good measure and replay LED to add to storm count.
-->Tendrils for a lot.

I believe there is also a decent stack for Street Wraith, and I'll definitely post it once I can recollect it.

Thoughts on trying to bring this deck back to the scene? Does it actually accomplish a good matchup vs. Tezz? I havn't tested yet to know yay or nay?

Edit: So I edited the list to include Twister, Scroll, MD Tendrils and FoW. I also liked the idea of SB Negators. Those seem very effective as a surprise attack against Remora decks. I don't think the SB Leylines are really necessary right now given that this deck should beat Ichorid anyway on pure speed. Jailer is fine for that matchup and I like Pithing Needle to slow down the deck while also having a role to play against Tezzeret decks and even Welders/Wastelands. This deck runs 13 land so Wasteland could be a big problem if we have to pass the turn after making a D-Day pile. Needle helps allay some of this fear.

I do disagree with some things from TK's list. I think the correct number of Doomsdays for this deck has got to be 4. You want to see the card in your opening hand so why not optimize the likelihood that you will. I'm trying to make the deck a bit more focused on hosing Tezzeret and I think it can best accomplish that through blazing speed backed up by FoW and Duress effects. I wish I could fit 2-3 more Duress effects in actually, but then I'd have to cut blue spells that would make FoW unplayable and I do think not including FoW in my original list may have been a big oversight. This deck's blue count is pretty low, however, and Unmask still MAY be the right choice. Or Unmask AND FoW? Hmmmmm. . .

[zeus-online]

Unless i'm missing something i'd definetly cut 3 gush, since the card is restricted and you're likely to get alot of game losses for playing 4.

I'm not sure if commenting further will really amount to anything since those 4 gush seems to be rather important for the decks function.

/Zeus

[Clint_NZ]

No offense Stormanimagus, but I thought this was going to be a pretty sweet post
about Doomsday deck...

But alas, this is not your Selkie strike (which I really like playing BTW)

First up is the statement that this deck is more susceptible to hate than other combos.

As a long time Doomsday player this is not quite true. As after resolving doomsday you can pretty much
find any 5 card pile that can win.

Second, you have only noted one win condition. People who want to play this deck really need to test this
extensively as if you go into tunnel vision and only see the one win set, then you will not have a good day playing.

Third, That decklist is not what I would call an update. Not a very helpful comment I know, but
I currently think Tommys list is pretty close to an updated Doomsday (see below for thread)

4 Gush. I am hoping that they unrestrict it too as this deck does benefit from having 4.

I recommend anyone even contemplating playing Doomsday read the following articles
http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/vintage/8410_The_Doomsday_Device_The_Coolest_Win_Condition_In_Magic.html
http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/vintage/9361_Rehearsing_the_Doomsday_Scenario_Learning_How_to_Build_Optimal_Doomsday_Piles.html

Recently TK made a top 8 with a Doomsday TPS hybrid that has been testing pretty well
http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=37805.0

Sorry if I sound a little harsh, but my hopes were dashed pretty quick when I read it.

[Stormanimagus]

No offense Stormanimagus, but I thought this was going to be a pretty sweet post
about Doomsday deck...

But alas, this is not your Selkie strike (which I really like playing BTW)

First up is the statement that this deck is more susceptible to hate than other combos.

As a long time Doomsday player this is not quite true. As after resolving doomsday you can pretty much
find any 5 card pile that can win.

Second, you have only noted one win condition. People who want to play this deck really need to test this
extensively as if you go into tunnel vision and only see the one win set, then you will not have a good day playing.

Third, That decklist is not what I would call an update. Not a very helpful comment I know, but
I currently think Tommys list is pretty close to an updated Doomsday (see below for thread)

4 Gush. I am hoping that they unrestrict it too as this deck does benefit from having 4.

I recommend anyone even contemplating playing Doomsday read the following articles
http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/vintage/8410_The_Doomsday_Device_The_Coolest_Win_Condition_In_Magic.html
http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/vintage/9361_Rehearsing_the_Doomsday_Scenario_Learning_How_to_Build_Optimal_Doomsday_Piles.html

Recently TK made a top 8 with a Doomsday TPS hybrid that has been testing pretty well
http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=37805.0

Sorry if I sound a little harsh, but my hopes were dashed pretty quick when I read it.

I understand your points, but really the only major difference in the Deck list I proposed and the one that TK did well with was the use of FoW over my Unmask. I happen to think that Unmask is the better choice for this deck as the blue count is quite low for this deck. If gush truly IS unrestricted than I might change my tune on that one. There are some key cards missing from my list that I will try to make sure make it in there (i.e- 1 MD Tendrils so I don't HAVE to R & D to win, perhaps Yawgmoth's Bargain, and Merchant Scroll). I'll go back over my list and try to polish it up.

Thanks for the critique. I made the list late last night, and I'm sure there are things I forgot to include.

[Demonic Attorney]

This thread is too close to a hypothetical B/R discussion to continue.  Guys, there are already way too many B/R threads on TMD.  I realize this is different in that Stormanimagus isn't advocating a particular change to the B/R list, but designing decklists premised on the assumption that a card is going to be unrestricted doesn't have enough clear value to the community to justify being posted here.  Closed.