TPS/Mystic Remora Question

[Ufactor]

Quote from: hitman on Yesterday at 09:09:41 PM

TPS would be the most powerful deck in the format if it wasn't for a particularly annoying card that's heavily played and keeping it down right now.  Mystic Remora enables you to access the most powerful cards in your deck because as your opponent plays spells, you're drawing into your powerful spells for free.  It's as if your opponent was converting their own resources to draw you cards.

I won't argue with you on the power of remora, but do you really believe it is the only thing that is keeping TPS down?  If you look at the waterbury results, there a total of 34 mystic remoras played in the entire tournament.  There were 42 drain decks, the vast majority of which did not play remora, but still out performed the majority of ritual decks.  This suggests that either a) TPS does not actually run the highest number of the most powerful cards in the format or b) that there is something more than just running powerful cards for a deck to be powerful.

Taking it a step further and looking at the conglomerate tournament data, TPS and other ritual decks have been underperforming for a lot longer than remora has been popular (and it still isn't nearly as popular as your statement makes it sound).  All this leads me to believe there is some fundamental flaw in the original assumption you proposed.

EDIT: Link


If this is true, couldn't the Mystic Remora problem be addressed with an opposing Mystic Remora?  At that point, all of the cards that a TPS player plays casts cannot be countered without the result of drawing additional cards.  The playing field is now even again.  The TPS player is back where he/she wants to be: drawing bombs and fast mana, while the opponent *might* be able to find one or two of the FoW in his/her deck.

...and as a bonus, excess Remoras feed pitch counters, rather than using business spells.




EDIT: Consider this list:

2 cabal ritual
4 dark ritual
4 duress
4 force of will
4 mystic remora

1 chain of vapor
1 darksteel colossus
1 hurkyl's recall
1 misdirection
1 tendrils of agony

15 Design Mistakes
10 Artifact Mana
12 Lands

[Lemnear]

I was thinking too, that remora could fir in a deck like TPS. Unlike Long you don't have to go off as fast as you can; TPS can build up to a critical mass. Since the loss of Brainstorm and Ponder I've need more time to build up that mass. Remora can help you to gain advantage of the, say, 2-3 turns prepar. for going off.

Your list sampled 2 cabal rituals and the DSC, so I think you're planning to run Grims? I would use Inky and a set of Bobs...

Remora: Opponents plays helps you, so he might would not play anything that buys you time to setup
Bob: Opp better plays something or die

Those 2 are perfect together, bur both cut down the space in the deck. Today I would run a set of Repeals too instead of the Chain that became very narrow to fight GW-Decks or fish. Chaining your moxen is quite nice but multi-repealing a sapphire to setup a Desire or create storm post will, both with carddraw is nuts. Bouncing chalice, Teeg and friend, or Rod anytime you want, made my days much easier. A List with sets of FoW, Rituals, Bobs, Remoras, Duress, Repeals, 1-2 Rebuilds, 12-14 lands (I would consider with 4 Crop Rotaition and a Strip Mine luring) needs much work in cutting. Guess, cards like FoF, Cabal Rituals, Grims and Gifts would get the axe in this deck....

Today I feel nearly forced to put in TimeKey too. It's 2 cards / 4 mana - I-win-combo that draws more cards than bargain ... sad Vintage -_-

[Ufactor]

Can I get a "stop spoiling our tech", or at least a "no, you're doing it wrong"?!?!  Does adding Mystic Remora to TPS address any existing issues?

[Eastman]

I top 8'd the last Hadley with a ritual-fueled remora/tezz list, that I thought was pretty decent and could contend with the right tuning.  A few thoughts and then the list:

First, since Brainstorm is gone, as others have said, the deck needs a new efficient way to draw cards, and remora is one of the best options around.

Second, TPS is actually one of the slower decks in Vintage.  Although you can work the occasional turn 1-2 win, the deck is at its very best on turns 3-4, when it has made a few land drops and perhaps done a bit of setting up.  Remora is an excellent choice to slow the game down.

Third, I think that since Brainstorm, the draw-7 wins in TPS have been far too inconsistent.  Without the use of Brainstorm to turn draw 7's into draw 10s and to functionalize the topdeck tutors, I've been consistently disappointed with them.  Further, in the Vault/Key meta, giving an opponent an untap after you have cast a draw 7 has gone from being a risky play to one that is nearly suicidal.  Thus I dropped the draw 7's in favor of combo pieces: vault/key/tezzeret.  Ritual-->  Tezz is a strong play in and of itself!

Here was the list i played at hadley (for whatever reason only the top 4 decklists were posted in the tournament forum):

10 Draw
3 Mystic Remora
1 Gifts ungiven
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain
1 Mind's Desire
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Ponder
1 Brainstorm
1 Memory Jar

6 Tutors
1 Demonic tutor
1 Vamp
1 Imp. Seal
1 Mystical tutor
1 Tinker
1 Merchant Scroll

2 other
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Time Walk

11 Disruption
2 Duress
2 Thoughtseize
4 Force of Will
1 Misdirection (I would cut this or the cabal ritual to make the list 60 cards I think)
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Rebuild


5 kill
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Time Vault
1 Voltaic Key
1 Inkwell Leviathan
1 Tezzeret, the Seeker

27 Mana
10 SoLoPetMoxCryptVaulten
3 Underground Sea
2 Island
1 Swamp
4 Polluted Delta
1 Flooded Strand
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Dark Ritual
1 Cabal Ritual

[meadbert]

In general, Remora wants you to hit your land drops which is tough to do with only 12 lands.  This makes it worse in a TPS list than it would be in a Tez list with 14 or 15 lands.

[Tempus]

In general, Remora wants you to hit your land drops which is tough to do with only 12 lands.  This makes it worse in a TPS list than it would be in a Tez list with 14 or 15 lands.

True, but for protection it would be enough to drop it, the turn or the turn before you go off. You have to invest U or to protect yourself from counterspells.

[Ged]

Eastman, thanks for the list, for the first time in a year or so there is an urge to try and play a new deck.

Just one question: why no necro?

[shadow00]

It looks interesting combining remora with TPS but as stated previously, I think the land count of TPS doesn't add up to keep remora active.

[Marske]

It's been tried before in the past by Eastman and it's been done over here in Europe with some success. That being said I don't really think the strategy has much viability in this or the new vintage meta. TPS doesn't have a problem with drawing into their stuff, nor does Remora help against Staxx  or Ichorid (some of the matchups that still plague TPS) European players used to sideboard Remora mainly for the mirror, against control and Tezz decks featuring Remora you should already be ok. It's only Shaymora that really wrecks TPS, the true culprits in that wrecking are Misdirection, FoW and especially Commandeer which just tilts the entire matchup in their favor.

[Qube]

It's easy to play into a remora if you can win on that turn when you know your opponent only plays 4 FoW and maybe 1 Misdirection. But if there are Commandeer and or Drains, you can't. Like marske said remora is not that what TPS is scared before, it mostly commandeer. But I had also the situation, that my opponent is on 4 life after necroing, goes for tendrils (lethal) and I am able to commandeer two of them so...
Into a Remora you can play but not into commandeer, or ALOT of counter.

[PETER FLUGZEUG]

What my brother said is true for sure, but the most important point hasn't even been mentioned yet:
You play a bunch of spells to get storm, and your opponent draw that bunch of cards. As you play the bomb, he'll have the commandeer or force for sure (amongst many others.) You draw exactly 1 card off your own remora, how cute. If it's a counter, he'll proceed way off before you CA-wise.
You can however play the big bomb as first spell, which then adds to brokeness like it did in France for me:
Turn 0 Tezzeret (ends all up on my side...)
turn 1 Ancestrals...
Turn 1 Bargain...
Well.

So you have to play disruption: Duress, which can always be commandeered as well, hitting your own bomb. This however is the best option, netting you CA (if both players have remora in the BATTLEFIELD.

Or you play with Bobs (The best option in my view for this kind of deck) and go for tendrils and infinite turns.

[silvernail]

such a list is viable in a solid vintage setting, you may even be able to fit in meditates. I just don't suggest doing this if your metagame is very local and unpowered.

I tried a list similar to the second posted list but got owned due to all the aggro around here.

[MaxxMatt]

I played against a lot of TPS build, even in the past ( at least 1.5yr ago ), packing 2 or 3 Remoras against Control Matchups. It is, plain simple, the cheapest and in.color way to fuel/refill/sculpt hands during such an hard opponent.

At now, Remora seems to be everywhere and a lot of people start maindecking, sideboarding, mixing it in a lot of different decks.



IMHO, Remora can be a PERFECT addition to any bluebased deck WITH ANOTHER amount of separately functioning draw spells. With Brainstorms and TFKs forced to singletons, Remoras are the ONLY unrestricted cheap blue fixers/drawers to SUPPORT all the other massive draw spells, with the non trivial ability to become MASSIVE on their own in some specific game situations.

So, Remoras & Meditate, Remoras & Confidants even Remoras & all the other Broken.Restricted.Bombs are perfectly suited spells to maindeck. The first block react passively while the latter act as aggressor: you will be able to fuel your hand possibly in both ways.

This is really strong.


Eastman "LIGHT" TPS is, IMHO, one of the best ways to play TPS today.
You have bombs will kill opponents
You have remoras to support their nuances
You have other drawers to rise pressure on opponents.
It is both quick & resilient to have such as ANY UB-TPS ( NON Grim Versions... )

I ( europeans in general ) started talking about those decks since years but Eastman ( luckily ) have been one of the few foresighting players never underestimate this deck. props to him to broke the lines for you.

His own Remora version is ALMOST perfect for this period.
These are the ONLY little changes to his own maindeck I'll do for sure:

+Timetwister
+Necropotence
-One among the worst winner conditions of choice
-Misdirection
-Ponder

maindeck 60 cards


I'll tweak a bit mana base to, but only based on my own deckbuilder perspective:

6 (3+3) fetchland
4 (2+2) basics
2 dual


@flugzeug

Dark Confidants & Remoras can be swapped based on fields.
Heavy control combo enviroments will rewards you while playing Remoras, because of their low cc and opponents proactivity. Another note is Remoras ( while Reblastable ) become active faster than DConfidants and it isn't a little side note...

@qube & marske about TPS vs. Shaymora matchup

IMHO, Shaymora has an edge over TPS but while Commandeer is another threat to face for TPS, the entire matchup goes in favor of Shaymora because of quick massive draws came from Remoras, additional spikes thanks to Meditates and ALL those pesky pitch counters.

At now, TPS can win ONLY adapting brute force strategies to flexible and slower ones. I'll prefer to abuse of multiple Duresses and Bouncers before going off with ToA. In no way I will blindly try to toss a coin and blindly try to win through opponents counters wall. Additional discarding effects from sideboard or secondarily protections will be crucial for during game 2 and 3. Even being able to BOTH attack during opponents EoT and quickly and subsequently resolve mainphase bombs become key for TPS win.

Discards effects and tricky plays are, again, key for the success.

MM



 

[Marske]

IMHO, Remora can be a PERFECT addition to any bluebased deck WITH ANOTHER amount of separately functioning draw spells. With Brainstorms and TFKs forced to singletons, Remoras are the ONLY unrestricted cheap blue fixers/drawers to SUPPORT all the other massive draw spells, with the non trivial ability to become MASSIVE on their own in some specific game situations.

Are you serious ? Remora isn't a "draw engine" by a long shot. It's a control card... While you're busy waiting to get your "draw engine" online paying for the fish in the hope to get lots of cards I'll just be sculpting the perfect win hand which just plain ignores remora. This is especially true for TPS sporting remora, you can't afford to keep paying mana to keep that fish around. All mana you spend on keeping that thing in play is mana you didn't spend winning the game (something TPS is easily capable of on it's on with it's current draw engines) Instead of playing Remora and waiting it out against control you're way better off just executing your main game plan which is probably faster.

Eastman "LIGHT" TPS is, IMHO, one of the best ways to play TPS today.
You have bombs will kill opponents
You have remoras to support their nuances
You have other drawers to rise pressure on opponents.
It is both quick & resilient to have such as ANY UB-TPS ( NON Grim Versions... )

I very strongly disagree, remora supports nothing... you only have acces to 4 FOW while you're opponent can just go TV/Key on you without you ever seeing more then 4 cards. Giving them the chance to just slow play you because you kept your own mana tied down to support the fish. You're basically claiming your way to beat Slaver is go for the end game. I don't see any viable list coming out of maindecking remora  in TPS.

IMHO, Shaymora has an edge over TPS but while Commandeer is another threat to face for TPS, the entire matchup goes in favor of Shaymora because of quick massive draws came from Remoras, additional spikes thanks to Meditates and ALL those pesky pitch counters.

You're again severely mistaken. Remora does nothing if the only thing they draw into is there kill (TV/Vault) and lots of draw spells and only 4 FoW because most likely if you're playing that many spells with TPS your never giving them another turn. The only reason Shaymora has an edge is because it draws into Commandeer, FoW and Misdir. With commandeer being the main culprit.

[Qube]

I totally agree with marske, remora alone does nothing, because if your opponent draws 8-10 cards (just as a sample) but the only thing he can draw is alot draw and vault & Key. I would have no problem to ignore the remora and play through it into a tendrils. But most of the time you have to find the tendrils with tutors/bomb which is the critial point. And if your opponent doesn't draw into FOW, Commandeer, (which mostly are total 7, so the chance to have one or to draw one with remora is very hight.) you will win. But if the have a commandeer, which is one of the worst card to play into, you will loose also if you play a duress. (Because I will commandeer the duress on your bomb).

So remora is a good card BUT you need some good stuff for synergy like pitch-counters.

[MaxxMatt]

I read marske answer and I suspected of being misunderstood. Then I look at Qube's post figuring out I have been misunderstood for sure.

TPS & Remoras CAN go in pair under these circumstances:

* refill your hand: if it is possibly the best move, NOT stopping playing threats but trying to find a breach through counterspells because of discards and tricky plays. Infact, TPS can end up without threats in a few turns because of their casting cost and spells implied into the winning process: Remora, will give you additional cards with a minor mana cost and cards translate themselves into threats and protections.

* aggressive play: play threats after a remora and try to force opponent to trade his own protections with your additional cards. try to mantain remora not so much or bounce it back or resolve another one and continue this simple process to mantain an edge over opponents resources more than you can, until win

I don't see any viable list coming out of maindecking remora  in TPS.

Eastman one is an example. Look at last europeans tps lists: remoras are both maindeck/side.
If you think tps list are "only 4fows to face off" ...oh, you are terribly wrong.
turn 0 I can fows/missd opponents things
turn 1 I can discard opponents things plus fows/misds their spells
trun 2 I can discard opponents spells plus any other combination of cards.
these spells sequences are, nowadays, played by almost any good blue/black deck.
the only ones abusing commandeer are shaymora.like.decs.
IMHO, they have an edge over TPS ( just said by me some lines above here )
IMHO, TPS can try to handle those opponents addiitional discard effects and tricky plays ( just said by me some lines above here )
IMHO, remora coupled with TPS usual winning strategy will force opponents to decide to scoop under TPS threats or counter them and give some additional cards to TPS itself, which can be as deadly as the first ones played.
IMHO, commandeer isn't "the end of all", it can be circumvented, it costs a lot of cards, sometimes you'll be unable to both FoW AND Commandeer opponents. Discard effects, ( IF NOT Commandeered ( but this nitpick seems to me pointless, because its triviality)) ARE STRONG against counterspells ESPECIALLY in multiples.


In summary
If you think TPS is not good at all you are wrong
If you think TPS with remora is not good you are quite wrong
If you think Shaymora has an edge against TPS you are true
If you think Shaymora has an edge against TPS with remora you are not truer than before
If you think Remora does nothing to TPS because of his sole 4/5 pitch counters you are wrong

Remora can possibly be the only spell capable of giving TPS an edge over RockSolid control combo decks because it is going to fuel TPS brokeness for a longer time and not because it does brokeness on their own.

Your own arguments seems to sum up with "TPS with only 4 or 5 pitch counters isn't good enough to face off decks with 8-10 pitch counters". It can be true ONLY when opponents will protect themselves by playing them in multiple and together. In all the other game situations, having a lot of pitch counters and being able to play only one or two of them will let TPS to find a way to resolve brokeness and win THROUGH discards and tricky play.

It is in the same way since like forever.

[Marske]

If you think tps list are "only 4fows to face off" ...oh, you are terribly wrong.

I know how TPS works having played the deck in numerous events and written a couple of posts about the deck.....I'm sorry for my wording, you've obviously mistaken me... I assumed you used Remora like most players: Drop remora, keep it alive and try to draw cards during your opponents turn, untap go apeshit. When you're drawing cards of remora in your opponents turn you only have 4 FoW and maybe a Misdir to stop your opponent from just winning that turn. Duress is useless as is most of the other stuff you run except for bounce spells.

turn 0 I can fows/missd opponents things
turn 1 I can discard opponents things plus fows/misds their spells
trun 2 I can discard opponents spells plus any other combination of cards.

Your example didn't include when you dropped remora...

turn 0 you can fow / misdir
turn 1 you drop remora (because it's a draw engine you want online ASAP) you can't duress unless you hit a B mana source but have FoW / Misdir
turn 2 you pay for remora hope to hit a B source so you can Duress if not you still got FoW / Misdir
turn 3 you pay for remora ?! Have FoW and Maybe misdir and still haven't won or setup a kill of yourself because your opponent WILL wait for you to stop paying for the Fish.

You're basically forcing yourself into the control roll while you should be the aggressor. I suggest you read this article and pay attention to this: Misassignment of Role = Game Loss.

TPS plays out something like this (disclaimer: this example is an oversimplification on my part because I don't want to get into the nitty gritty of turns / matchups)

Turn 0 FoW /Misdir online if need be
Turn 1: FoW / Misdir online, Play Duress if need be or else setup turn 2
Turn 2: If you could setup something really broken go for it with protection if not setup some more
Turn 3: Play duress, Win the game.

Your way of playing TPS is like Grim long: Try and play bombs untill one sticks... hoping to refill your hand with remora to keep grabbing said bombs. this is NOT how TPS works... you want 1 single blowout turn, this way of playing hasn't failed me against control (only Shaymora piloted by Rich Shay) yet.

[hitman]

Here's the problem with Mystic Remora for TPS.  Ideally, you want to do what Marske has been suggesting.  That's what TPS wants to do.  You develop a perfect hand and go off.  However, your means of developing a perfect hand is severely hampered by Remora.  As you're developing, most likely through spells, you're opponent is drawing cards.  If your plan is to go off by turn three-four, you're going to really need the perfect hand because they could have Duressed/Thoughtseized you preventing you from developing that perfect hand in the first place. They probably have Force of Will and/or Mana Drain online, as well. 

For a deck with as much variance as TPS has, these are serious obstacles.  Granted, you can succeed against Remora decks if you have very strong hands every time however, you're usually having to spend several turns disrupting your opponent and developing hand quality and mana before you're able to go off.  Mystic Remora helps Drain decks corner you into playing under their terms.  They're dictating the kind of hand you need to push through with and if you can't get there in time, you're probably going to be buried under their inevitability.  The strength of TPS isn't its reach but its explosiveness.  If you can disable that explosiveness, as a Drain deck, you'll be able to overwhelm the TPS player where they're much weaker, the mid-late game. 

You don't have to keep paying the upkeep on the Remora.  Once you've achieved your goal well enough, you can just let it go and play from there.  If you don't have a Drain you can always just let the Remora go, draw your card and bluff a Drain inducing a Duress from your opponent when you don't even have the spell they're looking for.  Just as a TPS player can play around a Remora given the right circumstances, a Drain player can take full advantage of a Remora through drawing into cards or simply telegraphing cards the TPS player doesn't want you to have.  I mean, as a TPS player, what do you do if your opponent had a Remora on turn one but let it go turn two to hold up two blue?  They don't actually have to have the Drain but you can't just play into it. 

Based on the card advantage fast combo-control decks generate, the number of counters/Duresses the combo-control player accessed during the TPS player's developing stages and the high variance the deck can exhibit, Mystic Remora is a beating that hits at a fundamental level.  To keep denying that and to say just play better is absurd.  The card is very good against TPS.

Secondly, Mystic Remora is garbage in TPS.  It does absolutely nothing you want to be doing.  The combo-control player is more than happy to play draw-go as they drop lands and draw cards per turn.  What TPS needs is something that sidesteps Remora altogether, like a creature, while developing card advantage and putting pressure on the combo-control deck.  The problem is, creatures suck.  The best creature we can hope for is Confidant and he is less than ideal.  The time he takes to generate relevant amounts of card advantage practically mitigates the advantage to playing him in the first place.  You may as well have just played draw-go with your opponent because it ties up their mana, at least, if they have a Remora out.

I can't think of an adequate way of dealing with the card outside of shifting to a different style of combo with a red splash.  Mainboard Confidants and a Pyroblast could be enough but those changes alone change the kind of deck you're playing.

   

[Ufactor]

First off, I'd like to thank everyone for their input.  This is far more discussion than I thought I would get out of my one simple question.  The weight of intelligent opinion seems to be thus:

1) Mystic Remora is less good in TPS than even Xanthid Swarm.

2) Storm Combo is royally fucked for the forseeable future.

[Eastman]

Marske and hitman, I agree with your portrayal of how you really want to play TPS these days, it isn't bomb after bomb but rather one big turn.  I don't think that leads to the conclusion that remora is lousy however.   What i find though is that playing your own remora greatly slows the game down, giving you much opportunity to set up and hit land drops getting ready for that big turn while your opponent is basically unable to play their own setup spells.  I totally agree that you want to win in one big turn, and I submit that Remora gives you needed time to set up for that turn.

That said, it's also still a great recovery spell as well.  Anyway, I want to cabin my support, I think it's a decent choice and one that I've been happy with, but I'm not at the point of saying it's fabulous.  Just an interesting option that I think some of the arguments above go too far to discourage.  

UFactor, I disagree with both of those propositions.  I think Xantid is worse in TPS than remora, except against shaymora type decks.  And I think storm combo is in a fine position for the new meta. 

[Marske]

@Eastman,
All I'm saying is Remora is likely to tie your mana down because the first turn you drop it (for recovery or otherwise) people just won't play into it and from that point on you're using your mana in hopes of drawing some cards off remora instead of using your mana to actually win the game. This seems like a bad idea imho

[Qube]

I second marske's statement. Unless you have some ways to gain advantage from remora without your opponent, it's useless. (i.e. confidant.) Just tapping out and drawing from the top isn't taking advantage.

[hitman]

Marske and hitman, I agree with your portrayal of how you really want to play TPS these days, it isn't bomb after bomb but rather one big turn.  I don't think that leads to the conclusion that remora is lousy however.   What i find though is that playing your own remora greatly slows the game down, giving you much opportunity to set up and hit land drops getting ready for that big turn while your opponent is basically unable to play their own setup spells.  I totally agree that you want to win in one big turn, and I submit that Remora gives you needed time to set up for that turn.

That said, it's also still a great recovery spell as well.  Anyway, I want to cabin my support, I think it's a decent choice and one that I've been happy with, but I'm not at the point of saying it's fabulous.  Just an interesting option that I think some of the arguments above go too far to discourage.  

UFactor, I disagree with both of those propositions.  I think Xantid is worse in TPS than remora, except against shaymora type decks.  And I think storm combo is in a fine position for the new meta.

TPS plays 12-13 lands typically.  I'm assuming you're arguing for Remora against other Remora decks.  Against other Remora decks, you will lose if you play Remora yourself because they just won't play into it at all.  Almost every other deck in Vintage plays more lands than TPS.  Your Remora will simply starve out first.  However, in the interim, the opposing Remora deck will be making their land drops because they play more lands than you, enabling them to stop the onslaught whenever you do decide to get to it and try to win the game.  The advantage of TPS is its explosiveness.  If you're stalling a game and drawing it out to the point at which the opposing decks has a larger advantage, you're mitigating the reason to play TPS in the first place.  No decent player is going to let you draw cards off a Remora that is, in all likelihood, going to die anyway due to mana constraints.  The TPS player will play it and chew up their own mana with it for however many turns they decide to waste time doing nothing.  

The best thing TPS can probably do against Remora is play a relevant creature.  If you're playing against Shaymora, Phyrexian Negator may be your best bet.  Against a normal Tezzeret deck, Dark Confidant may be your best solution.  In any case, you want to counter the Remora if at all possible.

[Shax]

Hi everyone, and I'll just welcome myself to themanadrain while I'm at it. (lame   ). I keep track of the happenings on themanadrain daily but I felt I might as well make my presence known and why not in a discussion on TPS along with Mystic Remora?

I personally believe that Mystic Remora would of course be viable in a deck like TPS, but this I think would be the wrong way to go about things. TPS already executes its gameplan just fine the way it is, and using Remora as a cheap way to recover after your already losing to Time Vault/Strip-Lock is definitely not the right way to go about it. Remora as a early can-trip? Ehh, much like stated earlier here it would put a constraint on your mana base, which in the early turns anyways should be sculpting your hand for that ''One Turn'' that you put your balls on the line. Yes, TPS isn't the way to go about it, but hey, there is that OTHER combo deck that could use it.

IMO, Drain Tendrils would be the best thing to look at as far as starting for a combo deck to work with Remora in a generally positive fashion. Drain Tendrils has the manabase to work with, and it seems like really, Remora would'nt harm it as it would TPS down the road simply because Drain Tendrils has much like I stated earlier, a better manabase and it runs Drains itself. Drain Tendrils also has those monsterous AK's, which could supplement the need for another Engine in Vintage now that TfK has gone home crying. Did I mention those monsterous AK's?   With it's other weapons, I could honestly see a Remora shell put into a Drain Tendrils based deck and do wonders on the format. And honestly, if the opponent does hold back on you after dropping your first turn Remora, just thank them for giving you Drain mana right up to bat for him.