Next Level Vault

[Sporkcore]

So after making T4 at the N.Y.S.E. Challenge II and some people asking about the deck I played, I decided to start this thread about my deck, Next Level Vault.

It started out after some brainstorming between James Hangley  and myself during a drive home from Connecticut, starting with what was originally a G/U/W fish deck and eventually becoming this list that I played at the N.Y.S.E. event after some more brainstorming and testing.

Mana:
1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Saphire
1 Sol Ring
3 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
3 Island
1 Snow-Covered Island
3 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
1 Academy Ruins

Counters:
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
3 Counterbalance

Creatures:
3 Trinket Mage
2 Tarmogoyf
2 Sower of Temptation
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind

Card Draw/Filter:
2 Sensei’s Diving Top
1 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Fact or Fiction

Tutors:
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Tinker

Trinket Toolbox:
1 Aether Spellbomb
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Pithing Needle
1 Tormod’s Crypt

Broken
1 Time Vault
1 Voltaic Key
1 Time Walk
1 Yawgmoth’s Will

The card that really shines in this deck is the Trinket Mage. Between the toolbox and mana fix he provides, he is truly the MVP of the deck finding most of the answers in your library for whatever position your in.

Counterbalance/Top has been absolutely amazing whenever I’ve dropped it. It allows for you to lock up the game until you can either break a stalemate or go completely broken with Vault/Key, Tinkering up the bot, or casting Yawg Will and doing dumb stuff with it.

I have Sphinx of the Steel Wind in here for what I was expecting the meta to look like, with plenty of Shops to worry about, I didn't want something to be blocked by Karn or Sundering Titan. This could easily be Inkwell, Titan, Darksteel Colossus or whatever bot you feel comfortable with.

Aether Spellbomb was chosen as the bounce spell due to the amount of Sphinx of the Steel Wind showing up in T8s. I was expecting more of it and I wanted an answer that I could Trinket Mage for. It has the added bonus of being good against Oath game 1 when they don’t have Empyrial Archangels in the deck yet or bouncing your Trinket Mage later in the game to find another card.

Lotus Petal over Mox Pearl – The deck absolutely needs double blue early, whether it’s to have Drain mana open, to drop an early Counterbalance or for the early Sower. Never once have I wished it was a Pearl or that it was a more permanent source of mana.

No Tolarian Academy – In testing with this deck, it was too huge a setback if you had Tolarian out and your opponent dropped his. I know that it seems like that can happen to most decks, but the mana base is too important. You really don’t want to be set back turns from having Tolarian go to the grave. I did play it in my board when I thought I needed some more speed out of the mana base, and it might be wrong to not include it in the main, but I can’t say I miss it from the main deck.

I’m sure a big question is why play this over Tez? This was mostly an experiment for me. I wanted to see how a counterbalance deck would work in this environment and find a deck I could have fun with. Though I don’t have much experience with the deck and I doubt this is the most optimal list, I think it could be a contender. It has a good Tez match-up which is still a large part of the field and can find answers to most other decks with either Trinket Mage, stealing something with Sower, or just going broken with Vault/Key.

Despite only playing it in two tournaments, I felt like it worked out well for me and I will defiantly be playing it again.

[Biscuit]

I too have tried out a counterbalance deck but took a more fishy approach using black and white for meddling mage and dark confidant/duress etc.  It was extremely strong against storm combo because if counterbalance dropped even by itself it acted as a mystery chalice of the void at 0 t0 3 for the other player.  I have a couple of questions about your counterbalance deck. 

1) Have you found the counterbalance in your list to help shore up the weak mana drain matchup against storm combo? 
2) My deck was only 0 to 3 converted mana costs (excluding Forces); does having more expensive cards in Sower, Fact, and Sphinx noticeably weaken the counterbalance? 
3) How effective is the counterbalance against fish/aggro? 

Congrats on your finish and the cool deck idea.

[Sporkcore]

Thank you. I can't take full credit for the deck as Jimmy Hangley (Forcethewill) helped with coming up with the deck and testing out the cards.

Answering your questions:

1. I found the Counterbalances to help the storm match if it's dropped early enough to stop their fast mana. They might be able to have a high storm count, but if they don't have that mana to play Tendrils from Rituals and Moxen, then they can't win. Using it to keep them off tutors and Yawg Will is also a great benefit to the matchup. The ability to be able to have counter backup with CB out after a Duress is huge for the match as it's just extra protection against them.

2. I actually wanted to have some higher casting cost spells to be able to counter cards like Gifts Ungiven and Fact or Fiction. I haven't had problems with them in the deck with Counterbalance out. I'll also sandbag fetchlands to shuffle them away if I see them on top when I need to counter lower cost spells.

3. I wish I had a good answer for this, but I haven't tested the Fish/Aggro match to really know how Counterbalance is against them. I had one match against Stormanimagus at JHU where he was running Meandeck Beats and I do think Counterbalance helped me win the match. Even without Top (due to a Null Rod), I got lucky enough to counter a Pridemage with a blind counterbalance that was able to slow him down enough to win.

[forcethewill]

I think one of the big advantages this deck has against aggro is the ability to tinker the sphinx. He will plays both sides and is able to gain you life on offense and defense. Also the sowers and goyfs can lock up the field and steal opposing threats.
I think goblins would be a tougher match when they resolve the turn 1 lackey or vials due to the less effectivness of cb.
Im on the fence with the academy though. With the testing we did i found academy is situationally good. Late game it powers everything i want/need to cast. In the opening hand when its you only source with a sol ring top recall...ect. Its an auto mull where as from my testing if i had my fetch i loved those hands.
One of the tougher matchups for this deck was the 5c stax. Tangle wire proved to just be a bigger problem than normal. And an early welder made the deck go into fits. On the countewr point goyf and sphinx resolved hurt 5c as they are threats that need to be delt with now.
I do feel that there are a few tweeks that could be made buti am completely unsure what they are.
I havent played the deck in a torney due to the proxie limit and me not owning and cards that dont read weld me on them. But it was my first choice to play at the NYSE tourney. -James

[Grand Inquisitor]

Next Level Vault

Just going from the title, I'm thinking this is an evolution that should improve the existing Vault/Key list's matchups and/or win the mirror.

I'm most interested in your findings on the mirror.  Were trinket mage or counterbalance crucial to this matchup?

Against fish/aggro, tarmogoyf is solid gold, but the rest looks suspect.  Counterbalance looks inconsistent.  Trinket mage and Sower look like they could be good, but the manabase (and many of the removal elements) are susceptible to null rod.  Could you reliably cast these cards in fish/aggro games?

Combo isn't a huge part of the metgame right now, but this list looks especially weak against it.  Counterbalance is really too slow unless you have petal/sapphire.  What does your sideboard look like for this?  Similarly, since almost all of your critical spells are blue, this would seem to get wrecked by Painter.  While this isn't a big deck right now, it T8'd GenCon, and I think it's currently underplayed.

Maybe NLV owns the mirror (I'd really like to hear your testing/tourney experience with this), but the other deck choices that vary from the 'standard' list seem to hurt, not help the other matches.

[Gekoratel]

I think the title is actually a reference to Next Level Blue which was a dominate extended deck featuring the CB/Top combo.  I think CB/Top is fine against combo as the most played version of combo is TPS/SCV which while fast does not have the blazing speed of Ad Nauseum or Grim Long.  Between Force and Drain he should be able to get the combo online in that matchup.  In regards to the mirror match I'll just wait for Sporkcore to comment as I have no idea how it plays out.  Lastly running beats like Trinket Mage and Goyf should give his deck a better game versus Shops which are quite prevalent at the Long Island meta.

[voltron00x]

I think the title is actually a reference to Next Level Blue which was a dominate extended deck featuring the CB/Top combo. 

I assume this is where he was going as well.  Previous to Pat Chapin's naming his CB/Top deck "Next Level Blue", all the names for this strategy were awful... "CounterTop Goyf" etc.  After Chapin named his deck NLU, that season we saw Previous Level Blue, and other plays on that naming convention, as the deck evolved against the meta.  On the Source, you'll see a Painter's Servant CB deck called Next Level Painter;  there's some tradition now that decks that have CB/Top crammed in them become "Next Level X".

[Sporkcore]

Like I said, I didn't do any testing against Fish or Aggro and only played one match against it, but the deck did well in that one match. I did get lucky to win off my opponents Bob in game 1 when I was under both Choke and Null Rod. I didn't have problems casting anything until the choke showed up, but I was able to start holding back lands till I could have casted Sower. I also got really lucky to counter a Pridemage blind off Counterbalance. I did constantly wish that I could find something that could handle Rod though, as Aether Spelbomb is defiantly the worst card in the deck and would be the first I would cut to put in something else like an Echoing Truth. Aggro in NY is absolutely absent. Walking around the last tournament, I think there were at most 3 Fish/Aggro decks there.

The Vault/Key mirror is extremely easy. All you have to do is slow them down enough to drop Counterbalance/Top and lock them out of the game. Using E.E. and Needle to keep them off Vault/Key has been golden. The deck does have a problem if they Tinker for Inkwell early as there are no MD answers for it. You have to try to find Tinker to race them with whatever bot you have or try to assemble your Vault/Key before they beat you. Using Trinket Mage in the matchup is MVP. Keeping them off win using whatever he finds is great and being able to go aggro with creatures if you've kept yourself off Vault/Key in the process is jsut icing on the cake.

Combo isn't really around so I haven't bothered to worry about the match-up despite playing it at the N.Y.S.E. challenge. I didn't even have slots in the board to deal with it, all I did was pull an Island for the Tolarian Academy so I could try to power out spells quick enough.

Painter was also a deck I wasn't worried about. I thought about a Blessing in the board for them, but decided on having a little more Oath hate. If the deck becomes more popular, then I'll test the match and make some board changes to handle it.

As of the last tournament, this is the board I used:
1 Engineered Explosives
3 Oxidize
1 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Curfew
2 Krosan Grip
3 Leyline of the Void
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Tolarian Academy

Throughout the day I boarded each card in, but felt the 2nd Relic should be the 4th Leyline and going down to 2 Oxidize to add 1 Echoing Truth.

[Grand Inquisitor]

some tradition now that decks that have CB/Top crammed in them become "Next Level X".

Right, ok.  I knew it referred to the extended lits, I guess I assumed wrongly that NLX referred to transcending an existing archetype instead of just including CB/top.

Trinket Mage and Goyf...Long Island meta

That makes a lot of sense.  Do you think the mage/goyf tandem is significantly better than Bob/FI with chewers out of the board?  Do NYSE lists run null rod?  It's hard to see without testing it, but that seems like a real threat to this list.

Sporkcore

It definitley looks like you'd want a maindeck bounce spell.  Also, from your comments and Grek's, it's starting to sound like CB and trinket are solid tools in the tez matchup?

[Sporkcore]

 Do you think the mage/goyf tandem is significantly better than Bob/FI with chewers out of the board?  Do NYSE lists run null rod?  It's hard to see without testing it, but that seems like a real threat to this list.

I've found Mage/Goyf to be amazing for me. Other other Vault lists like Bob/FI, but I've found I rarely want to be drawing too many cards due to CB, opting to have card quality by getting the early top. Having the ability to have K. Grips and Oxidize help with Stax and Engineered Explosives tends to be the common Trinket target for this match to blow up Spheres and Welders that I can't steal with Sower.

Null Rod is annoying, but it's not that much of a threat due to the ability to start going more aggro/control with Goyf and Mage while holding back Force and Drain for threats.

As far as I know, the NYSE guys don't run Null Rod in either the main or side board. As it is, G1 against Stax is an uphill fight that gets easier after boarding for me.

[vroman]

you top4d, which cant be ignored, but its difficult for me to believe that counterbalance+diving is viable control strategy in vintage, esp w only 2 sensei.
in games where you dont draw sensei, youve spent UU mainphase for a card that has less than 50% chance of impacting the game. if you are sitting on blind c-balance, its not too hard for enemy to bait test spells, and bypass your permission. true, you have 8 other counterspells, but how often is c-balance really worth the investment, over the alternatives? this could be standstill or something to draw you more reliable counterspells, or hey, maybe some restricted cards like mox pearl, mystical tutor and tolarian academy.

Counterbalance/Top has been absolutely amazing whenever I’ve dropped it.

Im sure it is. but what about the non-ideal case when c-balance is running solo? wouldnt you rather have anything else?

also, you say null rod is annoying, but it looks like it wrecks your face, and you have zero bounce. defaulting to aggro w only 2 tgoyfs isnt obviously going to get there.

[Neonico]

I have tested so many build around Counterbalance / SDT combo in vintage.
But with all the restrictions we got in the last 2 years, the dominant vintage decks have mana curve that makes this strategy totally unviable. The only deck counterbalance is good against is fish, but it's a metagame deck....

[Harlequin]

Jer Made top-8 with a list kinda like you're thinking last weekend at the Sapphire Event.  I he also Top-8'ed with this deck at myriad on July 25th.  I don't think that list was reported.  Food for thought...

5th-8th  ::Jeremiah Rudolph::

1 Voltaic Key
3 Enlightened Tutor
4 Mana Drain  
4 Force of Will
4 Dark Confidant
1 Future Sight
1 Balance
1 Brainstorm
2 Island
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Vault
1 Sol Ring
1 Lotus Petal
1 Time Walk
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Demonic Tutor
3 Counterbalance
1 Mox Emerald
1 Black Lotus
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
1 Mox Jet
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Library of Alexandria
2 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Tinker
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Seal of Cleansing
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
1 Mox Ruby
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Threads of Disloyalty
1 Mox Pearl
1 Yawgmoth's Will
3 Underground Sea
3 Tundra
3 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta

::SIDEBOARD::

1 The Abyss
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Aven Mindscensor
1 Seal of Cleansing
1 Arcane Laboratory
1 Planar Void
1 Energy Flux
2 Tormod's Crypt
1 Sacred Ground
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Ethersworn Canonist

[Sporkcore]

Vroman: There are only 2 Tops, but there are also 3 Trinket Mages to help find Top. Never once have I had a problem finding a Top when I needed it. Counterbalance, even to drop it without a top, is worth it as an opponent may play a little sloppier to try to force through spells causing them to possibly misplay or walk into a counter that you have in hand. I've never regretted dropping a counterbalance at all against any opponent. I know that people will complain when I say this, but having a blind Counterbalance is almost like having Spell Snare in hand, it won't hit all the spells, but when it does, it can be devastating.

I'll admit it, I haven't played against Null Rods all that much since there aren't many decks with Null Rods in the LI/NYC meta, but the times I have I wasn't all that upset. It's not all that hard to go aggro with 7 creatures plus the Tinker target and Sower helps a lot also, but when I play this deck again I will absolutely be playing one hard bounce spell as Aether Spellbomb didn't cut it.

Neonico: With 25 0cc, ten 1cc, twelve 2cc, six 3cc, three 4cc, and four 5cc spells in my deck, I've had very few problems with using CB/Top to try to counter something. Decks seem to have gone to lower CC spells, but I also tried to keep my spells where I felt Counterbalance would be effective against the field, especially Tez.

Harlequin: Do you know how the Bobs were for Jeremiah? With CB out, I never really wanted to draw too many cards to disrupt what I had floating on top of my library.

[Harlequin]

Not to put too blunt a point on it ... but drawing cards is good ^_^

The "main" plan of the deck isn't really to lock out via CB-Top, the plan is to win via TV-Key, Tendrils, or Tinker.  CB-Top is sort of a side-plan, or a very early play.   Confidant is great in general, and very useful when it comes to offsetting the drawback/disadvantage of running mutliple topdeck tutors like Etutor x3.    Drawing cards with Bob lubricates the deck so you can more quickly assemble TV combo, or a lethal tendrils, so I guess the long answer is "don't focus too much on locking the game with CB-Top... especailly at the expense of winning the game outright."  \

However, once we started down the path of running CB-Top + Bob + Etutor.  We realized that it was best to include Threads and Future Sight.  This turns CB + Etutor into a hard counter on 0,1,2,3, or 5.  And actually The Abyss in the board is relevant with CB against Goblin Ringleader for example. 

[forests failed you]

You realize that "The Next Level" is the name of Chapin's brand right?  ugh. 

[Sporkcore]

"Next Level" also has been used by any legacy deck that includes CB/Top, which is the only reason why I called it that. Call it Counterbalance/Top, Trinket Mage Control, or just some jank deck. Doesn't really matter to me.

[forcethewill]

Just dont call it late to dinner...

The deck works and it works well enough to top 4 at the nyse 2 event