Rector-Flash

[Benfa]

Hi there, i'm Marco from Florence, Italy, and my english is very bad

I want to write about a deck that in my opinion is not considered as it should be(i was the first one but i changed my mind), it's very good imho. The deck is Rector-flash(i know, flash is restricted...), and the list i'm playing is very similar to Ryan's list, a friend of mine that convinced me to give a try to the deck.  

The list:

Card you have to play:

Combo: 13

4 Academy rector
4 Cabal therapy
1 Flash
1 Yawgmoth's bargain
1 Necropotence
1 Form of the dragon
1 Tendril of agony

Tutors: 5

1 Mystical
1 Vampiric
1 Demonic
1 Merchant
1 Imperial seal

Protection: 4

4 Force of will (obviously you have to consider also the therapy)


Others stuff: 4

1 Ancestral recall
1 Time Walk
1 Yawgmoth's will
1 Brainstorm

Mana: 26

1 Black lotus
1 Mana crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Lotus petal
1 Sol ring
1 Mox sapphire
1 Mox jet
1 Mox pearl
2 Dark Ritual
4 Gemstone mine
3 Underground Sea
1 Tundra
1 Scrubland (or second tundra?)
1 Volcanic island (or badland?)
3 Polluted delta
3 Flooded strand  

I tried 28 mana, with five moxes and four dark ritual  and 14 lands but then i noticed that i didn't need very much the mana off coulor of emerald and ruby(i've only two fire/ice) and that 4rituals were too many, so i added two lands and cut some acceleration to get a more solid mana base (you can't miss tthe first two land drop with this deck), then i don't like to play with 28 cards for mana now that brainstorm is restricted, it's less explosive but more consistent. Obviously you can try to add rituals and moxes instead of some lands/spell.



That's 52 cards so we still have 8 slots, that i used to test a lot of cards, that's what i'm playing right now:

2 Fire/ice (kill the rector, magus of the moon, dark confidant, ninja, meddling mage, cicling, tap out of mana drain, tap tormod's crypt, blu card for force of will)
1 Ponder (it's nice but not a must, in this deck you have to be very fast and you want to tap your mana only for tutoring and casting combo cards, you can't afford to lose time casting "quite good" spells  
1 Rebuild (it's very flexible like fire/ice, enable storm and a lot of other things)
1 Time twister (i like it, at first look it seems counterintuitive, because of terapy, it's the only situational slot that i play)
3 Misdirection (you need blue cheap cards for will, this is a good one, it's not a must)


Other cards that i tried are: tinker-jar, mind's desire, gift(very good but it's too mana intensive), fact or fiction, sleight of hand, intuition, duress(very good having also the therapy but i've too few blue cards for fow then), wheel of fortune, windfall.




Sideboard:

1 tinker (plan B against graveyard hate)
1 sundering (combo and drain decks)
1 colossus/inkwell (fish and artifact)
1 chain of vapor (leyline, storm enabler)
1 hurkil's recall
0/1 Memory jar (if they hates you graveyard you could try a tps approach, having already necro/bargain/twister, and we're already siding for tinker and a creature, but could be we don't need it, to be tested)
Some dredge slot
A few of artifact slot like ingot/hurkil

Other interesting cards are duress(very good with cabal therapy), pyroblast, empty the warren. Onestly i've not played a lot after side yet.


Usually i play tps but right now i prefear this one because it's faster, it has more protections, it has more broken threats(rectors and flash), it needs less mana cards so you can play more spells being more consistent, it hasn't to cast ten spells in the same turns thanks to form of the dragon so it soffers less from cards like null rod or spheres. After side if they hate you graveyard you still have answers(fire/ice and chain of vapor), a plan B(tinker creature), a plan C(tps style casting necro/bargain/doing ten spells with twister/jar); then it's difficoult for a deck after side to find space for cards like leyline of the void because they don't have useless cards against you like against a dredge deck. Surely it has not basic lands but you have fire/ice against an ipotetical magus of the moon and you have 16 lands so that you don't suffer too much the wastelands, then you have more blue and black mana than tps so it means less mulligan. On the paper it seems a weird deck but if you give a shot to the deck, testing it for a while and making then some suggestions i would thank you. Surely it can be improved.


Marco Benifei

[the boogie man]

Have you considered cunning wish as an engine? It gets the restricted flash, but I guess perhaps 1 mana tutors would be better at finding it quicker. it is unrestricted, though, and can be a nice toolbox before you need flash.

[EnialisLiadon]

I was about to suggest this.  Why not a slower, more controlling build that combo's out with Cunning Wish-->Flash?  But then you to answer the question of why not winning with Vault/Key.  Both are two card combos, but one's just a little better than the other...

[Benfa]

Have you considered cunning wish as an engine? It gets the restricted flash, but I guess perhaps 1 mana tutors would be better at finding it quicker. it is unrestricted, though, and can be a nice toolbox before you need flash.

You got perfectly the point. The real power of flash is the chance to have a turn two win card to tutor with vampiric/mystic/imperial seal/merchant/demonic. The idea of cunning wish is nice, but you can't cut flash.

I was about to suggest this.  Why not a slower, more controlling build that combo's out with Cunning Wish-->Flash?  But then you to answer the question of why not winning with Vault/Key.  Both are two card combos, but one's just a little better than the other...

What would be the advantage of being slower? Vault key are two useless cards alone, and you have also 4 therapy(and fire/ice), not only a flash to combo with.

[the boogie man]

I still think that it is wrong to not have more rituals. they help what should be your main plan b (combo out with tendrils, or hardcast rector). I also think that necro should have a spot somewhere, allowing you to win off the back of 1 ritual, basically.

[zeus-online]

I agree, more rituals would help you do the whole turn 2 rector/therapy it away....

I would also seriously consider adding some duress's in addition to the therapy' and the FoW's

A bouncespell or two could also be usefull.

[Benfa]

I still think that it is wrong to not have more rituals. they help what should be your main plan b (combo out with tendrils, or hardcast rector). I also think that necro should have a spot somewhere, allowing you to win off the back of 1 ritual, basically.

Obviously i play necro. About rituals read below

I agree, more rituals would help you do the whole turn 2 rector/therapy it away....

I would also seriously consider adding some duress's in addition to the therapy' and the FoW's

A bouncespell or two could also be usefull.

I was playing 4 dark ritual, then 3 and now 2. Ritual is good but in this deck is useless to produce more than four mana, it's not tps, you don't have mind's desire, you need the mana to cast a rector or a flash and at the same time holding as more protections as you can. Dark ritual fits perfectly with your strategy, it's needed for your best spells, rector/necro, but you need a ritual in your hand, when i tested four copies i often had in my hand 2or more useless rituals. We must remember that we have also 8 artifacts, in this deck i've noticed that mana vault is much better than dark ritual. My friend play 3dark ritual and i told him before testing the deck that he had to play 4, and now i play 2 . In real life opponents have wastelands, or counter, so producing 8 mana first turn to have countered your only spell it's not that good... That's what is happening a lot of times to me playing tps, and it's not happening that often now. Could be that 2 copies of dark ritual is not the right number, what i'm saying is that you have to test it before deciding because sometimes you read a decklist and you have some ideas that after testing you could change.

About duress: surely has a good interaction with therapy the only problem is that it's black and we already have few blu spells, anyway is a good card that can be included in the deck in one or two copies.

About bounce: one rebuild is more than enough, one advantage of this deck is that you don't need bonce spells (after sideboarding it's different), because you are very fast, so a lot of cards simply don't have the time to hit the ground, your plan is not to cast ten spell in the same turn so rod or other cards can stay on the board, and lastly fire/ice can handle the most of your problems.

[zeus-online]

2 dark rituals just seems wrong.

Also, how often are you using Form of the dragon? Seems kinda useless to me...Alot of fish decks are running qasali pridemage and/or trygon predator...So it's not even a sure win against those decks.

Tinker/Dude is obv. also a consideration....It does alot for two slots, and with all your tutors it should be rather easy to tinker turn 2.

[meadbert]

Have you tested Oath of Druids?  If you Oath up Rector you will usually have a Therapy in the yard so you can just get Bargain right away and win.

[Benfa]

2 dark rituals just seems wrong.

Also, how often are you using Form of the dragon? Seems kinda useless to me...Alot of fish decks are running qasali pridemage and/or trygon predator...So it's not even a sure win against those decks.

Tinker/Dude is obv. also a consideration....It does alot for two slots, and with all your tutors it should be rather easy to tinker turn 2.

I play 16 lands and 2 ritual right now, if you want test it with 15 lands and 3 dark ritual or 14 and 4 you can try.

If you tell me that form of the dragon is useless i'm sure you haven't played the deck, because it's a must, without form of the dragon the deck doesn't work. When you cast bargain if you have enought life you'll draw a bounch of cards and then you'll do a tendril, but if you aren't able you can simply cast rector, discard some cards with a therapy and put form of the dragon in play with a force in your hand as protection then you draw 8 cards each turn, 4 in your and 4 in the opponent's one. I repeat, that's not a tps, and i understand your suggestions because before testing the deck i had the same ideas.

Tinker main deck is not very usefull because 1) your rector plan is good(the hate comes after sideboarding); 2) Every tinker target(colossus/sundering/inkwell) is good only in one matchup or two and useless in the others. It would be nice if you run also memory jar, but it's too mana intensive for this deck.

Have you tested Oath of Druids?  If you Oath up Rector you will usually have a Therapy in the yard so you can just get Bargain right away and win.

Not yet but i wanna try. The problem is that it seems a bit too complicated; another coulor, other non blue cards, the change of getting the rector without the therapy, or having both with enchantments into the grave without krosan reclamation(and surely i'm not happy to waste slots for cards like krosan reclamaton), having to play forbidden orchard that without oath it's a winning condition for the opponent, than i should cut some rector and i'm not happy to do it(also flash is getting worse), for casting oath i would need the offcoulor mox and the darkritual at the same time would be useless. I'll try some version with oath, also if at first glance it doesn't seem the best way to go(surely against some matchups like artifact it would perform better), but i could be wrong and the oath version could be the better one.