GWSx: Ritual combo after the printing of Lodestone Golem

[Stormanimagus]

I designed GWSx with a plan in mind.  That plan was to beat Meandeck Gifts and Uba Stax.  Now, in the new meta, the plan is to beat Tezzeret, Fish, and Shop Aggro.  Dark Confidant does this all very well.  I'm super-excited that Duncan has taken over the project.  I think I will jump back on this soon.

I guess I'm somewhat convinced that this deck beats MUD & Tezz (though I'm not quite seeing how it beats Tezz as they run the Confidants too and much more Counters/Discard Spells than you do overall), but how on earth does it beat Fish? Cold-Eyed Selkie is a beating for this deck as it draws them into the nuts and, as a Fish Pilot, I know that I'm far more terrified of straight TPS than Tezz and this deck seems to resemble the Tempo of Tezz far more than TPS. I realize that most of your statements are backed up by tournament data and personal experience, but would you mind discussing more specifics about your match-ups with Noble Fish? I guess I just don't understand how an experienced Fish Pilot loses to this deck. Especially if they are intelligent enough to run 3-4 STP MD (which I do right now), considering that STP solves many problems being MD:

1. A chance game 1 at beating MUD and Lodestone.dec in general
2. Better Mirror advantage
3. Kills Bobs, Sphinx, DSC, Welder and Painters. Kills many problem creatures of which there is a higher density right now than ever before.

I mean, it seems that Fish can almost RACE this deck game 1 and then games 2/3 you have to cut something to make room for Tinker/Sphinx and they'll be keeping in some (or all) of the STP to help hose Confidants + Sphinx.

My opinion is that the deck needs to respect Fish a bit more in it's building and the first changes I'd make are:

-1 Sphinx
+1 Inkwell

-2 Xantid

+1 Infest
+1 Darkblast

That way you have Tinker/Leviathan games 2/3 AND you have Darkblast, Infest AND Massacre. I do not really think that is overkill as you are slower than TPS and give Fish a longer time to develop their board. I mean, the combination of STPs for Confidant and Meddling Mage naming Dark Ritual could pose serious problems for this, streamlined type of Ritual-Combo deck. Obviously testing will need to happen, but it's hard to find good Noble Fish pilots on MWS (other than myself lol). My gut simply tells me that this deck will have a pretty poor percentage against most Fish variants.

-Storm

[Odd mutation]

I had some trouble beating fish consistently. I played 1 darkblast and 1 Massacre in the sideboard to remedy this. Shortly thereafter I stopped playing the deck so I'm not absolutely sure if those two slots solve the problem completely...

Robrecht

[M.Solymossy]

I have never had problems with any aggro deck that runs force of will.   I have 4 (and now 5) bounce spells for their null rod, and I don't really care what else they have.  "the nuts" in fish is something like Duress + fow. I can usually absorb some damage from them and win at a low life.   My broken spells just crush them because 1 Duress will take their fow.  Or I can just play multiple threats.   It might be more my knowing the ins and outs of Bob Tendrils.


Don't run massacre.   I like Infest out of the board.  I've actually just ran Disfigure, too.

[Duncan]

Don't run massacre.   I like Infest out of the board.  I've actually just ran Disfigure, too.

It's not this black and white. Both Massacre and Infest have their advantages and I've run both with succes. For me it's more of a meta call. If you expect all the aggro decks to be selkie/uw fish, Massacre is way better because you do not need to use a ritual to cast it, it's a great tempo play and it's good after will. If you expect other aggro, run Infest, because it is cheaper versus goblins and dodges Teeg vs GW beats.

[FlyFlySideOfFry]

Don't run massacre.   I like Infest out of the board.  I've actually just ran Disfigure, too.

It's not this black and white. Both Massacre and Infest have their advantages and I've run both with succes. For me it's more of a meta call. If you expect all the aggro decks to be selkie/uw fish, Massacre is way better because you do not need to use a ritual to cast it, it's a great tempo play and it's good after will. If you expect other aggro, run Infest, because it is cheaper versus goblins and dodges Teeg vs GW beats.

The biggest problem is that against decks that Massacre is free you have to deal with Teeg. I would never run more than 1 Massacre and usually single-target stuff like Darkblast and Slaughter Pact are more effective. My sweeper of choice is still Infest though, even in a white heavy metagame.

Then again Confidant Tendrils might not want sweepers at the risk of hitting your own Confidants.

[Evenpence]

This is my generic Noble Fish list that I use to test --

21 Lands / Moxen
3 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
4 U/G Fetch
1 U/W Fetch
3 U/G Dual
2 U/W Dual
1 G/W Dual
1 Island
1 Forest
3 On-Color Moxen
1 Lotus

21 Creatures
4 Exalted Birds of Paradise
4 GW artifact/enchant destroyer
3 Goyf
2 Selkie
2 Trygon
2 Meddling Mage
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Thada Adel Acquisitor (guy that steals artifacts, I know I didn't get the name right there)
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Aven Mindcensor

18 Other Stuff
4 Force of Will
3 Spell Pierce
2 Daze
3 Stifle
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
3 Null Rod
1 Swords to Plowshares

The above Fish list is far from optimal for beating this deck.  

I've been running lots of variations of this deck to try to combat it, but am still averaging at best a 40-60 win ratio against the above decklist (EDIT: I'd say it's closer to 35-65 or 30-70).  I got quite lucky on a few of those wins too.  I'm feeling like the board is going to have to be very anti-Fish for this deck to perform.  If I steal a game one and load the board for Fish, I should be able to win game 2 and 3.

The most successful hands against Fish have been heavy Dark Confidant hands.  Thoughtseizing Meddling Mages, Gaddock, Null Rod, and Stifle is huge too.  Fish just has so many answers to this deck.  I'm not even running 3-4 Meddling Mages (although I am running a singleton Gaddock, I guess that's the same thing half the time).  The Trygons are even really good against us because of the big butt to block.

Soly, what's your strategy vs. Fish?  You said you've done pretty well against it, I'd like to hear your thoughts.

[Stormanimagus]

Don't run massacre.   I like Infest out of the board.  I've actually just ran Disfigure, too.

It's not this black and white. Both Massacre and Infest have their advantages and I've run both with succes. For me it's more of a meta call. If you expect all the aggro decks to be selkie/uw fish, Massacre is way better because you do not need to use a ritual to cast it, it's a great tempo play and it's good after will. If you expect other aggro, run Infest, because it is cheaper versus goblins and dodges Teeg vs GW beats.

The biggest problem is that against decks that Massacre is free you have to deal with Teeg. I would never run more than 1 Massacre and usually single-target stuff like Darkblast and Slaughter Pact are more effective. My sweeper of choice is still Infest though, even in a white heavy metagame.

Then again Confidant Tendrils might not want sweepers at the risk of hitting your own Confidants.

This is absolutely wrong. Noble Fish NEVER runs Gaddock Teeg (with one exception in all the T8 lists from the last year) because it also runs FoW. Since Noble Fish is seen about 10 times more than any other Fish deck I'd say that Massacre makes more sense than infest right now because it gets around a lot of mana-denial being free.

[Evenpence]

Noble Fish NEVER runs Gaddock Teeg (with one exception in all the T8 lists from the last year) because it also runs FoW.

Gah, I thought he only affected opponents.  I'm going to have to change that guy in my Noble Fish list.  Truthfully though, he didn't contribute to that many wins anyway (maybe 2 out of ~60 games played).  Thanks for the info.  

[Killane]

This deck is INSANE. I love it.

After "not getting" why it was better than TPS last week, and listening to the responses of Soly, among others, I decided to sleave this thing up and test it some. WOW. Despite appearing "slower" than TPS, I've found it not only more resiliant, but also actually faster vs non-sphere decks. Hurkyl's is usually sufficient for 5-7 storm (2 or 3 artifacts (usually moxen) dropped and then bounced and dropped again), which makes for some extremely fast hands. I've certainly goldfished far more turn 1 and 2 kills with this than I ever did with TPS.

I dropped 1 Sea for Academy from the above list but made no other changes. I've never lacked for Black Mana, but Academy can allow some really broken plays and plays extremely well with Mind's Desire. Plus I've always found it wondeful to have under Spheres, enabling some bigger faster turns that otherwise possible. Happy with it so far.

I also had one rather amusing test game against a friend who hates storm combo. He went (turn 1, on the play), Workshop, Crucible, Lotus, Fastbond, Zuran Orb. He smirked and Said: I'll gain 500 life - Storm that out! and passed the turn.

I (fortuantely) was holding a very nutty hand with Hurkyl's, Mind's Desire, Delta, Sapphire, Jet, Ruby, and Lotus, and drew Sol Ring. Mind's Desire for 11 found some draw, some fast mana, some tutors, the other Hurkyl's and Will, which led into a Desire for 52 post-will (Desiring the entire rest of the deck). I cast 3 Tendrils at Storm 124,125 and 126 respectively and said - DONE.

No this situation would not come up in a tournament, but it was hella funny.

[M.Solymossy]

Keep in mind the BEST plays in this deck:

You:  Ritual, Ritual, Ritual mox
Them: "Sweet.  Try to cast that bomb spell in your deck, I have 2 counterspells"
you:  Tendrils, tendrils
Then:   

[Duncan]

Don't run massacre.   I like Infest out of the board.  I've actually just ran Disfigure, too.

It's not this black and white. Both Massacre and Infest have their advantages and I've run both with succes. For me it's more of a meta call. If you expect all the aggro decks to be selkie/uw fish, Massacre is way better because you do not need to use a ritual to cast it, it's a great tempo play and it's good after will. If you expect other aggro, run Infest, because it is cheaper versus goblins and dodges Teeg vs GW beats.

The biggest problem is that against decks that Massacre is free you have to deal with Teeg. I would never run more than 1 Massacre and usually single-target stuff like Darkblast and Slaughter Pact are more effective. My sweeper of choice is still Infest though, even in a white heavy metagame.

Then again Confidant Tendrils might not want sweepers at the risk of hitting your own Confidants.

This is absolutely wrong. Noble Fish NEVER runs Gaddock Teeg (with one exception in all the T8 lists from the last year) because it also runs FoW. Since Noble Fish is seen about 10 times more than any other Fish deck I'd say that Massacre makes more sense than infest right now because it gets around a lot of mana-denial being free.

This is exactly my point, and the reason why I played Massacre, but advocate Infest if you expect a lot of GW Decks (combination Gaddock Teeg and Ethersworn Canonist spells trouble otherwise).

I also had one rather amusing test game against a friend who hates storm combo. He went (turn 1, on the play), Workshop, Crucible, Lotus, Fastbond, Zuran Orb. He smirked and Said: I'll gain 500 life - Storm that out! and passed the turn.

I (fortuantely) was holding a very nutty hand with Hurkyl's, Mind's Desire, Delta, Sapphire, Jet, Ruby, and Lotus, and drew Sol Ring. Mind's Desire for 11 found some draw, some fast mana, some tutors, the other Hurkyl's and Will, which led into a Desire for 52 post-will (Desiring the entire rest of the deck). I cast 3 Tendrils at Storm 124,125 and 126 respectively and said - DONE.

No this situation would not come up in a tournament, but it was hella funny.

This put a big smile on my face Now he'll hate combo even more

Some relevant (discussion) points based on the conversations I've had through messages and this thread:

1. Tolarian Academy probably is better than the second island in the deck.
2. The third Cabal Ritual might as well be something else.
3. Green can possibly be dropped in the sideboard, perhaps in favor of a third Sacrament and two cards to address the Fish matchup (I've never had that much trouble facing it, but a little extra help can't hurt anyone).
4. If the lifeloss is not too much, the Duress/Thoughtseize split should be 1/4.

Oh, and for those of you who haven't noticed, GWSx made another top 4 performance (this time in Switzerland): http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=40209.0
Way to go Bongo!

[Killane]

Keep in mind the BEST plays in this deck:

You:  Ritual, Ritual, Ritual mox
Them: "Sweet.  Try to cast that bomb spell in your deck, I have 2 counterspells"
you:  Tendrils, tendrils
Then:   

This.

Vs Oath - this sooooooo many times.

[Evenpence]

This put a big smile on my face Now he'll hate combo even more

Some relevant (discussion) points based on the conversations I've had through messages and this thread:

1. Tolarian Academy probably is better than the second island in the deck.
2. The third Cabal Ritual might as well be something else.
3. Green can possibly be dropped in the sideboard, perhaps in favor of a third Sacrament and two cards to address the Fish matchup (I've never had that much trouble facing it, but a little extra help can't hurt anyone).
4. If the lifeloss is not too much, the Duress/Thoughtseize split should be 1/4.

Oh, and for those of you who haven't noticed, GWSx made another top 4 performance (this time in Switzerland): http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=40209.0
Way to go Bongo!

Hey Duncan, thanks for keeping this thread alive and being so open to discussion.

I have a minor point on #2, I completely agree with the other ones.

I've played ~200 games with the deck in a few variations, but nothing incredibly weird.  I still have a 3 thoughtseize/2 duress configuration, although I'll be shifting to 4/1 very soon.  I also play with the academy as you've mentioned.

In place of the third cabal ritual, I've inserted a blank card into my sleeves when testing this deck against my gauntlet (I do this with all my decks where I'm unsure of a slot or two).  I call it a "Wild Card," and I play it as whatever I would prefer it to be at the time and mark down what I'd like it to be and a tally next to it.  There are a few (obvious) rules that follow from using this Wild Card system:

1.  I can't choose a restricted card that's already in the deck.  This is obvious -- the wild card could never be this card.  I.E. I can't choose Black Lotus.
2.  I can't choose a card that I'm already playing 4-of in the maindeck.  Same reason as above.
3.  I can't choose a card that's ridiculously narrow and would never actually be in my deck.  I.E. I can't choose Balance because it's white and I'm never going to put that in here.  (EDIT:  This point might be confusing.  What I mean is even though Balance might be the best card for me at the time [I have lotus, petal, or mox pearl to cast it, and it would wreck my opponent] I will have to figure out something else that it can be because I will never actually play Balance in this deck.  Hopefully this avoids confusion.)

These are my results with the 'wild card' in place of the third cabal ritual -- I didn't play equal games against the entire gauntlet, I stressed Fish, Workshops, and Oath matchups heavily -- my playtesting against Tezz was very light (maybe only ~15 games out of ~200).

Imperial Seal 33
Lion's Eye Diamond 14
Yawgmoth's Bargain 10
Massacre 8
Cabal Ritual 5
Bloodstained Mire 3

Halfway through testing I was really surprised to see Imperial Seal so high on the list.  It held up -- nearly half the times I got that card, I wanted it to be Imperial Seal.  I was also really surprised to see Lion's Eye Diamond so high on the list (occasionally the extra artifact gave me just enough storm or mana+DT to kill on the 1st or 2nd turn).

I'll be playing with that slot as Seal, but I might look to cut something else to see if LED is worthy of playing.

[FlyFlySideOfFry]

Don't run massacre.   I like Infest out of the board.  I've actually just ran Disfigure, too.

It's not this black and white. Both Massacre and Infest have their advantages and I've run both with succes. For me it's more of a meta call. If you expect all the aggro decks to be selkie/uw fish, Massacre is way better because you do not need to use a ritual to cast it, it's a great tempo play and it's good after will. If you expect other aggro, run Infest, because it is cheaper versus goblins and dodges Teeg vs GW beats.

The biggest problem is that against decks that Massacre is free you have to deal with Teeg. I would never run more than 1 Massacre and usually single-target stuff like Darkblast and Slaughter Pact are more effective. My sweeper of choice is still Infest though, even in a white heavy metagame.

Then again Confidant Tendrils might not want sweepers at the risk of hitting your own Confidants.

This is absolutely wrong. Noble Fish NEVER runs Gaddock Teeg (with one exception in all the T8 lists from the last year) because it also runs FoW. Since Noble Fish is seen about 10 times more than any other Fish deck I'd say that Massacre makes more sense than infest right now because it gets around a lot of mana-denial being free.

Yes you're correct sorry. When I test against Fish I usually try to build an extremely anti-combo build in order to sort of push my decklist to the limit. The underepresentation of combo is probably keeping Teeg on the shelves for now but as a storm player there is no creature I care more about than Teeg. Children are pretty marginal and I'm surprised they showed up in such numbers but I guess they can help the aggro mirror as well. Then again Noble Fish is already heavily favored so I'm not surprised that it doesn't take much to seal the deal. I still prefer cheap single-target stuff like Pact and Darkblast though overall.

[Killane]

I also had one rather amusing test game against a friend who hates storm combo. He went (turn 1, on the play), Workshop, Crucible, Lotus, Fastbond, Zuran Orb. He smirked and Said: I'll gain 500 life - Storm that out! and passed the turn.

I (fortuantely) was holding a very nutty hand with Hurkyl's, Mind's Desire, Delta, Sapphire, Jet, Ruby, and Lotus, and drew Sol Ring. Mind's Desire for 11 found some draw, some fast mana, some tutors, the other Hurkyl's and Will, which led into a Desire for 52 post-will (Desiring the entire rest of the deck). I cast 3 Tendrils at Storm 124,125 and 126 respectively and said - DONE.

No this situation would not come up in a tournament, but it was hella funny.

This put a big smile on my face Now he'll hate combo even more

It's true it's true -  of course he was being a cocky prick - setting up an infinite life gain combo and not gaining at least 10^50^100^974943436 life - not to mention turn 1 infinite life is AT LEAST as obnoxious as turn 1 Tendrils for 20 (though far far less likely).

[islanderboi10]

Imperial Seal 33
Lion's Eye Diamond 14
Yawgmoth's Bargain 10
Massacre 8
Cabal Ritual 5
Bloodstained Mire 3

Halfway through testing I was really surprised to see Imperial Seal so high on the list.  It held up -- nearly half the times I got that card, I wanted it to be Imperial Seal.  I was also really surprised to see Lion's Eye Diamond so high on the list (occasionally the extra artifact gave me just enough storm or mana+DT to kill on the 1st or 2nd turn).

I'll be playing with that slot as Seal, but I might look to cut something else to see if LED is worthy of playing.

Have you tried Grim Tutor?

Anyways, I am too a TPS player, and I believe that I will be switching it up to GWSx.  The deck just has raw power, and a draw engine. It is great.
I really like the deck.
Also, running three tendrils is awesome.  I also had a kill with 2x ritual, 1x lotus, yawg win, 1x Sieze, and 2x Tendrils. (Yep no land) I was just messin around with the deck at the time, my opponent was playing shops, so I knew i wa safe to keep this hand on the play.
Also, I played around double thorn with Confidants, found Hurkyl's Recall, and won. Its awesome.

The deck is great. I will continue to test and post results when I can.

Thanks!

[Evenpence]

Have you tried Grim Tutor?

There are times I probably forgot about it, but I usually have handy a little chart of stuff that it could be so whenever I get it I run through the options, and it was on there.  I guess I always expected to go off either the next turn or I just got something to win now.  I suppose Grim Tutor would be really nice if you have something like 6 mana total, have already duressed on the turn, and a lot of rituals in the yard, but that never happened to me whenever I drew the card.

[Duncan]

Evenpence, I really like this way of generating test results, although it seems a lot of work. If you would do another run in the future, would it be possible to simultaneously do it for Tolarian Academy in the Fish and Shop matchup, with the possibity of it being a basic Island (or swamp, whatever you replaced it with in your list) too?

[honestabe]

I am a huge fan of Imperial Seal in this deck, and always play it in my version.  The reason you play it over Grim tutor, is because running Sensei's top turns imperial seal into a cheaper grim tutor, if flipped by confidant, you lose 2 more life than if were imperial seal, and grim costs you more life upon resolution than imperial seal.

Needless to say, this deck is a house, despite not having FoW, and I'm glad people are starting to give it a shot

[Evenpence]

Evenpence, I really like this way of generating test results, although it seems a lot of work. If you would do another run in the future, would it be possible to simultaneously do it for Tolarian Academy in the Fish and Shop matchup, with the possibity of it being a basic Island (or swamp, whatever you replaced it with in your list) too?

I keep the results in my head for stuff like that.  The only time I had an issue with Academy was against shops -- he played his own Academy to destroy mine out of his graveyard when he had crucible up.  I was going to lose anyway, but the land would have been better as an Island.  Wasteland generally doesn't make a difference one way or the other in the long run, because while they can waste it and mana screw you, you can just as easily go broken with a billion blue mana into bounce x1x2x3 into tendrils.

In the games I've played with the deck, that's the only time I regretted it weren't an Academy.  I can recall at least four off the top of my head where I might have not won without Academy, and at least one where I was going to lose next turn unless I found it (and I did -- lotus was in grave but I had DT + Mind's Desire in hand w/ no blue mana on board and not enough storm available to DT ----> yawg will win).

[islanderboi10]

Have you tried Grim Tutor?

There are times I probably forgot about it, but I usually have handy a little chart of stuff that it could be so whenever I get it I run through the options, and it was on there.  I guess I always expected to go off either the next turn or I just got something to win now.  I suppose Grim Tutor would be really nice if you have something like 6 mana total, have already duressed on the turn, and a lot of rituals in the yard, but that never happened to me whenever I drew the card.

Well, I will continue to test Grim Tutor. As I have found, from playin TPS as much, is that Grim Tutor can also find me a needed Time Walk or Recall. Although this deck is not as so 'bomby' as TPS, it is still great to tutor for the needed cards.

As for the sideboard, what are your thoughts on Extripate?

[Odd mutation]

Have you tried Grim Tutor?

There are times I probably forgot about it, but I usually have handy a little chart of stuff that it could be so whenever I get it I run through the options, and it was on there.  I guess I always expected to go off either the next turn or I just got something to win now.  I suppose Grim Tutor would be really nice if you have something like 6 mana total, have already duressed on the turn, and a lot of rituals in the yard, but that never happened to me whenever I drew the card.

Did you also try Ad Nauseam? This used to be the card I tutored for the most! I was surprised how good it was after Soly said he used to play one.

Robrecht

[Duncan]

Edited the opening post with links to previous GWSx threads and my and Soly's tournament reports. There's a lot of information to be found in those threads.

[mistervader]

I'm in a meta that is currently not *that* infested by Shops. Furthermore, I don't own a Mox Emerald and Pearl. Anyways, with these in mind, I was wondering if the following changes I made work...

1. -1 Hurklyl's Recall, +1 Duress. I decided to go for a 3-3 Mix of Duress effects, as I feel it's very good against any non-shop, non-Dredge deck. Lately, I've been running into 5C Stax decks, and not 13SA. Weird, but true.

2. -1 Cabal Ritual, +1 Imperial Seal. I really liked the tutor. It's been wonderful.

3. -1 Mox Emerald, -1 Mox Pearl, +1 Tolarian Academy, +1 Library of Alexandria. The Tolarian is a given, but am I being stupid in adding a card that I only get to use when the Confidant is already doing its job?

I like the stable manabase, because outside of Shops, the worst matchup I see a lot of in my meta would be Bant decks.

[pierce]

i've never played this variant of storm (though my tournament resume ought to provide that I know a thing or two about casting dark ritual) but i'd think that library is straight garbage. if you're worrying about getting and keeping 7 cards in hand, you're focusing on the wrong things.

[Evenpence]

i've never played this variant of storm (though my tournament resume ought to provide that I know a thing or two about casting dark ritual) but i'd think that library is straight garbage. if you're worrying about getting and keeping 7 cards in hand, you're focusing on the wrong things.

Yeah, Library isn't very good in this deck.  You want to be casting colored spells as acceleration or bombs.  Dark Confidant does enough on his own -- it's more helpful to have the extra black handy to cast rituals or tutors (or Confidant himself) than occasionally being stuck with only colorless mana available in your opening hand.

Cards are important to this deck, but you need to be aggressive in getting them.  Duress/thoughtseize is usually enough to take us to the mid-game where we explode.  Library is good for a long game of counterwars and whatnot -- this deck just wants to remove bombs from the opponents hand and then blow up, or simply just blow up.

[honestabe]

Yeah, library is a win-more at best

This deck has a lot to do turn one, usually throwing a confidant out there with by using some sort of acceleration.  This means eve if he lands, you won't have 7 in hand for 1-2 turns (depending on what you use to get him out there), and bob landing is enough to win anyway.  Plus, if he gets countered, you're REALLY screwed

[mistervader]

So would another fetchland/basic land be the only logical substitute in that spot, then, since I currently don't have access to Emerald and Pearl?

[beder]

Given the current meta, I am trying right now a storm build that is "in between" TPS and GWSx.
It works pretty well, taking strength from the 2 approaches, in a more controlish style.

Hybrid ritual combo 1.0 (60 cards)

// Lands x 13
    4 Polluted Delta
    1 Bloodstained Mire
    1 Flooded Strand
    3 Underground Sea
    2 Swamp
    2 Island

// Creatures
    4 Dark Confidant

// win conditions
    2 Tendrils of Agony
    1 Tinker  
    1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
  
// Accelerators
    1 Black Lotus
    1 Mox Jet
    1 Mox Emerald
    1 Mox Pearl
    1 Mox Sapphire
    1 Mox Ruby
    1 Lotus Petal
    1 Mana Crypt
    1 Sol Ring
  
    4 Dark Ritual
  
// disruption
   4 Force of Will  
   4 Thoughtseize
   3 Spell Pierce
  
// Regular stuff
    1 Sensei's Divining Top  
  
    1 Ancestral Recall
    1 Brainstorm
    1 Ponder
    1 Merchant Scroll    
    1 Mystical Tutor
    1 Time Walk
    1 Vampiric Tutor
    1 Demonic Tutor
    1 Yawgmoth's Will
    
    1 Thrist for knowledge
    1 Gift ungiven

// bounces
    1 Chain of Vapor  
    1 Hurkyl's Recall
    1 Rebuild

I like this build that is pretty consistent and well equilibrated (even if I am not even sure what that could mean )

- Can play in a slow-medium tempo mode thanks to the 11 disruption card
- The discruption package is good against tezz and oath.
- 2 tendrils is according to me a good configuration. It still allows the small tendrils plan while not creating an "over tendril drawing effect"
- 13 lands is not too bad when it comes to stabilizing the mana
- 3 bounces, dark conf, fow and tinker are good against shops

Still have to think about the maximisation of ritual impact. Perhaps does it need some other bombs in order to use them optimally (fact or fiction, mind twist or necro could be ideas).

[islanderboi10]

Did some testing today, here is my current list.

GWSx
4 Dark Confidant
3 Tendrils of Agony
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Necropotence
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Consultation
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Mind's Desire
1 Timetwister
1 Ad Nauseum
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Grim Tutor

2 Duress
3 Thoughtseize
1 Chain of Vapor
2 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Rebuild

4 Dark Ritual
2 Cabal Ritual
1 Lotus Petal
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mana Vault
2 Underground Sea
3 Swamp
2 Island
4 Polluted Delta
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Tolarian Academy

Yes its 61 cards.  My meta is not too infested with Shops either.  I like the current build, Ad Nas has won me a few games, when it resolves. And I have a Grim Tutor, but no Imperial Seal

I played 10 games against Mud, winning 7, losing 3.
The three I lost were to dumb hands like turn 1 Chalice at 1 and 0,  turn 1 Trinisphere, etc.
The deck played great. I even played through a trinisphere with ad nauseum.

I went mox, mox, land go. He played 3sphere.
I played land go, he strip mine + crucible.
I Demonic tutor for rebuild and say go.
He strips and says go.
I play land, go.
He plays tangle wire.
Wire on stack, rebuild, land, mox, mox, ritual, Ad Naus, win.

So I was on the play, it helped a lot. I also like Ad Naus as another bomb against control.

It's a great deck.
I tested against mono red stax as well, losting 5 games, but winning 6. He had a turn 1 chalice at 1 EVERY game. No joke.

All in all, the deck is great. I really enjoy playing it.
I will continue to test some more.

Thanks.