Vintage Hypergenesis

[MaximumCDawg]

I know, I know, playing Vintage without cards that cost 0 - 2 mana is like bringing a sword to a gunfight.  But, with Hypergenesis the payoff is being able to run 9 or more copies of Show and Tell.  My goal here is to find a reasonably decent way to run Cascade-Hypergenesis combo in Vintage. 

First things first, the core of the deck: Cascade cards and Hypergenesis.  Bloodbraid Elf would work fine here, too, since she will always cascade into a Hypergenesis or into a Shardless Agent who will, in turn, hit a Hypergenesis, but she doesn't do enough to win on her own to justify inclusion.  I think, especially considering how much easier it is to hit 3 mana than 4, that we're stuck with the neigh-useless Violent Outburst.

4x Shardless Agent
4x Violent Outbust 
2x Hypergenesis (Two so that you don't screw yourself by drawing them all, and hopefully you can Grisle into a win)

Next, we need ways to ramp our mana that are comparable with Cascade.  Only Spirit Guides fit this bill.

4x Simian Spirit Guide
4x Elvish Spirit Guide

After that, we need 15 or so creatures to dump when we go off.  Here's the contenders, in my mind:

Progenitus - Can only be stopped by sacrifice effects; not on most people's radar as a threat in Vintage.  Pitches to force.
Emrakul - The final word in smashing face. 
Blightsteel Collossus - Wins upon connecting, but vunlerable to hate everyone is running for Tinker.
Maelstrom Wanderer - Used in Legacy, this dude usually means you win immediately becuase everyone gets Haste.  Pitches to force.
Thraximundar - Tech!  Thrax is a fast win condition because he's hasty, but he also murders opposing creatures.  Helps deal with shops / aggro.  Pitches to force.
Inkwell Levithan - Shroudy evasive goodness, but a slow kill.  Dies to Recall.  Pitches to force.
Angel of Despair - Like Thrax, she's a way to deal with problematic permanents your opponent might drop.
Terastadon - Ditto, perhaps better than Angel.
Grislebrand - If he drops, you can probably dump 14 life into him for more spirit guides / etc and just cascade again on the spot with a huge grip, probably including a Wanderer for the win on the spot.

The creature suite I like maximizes the utility of your blue pitch counters.  After that, you prefer the instant-win creatures in your maindeck. After that, I consider utility against decks that also drop lots of permanents, like shops particularly.  So, something like this:

1x Progenitus
3x Inkwell Levithan
2x Malestrom Wanderer
2x Thraximundar
2x Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
2x Blightsteel Collossus
1x Terastadon

Speaking of pitch counters, you will need them to have any chance in hell of resolving Hypergenesis.  You only have three options really worth talking about, I think:

4x Force of Will
2x Misdirection
4x Ricochet Trap (The existence of this card is almost entirely responsible for my thought that this deck might do anything in Vintage; it gives us access to potentially 12 very useful spells to stop countermagic)

We need a way to dig for our cards, and Gush is a good option that cooperates with Cascade.

4x Gush

Finally, we need some hate cards to let us get as far as resolving genesis against decks that want to win faster or lock us out.

4x Ingot Chewer (shops)
4x Ravenous Trap  (dredge)
4x Leyline of the Void
1x Sphinx of the Steel Wind (RUG delver)

And a Show and Tell tossed in for good measure.

1x Show and Tell

So, here's a first draft of a Vintage list:

Vintage Hypergenesis

Combo (11)

4x Shardless Agent
4x Violent Outburst
2x Hypergeneisis
1x Show and Tell

Acell (8)

4x Simian Spirit Guide
4x Elvish Spirit Guide

Creatures (12)
1x Progenitus
3x Inkwell Levithan
2x Malestrom Wanderer
2x Thraximundar
2x Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
2x Blightsteel Collossus

Protection (7)
4x Force of Will
2x Misdirection
1x Ricochet Trap

Draw Engine (4)
4x Gush

Mana (18)
4x City of Brass
3x Misty Rainforest
3x Scalding Tarn
2x Tropical Island
2x Volcanic Island
2x Island
1x Forest
1x Mountain

Sideboard:
3x Ricochet Trap (in for Thrax and a Blightsteel against blue)
4x Ingot Chewer (in for Ricochet, Misdirection, and a Gush against shops)
4x Ravenous Trap (in for Forces against Dredge)
4x Leyline of the Void (in for Misdirection, Ricochet, and an Inky against Dredge)

So, thats the plan, anyway.  The idea is that Vintage Hypergenesis gets an actual draw engine in the form of Gush, making it more powerful than its Legacy counterpart.  In goldfishing, this build is able to cast Hypergenesis on turn 2 about half the time, it feels like, usually with at least one card for protection. 

Anyone else tried this thing out?

[policehq]

I don't know how janky this is getting, but what about playing 4 Omniscience in here in place of 4 fatties? That way, awesome things happen: You actually get to cast Emrakul and get a free turn. It's blue. If you play Griselbrand, you go nuts. It doesn't matter whether your opponent decides to play permanents or not.

Intuition is a good tutor in Hypergenesis.

[MaximumCDawg]

I don't know how janky this is getting, but what about playing 4 Omniscience in here in place of 4 fatties? That way, awesome things happen: You actually get to cast Emrakul and get a free turn. It's blue. If you play Griselbrand, you go nuts. It doesn't matter whether your opponent decides to play permanents or not.

Intuition is a good tutor in Hypergenesis.

I considered Omniscience, but ultimately dumped it for two reasons.  In Legacy, you are likely to face Maze of Ith, Karakas, and Gilded Drake, all things you need to be able to stop by "casting" Emrakul.  In Vintage?  Not so much.  So sure, good things happen, but I'd much rather ensure I have fatties to drop than the intermediate step of Omniscience.  I can totally see the insanity with Grislebrand, though.... hmm

As for intuition - that's interesting, but what would you tutor for?  I guess it does get either a fattie or a cascade card, but how often are you missing one of those in your hand when you have 9 of one and 12 of the other?  Also, remember alot of the acceleration in this deck is one-shot, with Spirit Guides.  It's not really a good idea to blow your Guides for a 3 casting cost tutor, I dont think.

What might be useful, oddly enough, is something like Dream Cache.  Only because it lets you dump a Hypergenesis back in your library if you drew it. Including a few might ensure your Grislebrand-fueled Genesis really does go bonkers.

[psyburat]

The prevalence of Workshops has made this deck unable to exist in the Northeast metagame (and believe me, Shardless Agent couldn't have been a bigger dot on my radar: http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=44250.0).  Given that the game you want to be playing involves casting two spells to win (Cascader + Hypergenesis), having merely one Sphere on the board means having my win condition delayed by two turns.  Within those turns, it is very possible to then face down another Sphere, or a Tangle Wire to shut off the Shardless Agent route to victory.  The fact that players consider a blind Chalice of the Void set to zero a reasonable play isn't helping matters either.  The deck needs Rebuild as least in the main as a way to fight Shops, while still being able to cycle multiples or pitch them to Force of Will.

How has running 4x City of Brass, 1x Mountain and 1x Forest been working out in conjunction with Gush?

[MaximumCDawg]

The prevalence of Workshops has made this deck unable to exist in the Northeast metagame (and believe me, Shardless Agent couldn't have been a bigger dot on my radar: http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=44250.0).  Given that the game you want to be playing involves casting two spells to win (Cascader + Hypergenesis), having merely one Sphere on the board means having my win condition delayed by two turns.  Within those turns, it is very possible to then face down another Sphere, or a Tangle Wire to shut off the Shardless Agent route to victory.  The fact that players consider a blind Chalice of the Void set to zero a reasonable play isn't helping matters either.  The deck needs Rebuild as least in the main as a way to fight Shops, while still being able to cycle multiples or pitch them to Force of Will.

How has running 4x City of Brass, 1x Mountain and 1x Forest been working out in conjunction with Gush?

In goldfishing, it hasn't been a problem because of all of the fetches, but I could easily see senarios where you have two lands, one of them is not an island, and you can't Gush.  You don't appear to really need Gush to dig for the win in this deck, though; it's more here to give you reach against countermagic.

And you're right, Sphere effects are exactly what Im concerned this deck is weak against.  The best answer I can think of at the moment is Ingot Chewer.  There are other pitch artifact killers too, right?  Pulverize / Crash spring to mind.  Rebuild is a good idea, but I'm very skeptical of running a 3 cc spell in a deck with so little permanent mana production. Seems like the spheres will make it uncastable fast.

To address those concerns, what about swapping a mountain and forest for two more volcanic islands?  

[Tobi]

What about Serum Powder? Might be helpful in finding an explosive start...