Top 4 at Black Magic Invitational with Bomberman

[KanaKaishou]

The tl;dr: the instant Tundra is a viable magic card in Vintage again, I have success again. Coincidence? I think not. Also, Tasigur the Golden Fang is a silly, silly magic card.

My list:

(10) Counterspells:

4 Force of Will
2 Mana Drain
2 Flusterstorm
2 Mental Misstep

(5) The restricted cards:
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Brainstorm
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Tinker

(11) Not restricted Spells:
2 Swords to Plowshares
1 Steel Sabotage
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Noxious Revival
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Disenchant
1 Unburial Rites
3 Gifts Ungiven

(10) Creatures
3 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
3 Trinket Mage
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
2 Auriok Salvagers

(24) Mana sources
8 SoLoMox+Crypt
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Island
1 Plains
4 Flooded Strand
2 Polluted Delta
3 Underground Sea
3 Tundra

SB:
1 Path to Exile
1 Swords to Plowshares
2 Disenchant
1 Hurkyl's Recall
3 Rest in Peace
1 Grafdigger's Cage
4 Containment Priest
2 True-Name Nemesis

Some explanations on individual cards:

Tasigur: He replaced all of the Aven Mindcensor/Vendilion Clique/other creatures in standard bomberman list. He serves dual duty here, as he hits a great deal harder than they do, and is also a pyrite spellbomb once you're going off. He's incredibly low investment, can provide more cards going long (even if they tend to be bad ones). I basically was convinced to play Bomberman when I realized that you no longer needed to play bad cards to one shot the opponent, and can instead use Ancestral Recall.

0 Sensei's Divining Top: Card is the greatest, and should be in this deck. It would be a darned shame if you FORGOT TO PUT ANY IN YOUR DECK OR REGISTER ANY. If you take anything from this, it's that you should put at least one Sensei's Top in your bomberman list. I wanted to fetch it with Trinket Mage multiple times. It's a card which would let me play the control role as well as the deck plays other roles. Still, you miss it less than you think, as you just keep fetching up Lotus, and "Just kill them" as a forced line, rather than trying to get fancy with Top.

Tinker/Bot: This was my hedge against Delver. Basically, Sphinx is unbeatable for Delver. Tinker also had some marginal value in fetching up Lotus or Spellbomb to set up the combo. I also thought it gave me more flexibility in terms of Gifts piles, but this only rarely came up.

0 Vault/Key: You know how I played Tasigur to avoid a cycling card in my deck? Now imagine what I think of Time Vault and Voltaic Key.

0 Yawg's Will: I have registered this card once in my life, regretted it, and think it is highly overrated, especially, in the more or less midrangey decks that I tend to play.

Unburial Rites: Sets up winning gifts piles, and does all the reanimation you need in one card. Rites makes Gifts->full Salvagers combo possible in gifts pile, which I don't think anything else can do. Is the card the worst when you draw it? Sure, but it's fairly unique as a functional reanimation spell that works out of the yard, and *nobody* expects the pile of Tasigur, Lotus, Salvagers, Mox to kill them on the spot when they give you Lotus and Mox the first time.

Noxious Revival: The "alternative" kill card, as well as a good Gifts target. The alternative kill allows you to merely kill all of their creatures and take all the turns if your recall happens to be binned. Noxious Revival then prevents you from decking. Also has other modes, as I won a game by Revivaling a Red Blast in response to a target from a Snapcaster.

True-Name Nemesis: The plan against other control decks (and Delver) was to be more of a fish deck than a control deck, and this is the best of the fishies. Most hard control strategies--like Landstill--are going to have a very limited number of outs to TNN.

Containment Priest: He's an all around good hate card...and is boarded in as Ashcoat Bear more than you'd think. The flash lets the deck play a more Faeries style game, which is where you want to be in the blue durdling mirror.

A report:

Pops Ferrante on Mono-Blue Transmute Artifact: I am very bad at names, I apologize. Both my opponent and his son are fun people to have in the Vintage community! Thanks to Rob for helping me out!

Game one, he assembles Tezzeret, gets Time Vault, and passes the turn. I draw Auriok Salvagers, and kill him before the Time Vault untaps.

Game two, we durdle for a bit, while I attack with Tasigur and a Trinket Mage. He gets down to 7, and goes for the big finish, where he Transmutes a Grim Monolith. I determine this is probably a problem, and Drain. He then Transmutes again. We fight a counter battle, and I fire off a Flusterstorm for 8 which he calmly pays for with another Grim Monolith, and gets Time Vault, and passes to me. I battle him to 1, have nothing...and a miracle occurs when he simply doesn't have the key to go with his vault, and dies.

Craig Berry on U/W: Game 1, we battle back and forth, both missing land drops, and neither person really willing to blink. Eventually, Craig resolves a True-Name Nemesis, but depletes his resources in resolving it. I tinker up Sphinx of the Steel Wind, and am able to race when Craig fails to draw a Swords or Disenchant. Even this is understating how tight the match was, because there were shenanigans with Tasigur and Karakas and Vendilion Clique involved, and the match hinging on a single Nihil Spellbomb.

Game 2, both Craig and I board in Containment Priests, and do battle with 2/2s. Our fine game of limited was broken open by me using Demonic to find True-Name Nemesis, which proved to be good enough in a world of 2/2s.

Mark Tocco on Landstill: Game 1, we both have Library after I DT for library, and kind of durdle for a while as I hit land drops, and he unbelievably misses. We fight over an end stepped Gifts, I untap, and Salvagers him. For the second time today, I explain how Tasigur, the Golden Fang, kills people. Tocco is fairly amused.

Game 2, Tocco chooses to draw, and plays library. Some reasonable amount of time and unreasonable number of cards later, I scoop to Jace+Crucible+Strip.

Game 3, I resolve DT for Library, and bury Tocco with Library as he misses a couple land drops. I think the coup de grace was delivered by Tasigur, who made the sudden shocks in Tocco's deck look pretty awkward.

Matt Murray on Sensei, Sensei: I was 50/50 on running Matt's list on the day, but decided I hated Yawgmoth and his Will too much, as much as I loved the Top and Magus of the Future.

Game 1: Matt and I trade lots of resources, but he's mulliganed, so I end up one card left to his none. I have a snapcaster left, and flashback DT for gifts. Matt does nothing on his turn, I resolve Gifts, and he concedes.

Game 2: Matt mulligans. I play Trinket Mage on turn 1, and Tasigur+Walk on turn 2. Matt loses both his Mana Crypt flips, and dies in short order.

Rounds 4+5: ID

Round of 16: Jeff Anand, on U/R/(x?) control.

Game 1, I play land Mox, DT, and get Salvagers. Jeff plays Mox, Mox, Land, Dack, and steals my mox. I play Crypt, Lotus, Salvagers, Tasigur with force backup, and he dies on the spot. He too is makes me go through the motions of casting Ancestral Recall 3 or 4 times, before smiling, realizing what was happening, and conceding.

Game 2, we go back and forth for a bit, and he has some amount of advantage because he has Red Blast, which is way more efficient than anything I have. when I'm on 4 mana+Lotus, he casts magus of the Moon with 3 up. I respond with Gifts, and he tries to Snapcaster a blast...but that blast is put back on top of his library by Noxious Revival, I gifts up Rites, Salvagers, Pearl, and Tasigur, and Jeff dies in a flurry of Ancestral Recalls.

Round of 8: Rob Edwards on Oath

Game 1, Rob casts Preordain, Brainstorm, Lotus, Will, Preordain, Brainstorm finds the Oath and Orchard on turn 2, and kills me. It was brutal.

Game 2, Rob is able to beat Containment Priest #1, and Grafdigger's Cage, but not Containment Priest #2, and dies to Orchard Tokens, the Priests, and a Trinket Mage.

Game 3, Rob keeps a loose 6, and dies to Containment Priest and Tasigur, after casting 1 Oath which is disenchanted on the spot.

Via Rob Edwards: "In game one of our match, I also played Thoughtseize turn one and during the Will. It was even more brutal than you remember. In game two, I mulled to five and you kept seven, but I still managed to empty your hand after you played FoW pitching Misstep to counter my FoW on your Cage. After I dealt with Cage and Priest and you were hellbent, you top decked the second Priest. In game three, I Missteped your Cage, Misstepped the same Cage you Noxious Revivaled, then you Disenchanted the Oath, but it was the fourth piece of hate in Priest that got me. I assembled Show and Tell and Iona a turn too late. "

Top 4 split. Two byes are awarded by Calvin on the split, and are raffled between Nick DiJohn, Hank Zhong, and me, as Keith already has one from crushing me and Rob Edwards at the NYSE. I instantly lose raffle, and will be playing round 1 of the Eternal Extravaganza vintage event.

Overall, the strengths of the deck are its ability to shift from aggro to control to combo very, very quickly. I'm happy casting Trinket Mage into Tasigur and beating down, but sitting back, and counter spells and killing creatures into a Gifts is also viable, and the combo kill is always looming. The deck rewards proper role assessment heavily, and basically allows/requires you to re-evaluate your plan at the start of every turn.

However, some pieces are individually quite weak (salvagers is the biggest offender, followed by Noxious Revival), and the deck is very, very mana hungry. I didn't put in the time to figure out a more solid plan against Shops than "play Disenchant+Swords+Pray", and was very lucky to avoid Shops on the day.

[A.-1.]

Congrats, Vasu.

Sounds like your round one opponent was Pops Ferrante.

In game one of our match, I also played Thoughtseize turn one and during the Will. It was even more brutal than you remember. In game two, I mulled to five and you kept seven, but I still managed to empty your hand after you played FoW pitching Misstep to counter my FoW on your Cage. After I dealt with Cage and Priest and you were hellbent, you top decked the second Priest. In game three, I Missteped your Cage, Misstepped the same Cage you Noxious Revivaled, then you Disenchanted the Oath, but it was the fourth piece of hate in Priest that got me. I assembled Show and Tell and Iona a turn too late.

[KanaKaishou]

Congrats, Vasu.

Sounds like your round one opponent was Pops Ferrante.

In game one of our match, I also played Thoughtseize turn one and during the Will. It was even more brutal than you remember. In game two, I mulled to five and you kept seven, but I still managed to empty your hand after you played FoW pitching Misstep to counter my FoW on your Cage. After I dealt with Cage and Priest and you were hellbent, you top decked the second Priest. In game three, I Missteped your Cage, Misstepped the same Cage you Noxious Revivaled, then you Disenchanted the Oath, but it was the fourth piece of hate in Priest that got me. I assembled Show and Tell and Iona a turn too late.

Guilty as charged. I'm going to copy/paste your account into mine.

[jlim17]

Congrats on the finish, Vasu! This decklist is sweet and looks crazy fun! It screams "VINTAGE!!!!".

[Shadowuni]

Good job Vasu! It would have been interesting to play you!

[StrongSide]

Hey vasu or anyone who understand how tasigur work as the win con? I understand you can draw/mill your deck but how does that lead to the win?

[Chubby Rain]

Hey vasu or anyone who understand how tasigur work as the win con? I understand you can draw/mill your deck but how does that lead to the win?

Activating Tasigur repeatedly (with infinite mana from Bomberman combo) leads to a game state where every single nonland card is in your hand, your library is empty, and your graveyard contains nothing but lands. From that point, you can cast any spell in your deck and then return it to your hand with Tasigur's ability (again, it would be the only nonland card in your graveyard). Ancestral Recall targeting your opponent allows you to deck him, Time Walk + Noxious Revival allows to take infinite turns without decking yourself. During this process, you have every piece of countermagic in your hand which you can return at will using Tasigur. Traditional countermagic from your opponent doesn't do anything as you return the countered card using Tasigur. Extirpate is realistically the only thing in your opponent's deck that can disrupt the combo once it has begun.

Congrats on the finish again, Vasu!

[StrongSide]

Hey vasu or anyone who understand how tasigur work as the win con? I understand you can draw/mill your deck but how does that lead to the win?

Activating Tasigur repeatedly (with infinite mana from Bomberman combo) leads to the point where every single nonland card is in your hand, your library is empty, and your graveyard contains nothing but lands. From that point, you can cast any spell in your deck and then return it to your hand with Tasigur's ability (again, it would be the only nonland card in your graveyard). Ancestral Recall targeting your opponent allows you to deck him, Time Walk + Noxious Revival allows to take infinite turns without decking yourself. During this process, you have every piece of countermagic in your hand which you can return at will using Tasigur. Traditional countermagic from your opponent doesn't do anything as you return the countered card using Tasigur. Extirpate is realistically the only thing in your opponent's deck that can disrupt the combo once it has begun.

Congrats on the finish again, Vasu!

Thanks for the explanation Matt! I knew I was missing something lol

[fsecco]

I'm in love. This deck seems exactly what I was trying to do, but much better. I love Tasigur since before he was cool (purchased mine in pre-order for 3 bucks each) and just built a Commander with him as general. He seems pretty silly here.

Also, playing 3 Gifts in Bomberman must feel awesome.

Now, I wonder if this deck starts getting hate in the form of Extirpate you could add Thoughtseizes to the SB to avoid getting screwed.

One thing I don't get: what do you SB out vs Dredge to put RiPs in? 3 Tasigur?

[KanaKaishou]

I'm in love. This deck seems exactly what I was trying to do, but much better. I love Tasigur since before he was cool (purchased mine in pre-order for 3 bucks each) and just built a Commander with him as general. He seems pretty silly here.

Also, playing 3 Gifts in Bomberman must feel awesome.

Now, I wonder if this deck starts getting hate in the form of Extirpate you could add Thoughtseizes to the SB to avoid getting screwed.

One thing I don't get: what do you SB out vs Dredge to put RiPs in? 3 Tasigur?

I actually don't know if I would have boarded Tasigur out. RiP is so stupid against Dredge that 6 mana 4/5 is probably good enough if it's on the table. And if you're on Containment Priest or Cage as your hate, Tasigur works just fine. I haven't done the count, but off the top of my head, I'd try to transition into a more or less Tinker Control deck with 9 hate cards (3 RiP, 1 cage, 1 spellbomb, 4 priest) as Sphinx of the Steel Wind really ought to do the job against Dredge. Ok, Maybe Tasigur would come out, as Auriok Salvagers would be a cheaper blocker...

Duress also doesn't solve the issue of Extirpate. If they already have Extirpate, then they Extirpate Lotus, since if I get my entire deck, presumably I can find a way to beat Extirpate. If we have to give it to them, then they simply Extirpate Recall in response to Duress, and we're back to the same place we were. You need to not give them all the cards if they have Extirpate, and I think that means you just take the Noxious Revival kill over the Recall kill if they have 1 black mana up.

[fsecco]

Duress also doesn't solve the issue of Extirpate. If they already have Extirpate, then they Extirpate Lotus, since if I get my entire deck, presumably I can find a way to beat Extirpate. If we have to give it to them, then they simply Extirpate Recall in response to Duress, and we're back to the same place we were. You need to not give them all the cards if they have Extirpate, and I think that means you just take the Noxious Revival kill over the Recall kill if they have 1 black mana up.

You should Duress before going infinite. Of course Lotus or Recall could already be on the graveyard, but that's another approach.

[KanaKaishou]

You should Duress before going infinite. Of course Lotus or Recall could already be on the graveyard, but that's another approach.

Oh. This is something I don't care about at all. If they break up the combo, more power to them. I will then battle them with my 4/5 and 2/4, and probably win, because if I switch to that plan, they've straight up discarded a card. Duress is strong when going for a linear kill, but the strength of bomberman--and I would argue especially this rendition of Bomberman--is that you don't have to go infinite to win, and just beating down will do the trick, and I think that Duress as a disruptive spell isn't where you want to be in most scenarios.

[vaughnbros]

Bombergifts.  Looks absolutely sweet.  Nice finish!  Did you miss having Jace at any point?

[tribet]

I get the combo Tasigur/Salvagers but at a first glance, to me, it looked as appealing as Mindshrieker/Salvagers.

I suppose Tasigur is a great body and it feels that aggro role much better than a Mindshrieker.

Beyond that, Tasigur's ability seems rather mana intensive but reading your report I understand better the value of it in the control matchups.

Definitely a very intriguing card for sure. Thanks for putting it on my radar

[xouman]

Congrats on the outstanding performance! I must say I wasn't sold at all (I'm not still) with tasigur. But it worked for you, so you deserve all the credit. I'm quite interested in this build, since I have played a couple of times salvagers oath (I got 4-2 last saturday, but was not enough for Top8) and I'm not sure that gifts into unburial rites is better. Of course gifts is much more versatile, but oath is far cheaper. Nevertheless now you are talking about tasigur vs spellbomb, and at this point I choose spellbomb.

Let's suppose you have infinite mana. With a spellbomb in hand, even against 100 counterspells you are going to resolve the spellbomb and win. However tasigur could get countered and it's not as easy to recover. If you don't have any in hand, trinket fetches the spellbomb. Gift fetches both, but spellbomb would be available with any gifts pile. So with infinite mana spellbomb is never worse, sometimes better.

Let's suppose you don't have infinite mana. Spellbomb costs 1, tasigur costs 1+5. For me the spellbomb reads "2+sacrifice: draw a card" most of the time. Tasigur has a body, and an effect (providing you have shits of mana).
Against dredge I want a nihil. Other spellbomb just allows me cycling quickly or get a marginal tempo bonus. Tasigur should be played late, just as a blocker.
Against creatures I prefer tasigur, just for the body.
Against oath I prefer any spellbomb (of course).
Against combo-control, it depends on the build.
Against MUD... I prefer a tasigur in play, but spellbomb is far cheaper. In those matches where I get mana screwed, I usually have few cards in the grave. Spellbomb comes quicker, does not cost more in front of the golem, fetches for manasources, taps equally for tangle... Maybe tasigur does not go to the side when playing against mud, but it does not seem a strong card there :/


Overall I prefer spellbomb, unless facing null rods

[LoamFohrLyphe]

This deck seems amazing, and was the reason I just signed up on themanadrain.  Since you are running gifts, and plan to generate arbitrarily large amounts of mana and storm via lotus recursion, is there any merit in running a Mind's Desire in lieu of one of the Tasigur's?  Also, you said you dodged shops and had a strategy of "pray".  Would you think a MD hurkyl's recall (and possibly scroll or mystical) and more basics would be enough of a reasonable plan?  And if you cut a sea and tundra for 2 islands, do you think you would have regretted it in other matchups?

[KanaKaishou]

Let's suppose you have infinite mana. With a spellbomb in hand, even against 100 counterspells you are going to resolve the spellbomb and win. However tasigur could get countered and it's not as easy to recover. If you don't have any in hand, trinket fetches the spellbomb. Gift fetches both, but spellbomb would be available with any gifts pile. So with infinite mana spellbomb is never worse, sometimes better.

Let's suppose you don't have infinite mana. Spellbomb costs 1, tasigur costs 1+5. For me the spellbomb reads "2+sacrifice: draw a card" most of the time. Tasigur has a body, and an effect (providing you have shits of mana).
Against dredge I want a nihil. Other spellbomb just allows me cycling quickly or get a marginal tempo bonus. Tasigur should be played late, just as a blocker.
Against creatures I prefer tasigur, just for the body.
Against oath I prefer any spellbomb (of course).
Against combo-control, it depends on the build.
Against MUD... I prefer a tasigur in play, but spellbomb is far cheaper. In those matches where I get mana screwed, I usually have few cards in the grave. Spellbomb comes quicker, does not cost more in front of the golem, fetches for manasources, taps equally for tangle... Maybe tasigur does not go to the side when playing against mud, but it does not seem a strong card there :/

I think your assessment of the card isn't badly wrong, but I think our evaluation of what the deck is doing different, so we disagree on the card. I view the deck as basically a midrange value deck that can combo you out as one of your routes to victory, rather than a combo deck with a fighting monster backup. I will note that I still had 1 spellbomb in my deck--largely for the reasons that you noted. Tasigur was really my Pyrite Spellbomb (the one which one shots them), rather than my on color spellbomb (in my case, Nihil). He's oddly enough convenient with Unburial Rites to just kill them, but I think you very well might be right that I should be putting Spellbomb in my Gifts piles over Tasigur--my thought was that if they had 1 counterspell, they put Salvagers and Rites in the Yard, give you Tasigur+Lotus, you flashback Rites, have it countered...and now I'd rather have a 4/5. I believe that in general, that if someone can stop you from getting infinite mana, they will, and as a rule, once you ask "I have Salvagers combo?" and they say "Yes", your opponent has just passed priority until the end of turn.

Bombergifts.  Looks absolutely sweet.  Nice finish!  Did you miss having Jace at any point?

No. Never. I can't imagine wanting to cast Jace over Gifts at any point in the day.

This deck seems amazing, and was the reason I just signed up on themanadrain.  Since you are running gifts, and plan to generate arbitrarily large amounts of mana and storm via lotus recursion, is there any merit in running a Mind's Desire in lieu of one of the Tasigur's?  Also, you said you dodged shops and had a strategy of "pray".  Would you think a MD hurkyl's recall (and possibly scroll or mystical) and more basics would be enough of a reasonable plan?  And if you cut a sea and tundra for 2 islands, do you think you would have regretted it in other matchups?

Wow, thanks for the props! No, none at all in mind's desire. If I was going to play a storm card, it would be Tendrils of Agony, which just kills them, rather than Desire, which does more durdling. You might not know me as a player, but I'm someone who saw old style Grixis Control and was instantly off the plan of running that deck. Mind's Desire is a card which is fine in storm and belcher, and garbage elsewhere.

I think 2 basics (you actually need 3x Tundra to reliably combo and cast mana drain, though I could see only 2x Underground Sea) and a pile of swords and disenchant effects is going to be highly effective against shops, but I'm not really on a plan, so much as jamming a bunch of cards which are good against them and hoping that's good enough. I have to imagine my shops matchup isn't unwinnable, but it was a "I don't know how good it is" matchup. I talked with my car on the way back, and I think I should have cut the Recall in the board for either an EE or a Devout Witness, but the answer is in testing, rather than anything else.

[brianpk80]

Congrats on the great finish with a wonderful deck.  I was wavering between Tasigur Gush and Oath and at the last minute when I heard of the furious influx of Shop insurgents, I picked Oath.  I stand corrected.  When we talked afterwards, we were in agreement that Demonic Tutor is a card that can easily be cut but Tasigur is not.  That speaks volumes.  I was worried 2 Tasigurs may have been overkill but seeing you pull it off with 3 is inspiring.  

Nevertheless now you are talking about tasigur vs spellbomb, and at this point I choose spellbomb.

Pyrite Spellbomb is definitely the right call for Oath -> Salvagers since you want the Salvager to appear with his toys Oathed into the graveyard.  Tasigur would be underwhelming to Oath up, especially since Oath cheats higher CC creatures (whether {15} or 4BBBB or 3W) into play and being that Tasigur can be played for  , Oath of Druids is amusingly overpriced in this regard.

Extirpate is realistically the only thing in your opponent's deck that can disrupt the combo once it has begun.

And Mikokoro, Center of the Sea, bane of Doomsday.  

On an extra note, I should point out that Tasigur's ability is not difficult to manipulate in a way that gets you incredible cards back every turn, particularly with the crown jewel of UW Mages, Sensei's Divining Top.  Several times in testing, I've put lands as the first two in the Top, used Tasigur and said something like, "Do you return Ancestral Recall or Time Walk?" (best case scenario) or something more common like "Do I get Force, Merchant Scroll, or Gush?"  He's a great card and the activated ability is challengingly superb.  

[KanaKaishou]

On an extra note, I should point out that Tasigur's ability is not difficult to manipulate in a way that gets you incredible cards back every turn, particularly with the crown jewel of UW Mages, Sensei's Divining Top.  Several times in testing, I've put lands as the first two in the Top, used Tasigur and said something like, "Do you return Ancestral Recall or Time Walk?" (best case scenario) or something more common like "Do I get Force, Merchant Scroll, or Gush?"  He's a great card and the activated ability is challengingly superb.  

This didn't come up for me...because I forgot to play Top. But that seems pretty good.

[Chubby Rain]

Congrats on the outstanding performance! I must say I wasn't sold at all (I'm not still) with tasigur. But it worked for you, so you deserve all the credit. I'm quite interested in this build, since I have played a couple of times salvagers oath (I got 4-2 last saturday, but was not enough for Top8) and I'm not sure that gifts into unburial rites is better. Of course gifts is much more versatile, but oath is far cheaper. Nevertheless now you are talking about tasigur vs spellbomb, and at this point I choose spellbomb.

I can't comment on Unburial Rites as it never was relevant in our match but I can comment on Tasigur - he was incredible and his ability was never activated once. He's really Tarmogoyf in a better color with an added ability tacked on. I have run spellbombs and they do have some utility without the combo, but Tasigur seems much better in this role. He is also much better against Shops and Fish as a plan B for when they invalidate the combo (with spheres or null rod).

On an extra note, I should point out that Tasigur's ability is not difficult to manipulate in a way that gets you incredible cards back every turn, particularly with the crown jewel of UW Mages, Sensei's Divining Top.  Several times in testing, I've put lands as the first two in the Top, used Tasigur and said something like, "Do you return Ancestral Recall or Time Walk?" (best case scenario) or something more common like "Do I get Force, Merchant Scroll, or Gush?"  He's a great card and the activated ability is challengingly superb. 

Also works well with other Delve cards. Worse case scenario is you cast a second Tasigur to remove the chaff from the graveyard.

[KanaKaishou]

Also works well with other Delve cards. Worse case scenario is you cast a second Tasigur to remove the chaff from the graveyard.

I mean, then they just give you back Tasigur, right? It's sorta awkward...

[mr.grim]

I just wanted to give you a huge shout out for your top 4 performance! The deck looks insane!

[xouman]

Looking from a midrange perspective, I concede that Tasigur is far better than any spellbomb. It bumps a lot the aggro win condition, and certainly does more than 2: cycling. however I tend to play bomberman biased to combo more than to control, so probably would not be as good as in your build.

[Samoht]

Looking from a midrange perspective, I concede that Tasigur is far better than any spellbomb. It bumps a lot the aggro win condition, and certainly does more than 2: cycling. however I tend to play bomberman biased to combo more than to control, so probably would not be as good as in your build.

Its a combo card too and enables you to dig through clumps. Akin to TC and DTT the card is deceptively powerful. I'd suggest trying it.

Great work Vasu. Didn't realize I hadn't said that yet until just now.

[Chubby Rain]

Also works well with other Delve cards. Worse case scenario is you cast a second Tasigur to remove the chaff from the graveyard.

I mean, then they just give you back Tasigur, right? It's sorta awkward...

Vasu, you know I'm talking about like turn 20 here Remove a lot of random missteps, forces, and swords to get to that Ancestral and Time Walk.
That's how I roll.

[mueller]

4/5 for


pay 4, draw a non-land card. sounds pretty good