swarm187
04-13-2009, 04:57 PM
Hello all,
I have been toying around with a few Legacy decks now, and I know the heavy hitters in the format. My goal with this deck is not to make a tournament-busting juggernaut...I'm just looking to build a fun Legacy deck to play at casual tournaments.
That being said, this deck actually has some potential. There are obvious weaknesses, but before I get into card choices and such, here's the decklist:
4x Nether Traitor
4x Dark Confidant
4x Psychatog
4x Lim-Dul's Vault
4x Vampiric Tutor
4x Cabal Therapy
4x Bitter Ordeal
4x Bridge From Below
4x Chrome Mox
4x Phyrexian Alter
4x Underground Sea
4x Polluted Delta
6x Swamp
6x Island
First of all, I don't have a set sideboard because I just started testing the deck itself.
The basic idea of the deck is to win via Bitter Ordeal. The combo runs by first getting a Nether Traitor in the graveyard via sacking him to Chrome Mox, Cabal Therapy, or Psychatog. Then playing a second Traitor on the board, along with a Phyrexian Altar. This creates an infinite sac/reanimation loop, making your Gravestorm count for Bitter Ordeal infinite as well.
I quickly realized, after goofing around with an Ichorid deck myself, that this combo would work perfectly with Bridge From Below, essentially making infinite 2/2 zombies. So, I borrowed a few cards from the Ichorid lists and started building the foundation of this deck.
Creatures:
Obviously Nether Traitors are a four-of, since they are a HUGE part of your combo and you need one in your opening hand, maybe even two. Dark Confidants are kind of a no brainer here too, because Bob gives you such an advantage in the draw game. Plus, if you're fishing for that second Traitor, it's always nice to draw two cards per turn...I mean, when is it NOT nice? Bob's drawback really hasn't become that large of an issue yet, although the game I landed two Dark Confidants my life got very low.
Psychatogs were kind of an afterthought in this build, basically because I'm not building the deck to fit him specifically. He has been nothing short of outstanding for me thus far, giving me a fat creature that allows me to sac stuff too. I may drop this to a three-of, but for now, I'm a believer.
Spells:
Lim-Dul's Vault is an amazing spell in any combo deck, being an extremely cheap way to fix your draws and find the stuff you need. Oh yeah, at instant speed! I'd like to keep this as a four-of, but three would work as well.
I chose to put in Vampiric Tutors as well, because they're also a great way to fix Bob draws and find the cards you need to go off that turn.
Cabal Therapy is tech that I borrowed from other Legacy decks that use the spell on themselves to sac what they need from their hand. I haven't had to do this yet, but I have used it on my opponent, then sacked my Nether Traitor in play to use it again at its Flashback cost, netting two cards from my opponent's hand and getting the necessary cards in my own graveyard for the combo.
Bitter Ordeal is the primary win condition in the deck, and thus a four-of. There's nothing better than making your opponent discard their entire library turn three or four.
Bridge From Below, I will admit, is a 'win more' card, but it can also be a win condition if you're playing against heavy control and you can't get a Bitter Ordeal to stick. It's a dead draw, which sucks, but with so many sac-outlets, it hasn't been a problem for me to ditch it if I draw it. This may end up being a three-of.
Chrome Mox is an AMAZING card in this deck. Sacking a Bridge or a Traitor to this is a GREAT turn one play, and the mana acceleration helps to churn out turn three/four kills.
Phyrexian Altar is the other main part of the combo, and thus stays as a four-of. This is the most fragile piece of the deck, in my opinion, so I'd like to find something to protect it.
Manabase:
Pretty vanilla at this point, although I'm not sure what I could put in here to jazz it up. I thought about Wastelands, but I don't have the room to play non-color producing lands. I scrapped City of Traitors and Ancient Tombs for the same reason, as I would much rather be able to produce BB on turn two than one black and two colorless.
So, there's the deck in theory. I have thought about trying to fill in the build with control, since the colors fit perfectly, but I'm not sure what spells I'd choose. I also thought about going strictly hand-disruption with Thoughtseize, Duress, etc. but again, what do I take out?
Please leave some feedback and let me know what you think would make this deck run a little more smoothly. I am also looking to build up a sideboard for it, so please leave some suggestions for that as well.
Thanks for taking a look, I'll try to post some results when I can.
I have been toying around with a few Legacy decks now, and I know the heavy hitters in the format. My goal with this deck is not to make a tournament-busting juggernaut...I'm just looking to build a fun Legacy deck to play at casual tournaments.
That being said, this deck actually has some potential. There are obvious weaknesses, but before I get into card choices and such, here's the decklist:
4x Nether Traitor
4x Dark Confidant
4x Psychatog
4x Lim-Dul's Vault
4x Vampiric Tutor
4x Cabal Therapy
4x Bitter Ordeal
4x Bridge From Below
4x Chrome Mox
4x Phyrexian Alter
4x Underground Sea
4x Polluted Delta
6x Swamp
6x Island
First of all, I don't have a set sideboard because I just started testing the deck itself.
The basic idea of the deck is to win via Bitter Ordeal. The combo runs by first getting a Nether Traitor in the graveyard via sacking him to Chrome Mox, Cabal Therapy, or Psychatog. Then playing a second Traitor on the board, along with a Phyrexian Altar. This creates an infinite sac/reanimation loop, making your Gravestorm count for Bitter Ordeal infinite as well.
I quickly realized, after goofing around with an Ichorid deck myself, that this combo would work perfectly with Bridge From Below, essentially making infinite 2/2 zombies. So, I borrowed a few cards from the Ichorid lists and started building the foundation of this deck.
Creatures:
Obviously Nether Traitors are a four-of, since they are a HUGE part of your combo and you need one in your opening hand, maybe even two. Dark Confidants are kind of a no brainer here too, because Bob gives you such an advantage in the draw game. Plus, if you're fishing for that second Traitor, it's always nice to draw two cards per turn...I mean, when is it NOT nice? Bob's drawback really hasn't become that large of an issue yet, although the game I landed two Dark Confidants my life got very low.
Psychatogs were kind of an afterthought in this build, basically because I'm not building the deck to fit him specifically. He has been nothing short of outstanding for me thus far, giving me a fat creature that allows me to sac stuff too. I may drop this to a three-of, but for now, I'm a believer.
Spells:
Lim-Dul's Vault is an amazing spell in any combo deck, being an extremely cheap way to fix your draws and find the stuff you need. Oh yeah, at instant speed! I'd like to keep this as a four-of, but three would work as well.
I chose to put in Vampiric Tutors as well, because they're also a great way to fix Bob draws and find the cards you need to go off that turn.
Cabal Therapy is tech that I borrowed from other Legacy decks that use the spell on themselves to sac what they need from their hand. I haven't had to do this yet, but I have used it on my opponent, then sacked my Nether Traitor in play to use it again at its Flashback cost, netting two cards from my opponent's hand and getting the necessary cards in my own graveyard for the combo.
Bitter Ordeal is the primary win condition in the deck, and thus a four-of. There's nothing better than making your opponent discard their entire library turn three or four.
Bridge From Below, I will admit, is a 'win more' card, but it can also be a win condition if you're playing against heavy control and you can't get a Bitter Ordeal to stick. It's a dead draw, which sucks, but with so many sac-outlets, it hasn't been a problem for me to ditch it if I draw it. This may end up being a three-of.
Chrome Mox is an AMAZING card in this deck. Sacking a Bridge or a Traitor to this is a GREAT turn one play, and the mana acceleration helps to churn out turn three/four kills.
Phyrexian Altar is the other main part of the combo, and thus stays as a four-of. This is the most fragile piece of the deck, in my opinion, so I'd like to find something to protect it.
Manabase:
Pretty vanilla at this point, although I'm not sure what I could put in here to jazz it up. I thought about Wastelands, but I don't have the room to play non-color producing lands. I scrapped City of Traitors and Ancient Tombs for the same reason, as I would much rather be able to produce BB on turn two than one black and two colorless.
So, there's the deck in theory. I have thought about trying to fill in the build with control, since the colors fit perfectly, but I'm not sure what spells I'd choose. I also thought about going strictly hand-disruption with Thoughtseize, Duress, etc. but again, what do I take out?
Please leave some feedback and let me know what you think would make this deck run a little more smoothly. I am also looking to build up a sideboard for it, so please leave some suggestions for that as well.
Thanks for taking a look, I'll try to post some results when I can.