Non-Powered Gxx Bazaar-Survival

[Viridia]

So, we have a Vintage tourney coming up soon here and i was trying to figure out what to play.
The guy who i usually borrow power from will be playing his Oath deck there, which means he needs all the power himself.

I was tinkering about with a list something like this:

Mainboard (61)

19 Lands
1 Badlands
1 Barbarian Ring
3 Bayou
4 Bazaar of Baghdad
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Strip Mine
2 Taiga
2 Verdant Catacombs
2 Wasteland
2 Wooded Foothills

29 Creatures
4 Basking Rootwalla
4 Dark Confidant
4 Deathrite Shaman
3 Squee, Goblin Nabob
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Vengevine
2 Yixlid Jailer


13 Other spells
3 Ancient Grudge
2 Life from the Loam
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Survival of the Fittest



Yixlid Jailer might look weird, but getting it online vs Dredge in G1 is backbreaking for them, and it's tutorable. Also works quite well vs Snapcaster and Will decks.
Deathrite seems the best mana accel/utility creature i could find @ CMC 1
Rootwalla /duh
Vengevine, good vs somewhat slower decks aswell as comboing with Survival on T3/4 is awesome.
Squee need some food for Bazaar and Survival ;)
Goyf brings the beats
Confidant is awesome in any deck to be honest ;)
Bolts as removal, probably need 1-3 more removal spells in the side for creature-heavy hatebear decks


Sideboard will include 1-3 Spot Removal, 3-6 Graveyard hate, 2-4 MUD Hate, 1-3 Blue hate, 2-3 Anti-Mana denial and 1-3 Combo Hate

Any suggestions/tips/comments are very welcome :D

[HammerAndSickled]

But... Yixlid Jailer turns off your own Vengevines and Squee?

[Viridia]

Yeah, but Yixlid Jailer turns off the whole of dredge, the only other card i could come up with was Faerie Macabre, which is really bad in Vintage, esp if it's not in your starting hand

[aahz]

You might consider some Elvish Spirit Guides. They let you cast stuff and still drop Bazaar on turn 1, as well as being creatures for Survival. Also, Lotus Petal to speed you up maybe.

[Viridia]

Spirit Guides are an excellent idea, hwoever Petal is restriced in vintage ;)

Let's see what to take out for ESG hmm

Edit: -1 Wasteland -1 Verdant Catacombs -1 Bloodstained Mire -1 Squee +4 ESG seems like a good start, still up on 19 lands orso

[aahz]

Spirit Guides are an excellent idea, hwoever Petal is restriced in vintage ;)
I was only suggesting one copy.

What about Bloodghast? You've got Loam already.

Any particular reason for the lack of Demonic Tutor and Vampiric Tutor? You might even be able to get away with Demonic Consultation since you have so many playsets compared to most Vintage decks. Crop Rotation could also be worthwhile to find Bazaar more consistently (or protect one from Wasteland by Rotating into a second copy as a response).

[Viridia]

Bloodghast seems pretty good, however at that point i'd like to fit in skullclamps aswell and i'm not sure what to cut.

I hadnt put the tutors in because i was still thinking if i could get away with them, because my mana development is quite slow.

[Viridia]

Been goldfishing abit and i noticed i never actually cast the Tarmogoyfs >.>
I might cut them back to 1 or 0 and get the Bloodghasts in, also cutting the Confidants for 4 Clamps then.
I'm also noticing that i hardly ever use Survival, because my CA with Bazaar and Confi/Clamp is so high i never get to keep up any mana.
I might try replacing those 4 slots with something else, like the tutors.

[Arianrhod]

No proxies, I'm assuming?

[Viridia]

Nope :)

[Arianrhod]

That makes this more awkward.

Uh, do you have access to a Lion's Eye Diamond? Kind of a poor man's lotus, and if you crack LED, discarding a bunch of Rootwallas, it'll trigger whatever Vengevines you ditch with LED. Note that LED is restricted in vintage, so that isn't going to help MUCH, but it's something anyway.

You need something for vs shops. Mox Monkeys? (Gorilla Shaman) Maybe splash blue instead of red and run Trygon Predator? Or white for Qasali Pridemage?

If you want to at least simulate power, you could try brewing with Chrome Mox/Mox Diamond/Lotus Petal/Mox Opal, all of which are unrestricted. Of those, I feel that Mox diamond is probably the best option, since then you could try to work in some kind of land-based theme, like with Knight of the Reliquary (which is an ENORMOUS threat in vintage).

How long do we have to work with before the event? Also, since you have access to a set of Bazaars, I'm assuming that you have access to most non-power cards you could want.

Sidenote: Dragon combo?

[Viridia]

I have acces to every card except for the Power.

Lotus Petal is restricted :(
I also thought of using Mox Diamonds, but at that point i'd need more land in the deck aswell.
Event is in 10 days :D

Also LED might not be a bad choice, only 1 isnt superduper good, but it might help.

Atm, i'm playing 3 Ancient Grudges mainboard and 4 Nature's Claim side vs shops. That + free creatures (Rootwalla/Bloodghast) should make the matchup doable.

[Arianrhod]

Hmmmm.

Rootwalla isn't technically free. Its cost is still modified by Spheres of various types. But it's probably cheap enough to be okay.

I honestly never even knew Petal was restricted. I guess I probably should have assumed, but all of my events are proxy, so I never have to worry about it, lol.

I feel that Diamonds and KotR is a decent direction to be looking for a starting point. I'm doing this very stream-of-consciousness, mind.

If we start with, let's see, the following core shell:

4x Goyf
4x Bob
4x KotR
1x Squee

4x Diamond

4x Survival of the Fittest

4x Wasteland
1x Strip Mine
1x Bazaar
2x Bojuka Bog
4x Verdant Catacombs
4x Windswept Heath
2x Bayou
2x Savannah
1x Scrubland
1x Forest
1x Plains
1x Swamp

That's 24 land, although 5 of them are "strips," and 3 more are utility.

Something really neat about Survival in vintage is that you can play as many of the legendary hatebears as you want, and not feel at all ashamed of yourself. Let's add:

3x Teeg
4x Thalia
1x Aven Mindcensor

That gives us 24 land + 8 noncreature spells + 3/7/8+13....21 creatures. That's 53 cards.

You know, having that red in there opened up something really awesome that I missed at first. Let's put that back in.

-1 Bog (we'll put it in the board), +1 Taiga.

+1 Anger.

That's 54.

Rootwallas and Vengevines would put it over by 2 cards. I'm not sure that that's the direction we actually want to go, though. It's too slow to beat blue, and while recursive dudes are good vs Shops, I feel that you can do better.

I also feel that we need some card selection, and some bomby goodness.

Let's try +2 Sensei's Top, and then an old classic: +1 Loyal Retainers, +1 Iona.

That's 58.

This deck is looking really dude-heavy, for obvious reasons.

-1 Bazaar, +1 Gaea's Cradle.

Without the Rootwallas/Vengevines, Bazaar seems weak as a toolbox option. more often than not, I think you're going to either be punching with KotR, or chaining Wastelands. Or Bogging Dredge, but then you're winning.

So, 2 slots remain.

Let's go +2 Chrome Mox. Chrome Mox works well with the legendary critters that we don't need more than 1 copy of, and it's a good use for extra Survival of the Fittests, while ensuring more turn 1 Bobs/Goyfs/Thalias/Survivals/whatever.

My gut tells me that you might want a 3rd Top, but meh. Revokers are also an option on the table, but they're colorless, which would interact poorly with Chrome Mox. They are, however, artifacts, which makes them attractive vs Shops (naming their various mana sources. Metalworker, Staff of Nin, whatever Mox they have out. I guess).

Sideboard -- Ingot Chewer is amazing, but you are only on 1x Taiga for a red source, since red is a slight splash. Awkward. Serenity is a good option vs Shops. Yixlids are an obvious go-to for Dredge. A Sylvan Safekeeper would be a good idea for the Noble Fish matchup. Thrun vs Landstill, but you should be okay vs them anyway since you have infinite dudes. Abrupt Decay is secretly amazing in Vintage. I'd recommend 3-4 of those -- they come in vs Shops, Oath, Fish, and blue (Time Vault). Obviously Nature's Claim is always good, as is something like Deglamer.

Anyway. There's my thoughts (literally).

[Viridia]

Looks very interesting, i'll give it a whirl see how it runs for abit ;)

[Viridia]

Wondering about the sideboard, i don't think Serenity should be there, yes it is awesome VS shops, but it also destroys your Moxes and Survivals :(
Kataki would also be awesome, but again the problem with Moxes, which is not as bad as also destroying Survival tho ^^.

I think i'll pop in 4 Jailers and 3 Tormod's Crypt in for Dredge, really need to make sure game 2 and 3 are favorable.
Which, so far, puts me on this Sideboard:
4 Yixlid Jailer
3 Tormod's Crypt
2 Nature's Claim
3 Abrupt Decay
1 Sylvan Safekeeper
1 Thrun, the Last Troll

Which leaves me with 1 leftover spot, possible something extra for the combomatchup? Altho we allready have 8 HateBears mainboard.

[John Cox]

If jailer is just there for dredge grafdigger's cage is way better (it deals with tinker and oath shenanigans). Have you thought about Landstill? Very little power there and cutting it all is doable.

[Viridia]

Hi,
might be better to run 1 or 2 Jailers for tutoring and the rest Cages yeah.

I thought about it, however, a mate of mine is coming along playing Landstill allready, and I allreayd play Landstill in Legacy often, figured that in that 1 Vintage tournament there is closeby every year i might aswell run something non-legacy :P