Earlier this year I rediscovered my love of the game after not playing for the last 15 years or so. I have always loved building interesting decks, and my goal is to build at least 1 reasonably competitive Tier 2 deck.
I've been brewing around this idea for the past 2-3 months, and at this point I think I've got something good enough to see if others are interested in exploring this idea and see how successful we can make this deck.
I'll share my current list (which evolved nicely throughout my time at Eternal Weekend) and then give you a small primer. I'll also track my record with the deck at the bottom of this post over time.
So, without further ado I give you:
Infinite Power
//Core Of The Deck
4
Power Artifact4
Grim Monolith3
Walking Ballista4
Mindshrieker4
Enlightened Tutor1
Draco//Card Filtering
4
Brainstorm4
Ponder//Counters & Removal
4
Force of Will3
Pact of Negation3
Swords to Plowshares//Flex Slots
3
Standstill//Lands
6
Island3
Flooded Strand3
Misty Rainforest2
Polluted Delta2
Scalding Tarn3
Tundra//Sideboard
SB: 3
Leyline of SanctitySB: 2
Holy LightSB: 2
Pithing NeedleSB: 2
Detention SphereSB: 1
Seal of CleansingSB: 1
Walking BallistaSB: 1
Rest in PeaceSB: 1
Swords to PlowsharesSB: 1
Ensnaring BridgeSB: 1
Containment Priest
Inception
"What infinite mana combos are there in Legacy"? Quick google search and a few clicked links later and
Power Artifact &
Grim Monolith seemed like the best of the bunch.
So, we've got infinite colorless mana...what's the best thing we can do with it? How about instant speed kills?
Walking Ballista seems perfect.
If we're going to be dependent on a 3 card combo, then we need a way to make sure we get the pieces.
Enlightened Tutor is a great fit. It gets ANY piece and only costs :w:.
Finally, some redundancy is always helpful. While there's redundancy on the mana rock (
Basalt Monolith), that doesn't do anything else for the deck. There's no redundancy for
Power Artifact sadly. So that leaves us with possible redundancy for
Walking Ballista.
There's a few different options you can find on a Gatherer search, and if people are interested I can post the list of the ones I considered. But the standout star of the show is
Mindshrieker. This guy TECHNICALLY doesn't give you an instant speed win, but to make up for it, he gives you 2 different options for winning before your opponent does much of anything next turn. Plus he enables a completely different combo on a completely different axis independent of the infinite mana.
Gameplans
One of the things I love about this deck is that it has so many viable gameplans that overlap. Topdecking a single card can frequently allow you to shift from one gameplan to another pretty seamlessly.
Plan A:
Grim Monolith +
Power Artifact +
Walking Ballista (in play or hand) = leathal to the face
Plan B:
Grim Monolith +
Power Artifact +
Mindshrieker (in hand) = mill their deck, they die on draw step
Plan C:
Grim Monolith +
Power Artifact +
Mindshrieker (in play) = mill your deck or their deck, swing for lethal
Plan D:
Mindshrieker (in play) +
Enlightened Tutor (in hand) = If not blocked, put
Draco on top and mill it for a 17/17 flyer
Plan E:
Mindshrieker (in play) +
Brainstorm (in hand) +
Draco (in hand) = If not blocked, put
Draco on top and mill it for a 17/17 flyer
Plan F:
Walking Ballista +
Power Artifact = Fast Big Beater
Plan G:
Walking Ballista +
Grim Monolith(s)/4+ mana = Slower Big Beater
Plan H:
Mindshrieker + Mana & Hope = Attack with blind flips of your/their deck depending on who should have higher CMC average
Plan I:
Grim Monolith +
Power Artifact +
Draco = DRACO BEATS!
Justifying The Slots
Manabase: This is mostly a mono:u: deck, so basics are good, and 3
Tundra for the white spells (no x:w::w:) is plenty. Fetches help with brainstorm. 19 seems like the correct number, as you only need 2 or 3 lands to combo off, depending on gameplan. So far I don't feel like I've lost because I didn't have enough land. I will occasionally keep a 1 land hand if it's got 2 cantrips and all the business I need. Otherwise don't keep 1 land hands, and you'll have the 2 lands you need to win, or draw the 3rd in the first few turns anyway.
Core of the deck: This is mostly explained in the inception and gameplan sections. I think there's a question of whether it's best to go with 4
Mindshrieker and 3
Walking Ballista or visa versa.
Walking Ballista lets you go off with only 2 lands (whereas
Mindshrieker requires 3 to win same turn you power up the monolith). Right now I'm going 4
Mindshrieker because it overlaps more of the gameplans, and it's pretty rare so far that I only have 2 mana when ready to go off this way. But
Walking Ballista is also a removal spell, so I continue to debate.
Draco: While this is part of the core of the deck, it deserves a bit more of a walk through. I absolutely love when plan D or E can happen. One of my best moments with the deck so far is seemingly punting by playing brainstorm into a
Leovold, Emissary of Trest while attacking with
Mindshrieker for the win, and having my opponent realize too late they should have
Force of Willed my
Brainstorm. This one card gives the entire deck a completely different axis to attack on. Has to be him instead of
Emrakul, the Aeons Torn because you can't
Enlightened Tutor for the spaghetti monster. In updating the list to this latest version I went from 2
Draco down to 1 so I can fit all 4
Ponders. I'm still looking for a way to fit the 2nd back in since it's really bad to be holding
Draco and
Enlightened Tutor in hand with
Mindshrieker on the table unless you have a 2nd to go after. Also a 2nd ups the odds for a hidden
Draco finish with brainstorm.
Brainstorm &
Ponder: See Legacy, sub-section Combo decks. :-) But seriously, my earlier iterations of the deck had fewer
Ponder, but I'm mostly convinced now that 4 just is the correct number even for this deck.
Force of Will: Because Storm, Belcher, Reanimator, etc all exist. Also, it's good to be able to push through your combo.
Pact of Negation: This one is a bit odd looking, I know. However, here's my reasoning. It's pretty common to be ready to go off (or need to go off) when you don't have spare mana for a
Spell Pierce/
Flusterstorm/etc. Given that we play
Grim Monolith, we can start using this spell once a
Grim Monolith is down, often T2. This allows us to protect the T2
Grim Monolith by just tapping it plus the mana used to cast it on our next upkeep. So it's a good way to push through the first piece of the combo if needed, and once it's out you can use it to stop them doing something if required. Yes, it's a bit risky...if they have double counter to stop this when you are trying to push through a
Grim Monolith, then you could just die. But so far it's not come up for me, and I'd take the rare loss in trade for the number of times it's protected the first combo piece. And it's real primary use is to push through the final combo piece (
Power Artifact), which if it lands means you won't even have a next upkeep to consider. The safer option would be
Misdirection as it can serve the same purpose, but 7 card disadvantage counterspells seems like a worse idea than the rare case of double counterspell losing you the game. 3 instead of 4 because we'd almost never want to draw more than 1 in a game.
Swords to Plowshares: Best removal spell in the game. For a while I tried out
Path to Exile instead, followed by a split between the two. This was because
Swords to Plowshares is a bit of a nonbo with Gameplans D-H. Usually a 17/17 flyer is game over if you've pinged them at all or they fetched a lot, and
Swords to Plowshares can give them another turn. However, the ramp you give many decks with
Path to Exile does seem worse after having tried it. 3 instead of 4 because we need
Draco in the deck and the
Walking Ballistas can serve double duty here.
Standstill: These are really what I consider the flex slots in the deck. I've tried a few different things in these slots. Previously I was trying out
Delver of Secrets (deck runs 20 ins/sor, and flipped delver + 17/17
Mindshriker is lethal). While a surprising choice to most people I showed the deck, it wasn't too bad, and gave the deck even more of a backup aggro plan. But ultimately it didn't feel like it did ENOUGH. At Eternal Weekend, I was noticing that my most frequent issue was just running out of gas when they had a few good answers to an early combo/
Draco attempt. So for now, the idea is that
Standstill will slow the game down so you can sculpt a combo hand with some counter backup, or often just give you the missing piece to combo off if they crack it. Either way, cracking your own standstill, while still a bit risky, is really not too bad given you'll most likely be winning same turn. The
Standstills are also a nod to the fact that we are making the opponent's artifact removal an easy 2 for 1 (downside to enchantments), this can help make up for that damage if they get one to stick while
Power Artifact is on the stack.
Sideboard
Before I went to Eternal Weekend I would say that the sideboard was barely more than a randomly selected set of typical sideboard cards. However, after jamming dozens and dozens of games over the weekend, I feel like this is at least a good starting point. I'd really like to get some more input and refinement on this!
Leyline of Sanctity: Discard really hurts combo, but actually hurts us a bit less than most combo decks, as we CAN put each piece out one at a time if required. Still this helps against Storm, Burn, and some other stuff to boot. No need for 4 as we can tutor/hardcast if needed. I'm still going for 3 currently, but eventually going down to 2 is do-able if something else is sorely needed.
Holy Light: This one comes from a suggestion from an opponent at Eternal Weekend. It's amazing against Elves,
True Name Nemesis,
Young Pyromancer & friends, and a host of other problem creatures. It can hit
Mindshriker as well though, so be careful.
Pithing Needle: Won me multiple games against Lands, but also good against
Deathrite Shaman. Most importantly, it can shut down some hate against us like
Engineered Explosives,
Pernicious Deed,
Dack Fayden, and many others. Tutorable.
Detention Sphere: Good universal removal that has added bonus of taking out multiple copies. Tutorable.
Seal of Cleansing: Pre-emptive answer to a lot of artifact hate. Tutorable.
Walking Ballista: For now 4th copy lives here...might go maindeck at some point, but here as extra removal when/if needed.
Rest in Peace: REALLY shutting down the graveyard is good against a lot of decks.
Swords to Plowshares: 4th copy lives here for matchups where we want extra removal.
Ensnaring Bridge: The fact we can still combo off if we have no hand should be exploited when needed. Drop this, play out your hand and nothing can attack. Just topdeck into the combo pieces and still go off to win. Also note, your draw for turn can enable
Mindshrieker to attack and then become 17/17.
Containment Priest: This could be a 2nd
Rest in Peace, but seems like a split for this gives a bit more protection against
Show and Tell decks.
What I'm looking For
I would love to get more ideas and feedback on the deck overall, but especially the sideboard. Eventually I'd love to put together a sideboarding plan for the deck, but it's still way too early for me to say definitively what should go in/out for most matchups.
If anyone has ideas for minor tweaks to the core slots, I'd love to hear it, as well as any different ideas for the flex slots.
Finally, if you decide to try out the deck, I'd love to hear how it goes for you. What works, what doesn't work, etc.
Current Record
4 Round Swiss Side Event @ Eternal Extravaganza 7:
3-0-1 (ID to split prize payout)
Legacy Championship @ Eternal Weekend 2017:
1-3 (drop)
4 Round Swiss Legacy Rebound @ Eternal Weekend 2017:
3-1
Cumulative Record @ Local Weekly Tournament:
8-4-0
TL;DR
I think this is a pretty sweet Combo deck that has multiple combo options, and it gives you a somewhat reasonable backup Aggro plan.
