Spicy Popcorn

Hi

I guess it's finally time to write the thread (which might later become a primer) for the deck I've been working on since yesterday :laugh:

So here we go

Spicy Popcorn



The story

TL;DR: You can watch the origin of the deck here and the first league with the first 4 matches in this twitch VOD

It started when a friend sent me the list for a UW Death and Taxes deck, I said I'd look at it on stream, adjust it until I liked it and then try it in a league so he could see if it's something he would like to play and see how it works. Well I looked at the list and it was just so horribly unplayable from a theoretical standpoint that I refused to play it at all and considered it a complete waste of time

That accomplished almost nothing, I say almost because actually it gave me the appetite to try something new! I thought I was gonna play something new, cool and exciting and was left feeling utterly disappointed. And frankly, I had blue balls. So how do I cure these blue balls? Well earlier I had been working on a wacky version of D&T with something as crazy and "unplayable" as Fleshbag Marauder and even Disciple of Bolas, that's another story but basically I wanted something to kill my Hallowed Spiritkeeper when sometimes my opponents just raced it in the air instead of trading with it as I intended. So I thought I'd make a brand new deck that used the relatively powerful interaction of Disciple of bolas and Hallowed Spiritkeeper, and then build around it. Fast forward through a terrible green based, nic fit looking monstrosity that I dismissed before even putting lands in it - I reached what some people would call an unplayable pile of garbage.

Behold the first iteration of Spicy Popcorn

https://i.imgur.com/hfqlCD7.jpg

I believed that this pile could do something, so I actually just immediately entered a competitive Legacy league with 5 matches to be played before I could join with another deck (unless I dropped of course). Keep in mind that this was all while I was streaming, and completely ignoring all advice from my twitch chat I had now "prepared" for and entered a 5 match Legacy league.

The whole spectacle can be seen here and the last match here

2-1 ANT
2-1 LED Dredge
2-0 Miracles
2-0 Infect
2-0 4c Leovold

So that's a 5-0

Sweet! But I learned from that League, even though the deck crushed there was a lot of things that could've actually gone better. The next few leagues I replaced cards and tried many different things before I arrived at the following list that I believe is much better and more consistent. I am still tuning it and will stream it regularly over the next few weeks if not longer.

The cards that make up the backbone of the deck

Hallowed Spiritkeeper

This is the finisher of the deck, but it does so much more. The synergy with Cabal Therapy, Fleshbag Marauder, Recruiter of the guard is incredibly strong. Without this card there would be no deck.

Aether Vial

Makes our deck work with fewer lands and lets us have stronger draws.

Thalia, Guardian of Thraben

How can we not play this combo killer when we're playing 25+ creatures?


The latest list of Spicy Popcorn

https://i.imgur.com/UQY55oq.jpg

I'll leave it at that for now and then I'll update the thread as we go a long, and write much more information on the deck if I truly believe it is competitive.

happy to see leovold did make the cut. too bad about the bunny.

knowing nothing about anything, I just wanted to come in here and say this is a sweet-looking deck. spirit-keeper can do broken stuff, and i love vial with strix. excited to watch the stream later on, and glad someone is out there brewing!

So is the idea to be a death & taxes type of deck, just using the best creatures instead of finding only the best white creatures? This reminds me of the modern Humans deck. It's all-in on creature synergies. It's interesting how the format has gotten to the perceived point of "the only 'real' Vial deck is D&T", but there is plenty of space for other Vial decks (goblins and merfolk don't count anymore, sadly.)

22 lands with 4 drs and 4 vial seems a lot (without ports too), but you've increased it between the two lists?

I linked this list in the primer in this other thread, it shares a couple of things with the MOST deck. Basically changing the Recruiters into Fauna Shaman and changing a few lands into mana dorks would make it similar to MOST. Oh, and the Therapies. (I was actually trying to add Therapies and a Veteran Explorer the other day, probably a dead end road I thought but here is some motivation to continue with that idea.) Have a look here, maybe you'll get some ideas. I'll keep a close eye on this anyway... Very nice to see and read btw!

http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...radewind-Rider

hallowed spiritkeeper seemed to be the real tech in this brew. forcing decks that are looking to 2:1 into shitty situations.

I would like to see room made in the MB for the STPs. And as said above, the land count is too high if you already got Vial & DRS

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Originally Posted by Memories of the Time

22 lands with 4 drs and 4 vial seems a lot (without ports too), but you've increased it between the two lists?

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Yea I had real problems with getting mana screwed very easily, maybe my draws have just been on the edges of statistical variance. But atm I've been flooded or screwed basically every other game.

I only won 50% of my matches today on stream, so I'm actually gonna cut the wastelands to try to increase consistency, it's a huge trade off in power but I really need to find consistency with the mana base in this deck, when there's so much power to be gained from just being able to play my creatures/spells.

Maybe you could just add some gitaxian's probe instead of wasteland it is good with cabal and draw a card which might be good for the manabase.
I like the concept of 2 for 1 your opponent but it seems you lack some real beaters like kotr in maverick or such mirran crusader maybe ?. Di you try TNN ?double blue might be too much while you want already double white green and black.
It seems to me recruiter are too slow, aren't they ?

2 oath of ghouls in the board for the grindy matchups seems good :).

I dont think he wants to include the oath BUT I realy would sub that idea cause oaths are so awsome :) #childhood ^^

I tried a few things off stream today, even some things that I am not proud of... and I hated them all... Except for the last list which finished 4-1 and I think it has a lot of potential. I've updated the "Latest list of spicy popcorn" with it. And the loss I had was to ravager stompy which had insane draws as you can see on Jarvis Yu's stream (I played vs him in the 3-0 bracket, and lost).

Flickerwisp and Baleful Strix and blue cards? It is technically possible to play Tradewind Rider!

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Originally Posted by Bahra

Yea I had real problems with getting mana screwed very easily, maybe my draws have just been on the edges of statistical variance. But atm I've been flooded or screwed basically every other game.

I only won 50% of my matches today on stream, so I'm actually gonna cut the wastelands to try to increase consistency, it's a huge trade off in power but I really need to find consistency with the mana base in this deck, when there's so much power to be gained from just being able to play my creatures/spells.

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If you cut land-based mana sinks (Wasteland, Port, even Karakas) from a Vial deck, you will get flooded and screwed very often. You need utility lands so that when your vial is playing all your spells as fast as you can draw them, your mana still has something to do, and when you don't have a vial, the lands can go back to normal mode and play your spells. That's the whole point of the vial! Maybe I am missing something here.

The creatures look awesome, but if they are uncastable with Port and Wasteland in the manabase, I'm not sure we are really using AEther Vial sensibly... :/

Why don't you run Mother of Runes? Mom + Strix is a pretty sweet defense against most creature strategies.

Just 4-1'd and 5-0'd (on stream) with the latest list, really like it now! :)

Nice idea! Can you post your actual sideboard?

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Originally Posted by kingtk3

Nice idea! Can you post your actual sideboard?

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What do you mean? It's in the original post under "latest list".

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Originally Posted by Bahra

What do you mean? It's in the original post under "latest list".

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I assume part of the image is cut off for him/her.

Just right click on image, open in new tab

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Originally Posted by mistercakes

Just right click on image, open in new tab

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Thanks, that worked!

Most of the cards are self explanatory, but what about honor of the pure and Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver? What are the MUs in which they are needed?

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Originally Posted by kingtk3

Thanks, that worked!

Most of the cards are self explanatory, but what about honor of the pure and Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver? What are the MUs in which they are needed?

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Well I've lost to not having enough power because of Dread of Night and it also just helps make my guys pretty big and saves them from a lot of -1/-1 effects that are everywhere now.

Ashiok is because I really needed a card for beating miracles and 4c control that didn't die to stp, terminus, Kolaghan's Command etc. and just a big grind machine. It's surprisingly good I'd say, messes with their top manipulation and steals mentors occasionaly, exiles key cards and ultimates in 4 turns which is the true payoff I'm looking for. Something that makes them want to attack or they have to spend Council's Judgment on it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bahra

Well I've lost to not having enough power because of Dread of Night and it also just helps make my guys pretty big and saves them from a lot of -1/-1 effects that are everywhere now.

Ashiok is because I really needed a card for beating miracles and 4c control that didn't die to stp, terminus, Kolaghan's Command etc. and just a big grind machine. It's surprisingly good I'd say, messes with their top manipulation and steals mentors occasionaly, exiles key cards and ultimates in 4 turns which is the true payoff I'm looking for. Something that makes them want to attack or they have to spend Council's Judgment on it.

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Honor of the pure makes sense: protecting from -1/-1 effects and increasing your clock can be game winning.

I'm not so sure about Ashiok however, because it doesn't protect himself and opponent can ignore his abilities (even the ultimate) if his racing you.
Wouldn't liliana, the last hope be better? She protects herself to some extension, she bring you back killed creatures and her ultimate will win the game at some point. And she's even easier to cast with your mana base ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kingtk3

Honor of the pure makes sense: protecting from -1/-1 effects and increasing your clock can be game winning.

I'm not so sure about Ashiok however, because it doesn't protect himself and opponent can ignore his abilities (even the ultimate) if his racing you.
Wouldn't liliana, the last hope be better? She protects herself to some extension, she bring you back killed creatures and her ultimate will win the game at some point. And she's even easier to cast with your mana base ;)

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I mean, I'm not sure you understand what ashiok does, and don't you think I considered liliana, the last hope? It doesn't bring back my exiled creatures btw, and remind me when Miracles is racing me? ;)

have you tried nicol bolas, planeswalker

Been following the thread and watched a few of the matches on the video that Bahra provided on his Twitch page. Some thoughts...

1) Would Tymna the Weaver be a good fit or Dark Confidant as it appears that card draw is desired quite often.

2) Would a build based around legendary creatures be a good idea? Thalia, Kambal, Tymna, and etc. I wonder if this would fix some of the mana issues as you get mox amber and maybe if you go legendary humans you can improve your mana base? Also there is Kamahl's Druidic Vow which may or may not have a place.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bahra

I mean, I'm not sure you understand what ashiok does, and don't you think I considered liliana, the last hope? It doesn't bring back my exiled creatures btw, and remind me when Miracles is racing me? ;)

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The only thing that Ashiok does is messing up with oppoent's cantrips, and sometimes you can steal a monastery mentor which, however, your deck is not built to abuse.

Given time it can beat miracles by decking them I guess, but:

• it doesn't necessarely stops terminus (because with portent they will cast it in your upkeep before you can activate Ashiok and with brainstorm they set it up in your EOT)
• it doesn't do anything to opponent's board (snapcasters that plow your creatures and attack Ashiok are real, and a single mentor has to be respected because can race any deck)

At least liliana has some interaction with creatures (can kill snap, Young pyro, ecc...) and if you can stall the board until you get to ultimate her you almost surely will win, while with Ashiok you actually need to find a way to win afterward. You can bring her in against more decks too (D&T? Kills most of their creatures).

I still haven't played your deck, but I know how though some MU can be and I don't think my suggestion was so bad (nicol bolas jokes aside).

Maybe you can explain why Ashiok is better than Liliana?

Could the newly spoiled Cabal Therapist be a nic(e) fit here?

Edit: also Teysa Karlov and Plaguecrafter from last sets.