Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (WTF)

[superman]

This deck was introduced on an unlocking legacy column and I was intrigued. Survival based decks are toolbox fun plus I enjoy and the multiple kill conditions. Not to mention I absolutely love the name. I slightly altered the list to my liking but generally the same and this was my first tournament run with the deck.

The List

4x Survival of the Fitest
3x Birds of Paradise
3x Tarmogoyf
2x Eternal Witness
2x Trinket Mage
1x Genesis
1x Squee Goblin Nabob
1x Shriekmaw
1x Faerie Macabre
1x Harmonic Sliver
1x Academy Rector
1x Loxodon Heirarch
1x Auriok Salvagers
1x Painter's servant
3x Enlightened Tutor
1x Grindstone
1x Lion's Eye Diamond
1x Pyrite Spellbomb
1x Engineered Explosives
1x Pernicious Deed
1x Solitary Confinement
1x Recurring Nightmare
1x Armadillo Cloak
4x Thoughtseize
3x Cabal Therapy

2x Polluted Delta
2x Flooded Strand
4x Windswept Heath
2x Swamp
3x Forest
1x Plains
2x Tropical Island
2x Scrubland
1x Bayou
1x Savanah
1x Academy Ruins

Sideboard

2x Null Rod
2x Tormod's Crypt
2x Engineered Plague
2x Loxodon Heirarch
1x Yixlid Jailer
1x Kataki War's Wage
1x Loaming Shaman
1x Big Game Hunter
1x Vexing Shusher
2x Duress


I know 61 cards main but I couldn't find a cut being a toolbox deck I wanted as many answers as possible.

The deck plays out amazingly although it can get its fair share of slow starts. Having the options of beatdown, Confinement soft-lock, salvagers combo and grindstone combo gives many outs against the various hate that can be thrown at it. Having discard and toolbox answers to back it up gives it the edge it needs to win.

I played this weekend at a 14 person tourney.

First round Josh playing mono red burn

Game 1 I get turn 1 Bayou,BOP turn 2 Fetch Scrubland Thoughtseize , Therapy nabbing Lightning bolt and double incinerate. Third Turn survival turn up squee into Academy Rector 4th turn rector then flashback therapy geting a lock down with Confinement and Squee, pitching random card to Confinement on 5th turn turnin squee to genesis to goyf. Slow beats because all his burn hits my creatures since I am protected. i assume he only played it out to see my deck or hooping I would forget upkeep on Confinement.

Game 2 I side 2 Duress and 2 Heirarch for 2 Thoughtseize Shreikmaw and Faerie Macabre. Shows a mulligan into 6. I open BOP. 2nd turn Recuring Nightmare. 3rd turn Heirarch. 4th turn Survival turn in to heirarch and the third one as well. I sac the BOP on board to REC Nightmare gain 4 from elephant. 5th turn Forward smash for 8 and rec elephants.

Afterwards we chat and he didn't have price of progress and ran hammer of the bogardian. 1-0

Round 2 I play Fred R/G/W aggro burn

game 1 I win the roll Thoughtseize his hand for Watchwolf. 2nd turn therapy double Helix. I procede to go Survival into 2x Goyfs and then Rector up my Armadillo Cloak for unstoppibale beats and lifegain. I pull and interesting combat trick although he didn't have a blocker by survivaling a dude into Painter and dumpimg him to give my Goyfs plus 1 for the artifact now in my graveyard.

Game 2 He gets stuck with double Reflecting Pool while I go BOP into Trinket Mage fetching out LED while holding Salvagers and Pyrite. He plays a Watchwolf after getting a Savanah. I miss my forth mana source play pyrite and sac to draw no mana again pass turn. He fetches up Taiga drops Kird Ape and Brute Forces his wolf then Giant Growths it. I eat 9 points. Peel a land and combo off.

2-0

Round 3 Jon MONO green beast

Game one Jon gets gets the roll and I allow him to go first reluctantly. He drops forest llanowar elf. I look over my hand I see 3 land Grindstone Survival Witness Heirarch. I am thinking solid chance at 4th turn grindstone combo as long as he does gets mad beats. I lead out with Grindstoneand pass. He drops forest and Krosan Warcheif and the I am like sweet casual deck. 2nd turn survial and follows into Krosan Grip. Dang that sucks. So I witness it back. He drops Molder Slug and I am like that sux for me. Upkeep I sack Grindstone and don't pull the land for Hierarch I redrop Survival and pass. He plays stampeeding wildebeast and skrag pits of rath. I miss land drop again and pass. He bounces elf to the wildebeast, gripping my survival again and and replays elf. I draw lands and discard vs his big trampling beast and heirarch was no match.

Game2 board in Big Game Hunter and Hierarchs for Grindstone Painter and macabre.

I get a nuts hand against aggro. Long story short I end up with Survival, Big Game Hunter with Shriekmaw and Recurring Nightmare. He doesn't see Krosan Grip and I win with easy

Game 3

This game was quite interesting. I get BOP into Survival getting Squee. He doesn't have the Grip and I proceed to forget to return Squee drop confinement and pyrite. I hide behind Squee Confinement slowly building a graveyard through Survival Genesis deploying goyfs and witnesses along the way while he builds a huge army. I have no black mana sources thanks to the beast with amplify 2 and provoke on my BOP and then he continues to mow down my other critters one at a time while I pull out guys slowly with Genesis then he drops his bomb Stomphowler nukes the Confinement swing out and I survive at 1. I draw LED turn Squee into Auriok Slavagers sacking LED in response comboing out with the Pyrite to the face a hundred times.

Whew really close game we shake hands and thats that. 3-0

Round 4 pairs me with a teammate playing my Welder deck
I scoop for his rating. We rest for top 4 and trade with the store chugging Vault. 3-1

Top 4 Semifinals vs David U/G Madness

David is a young player but has tons of potential. I teach him the fine art of baiting counterspels so I can resolve key spells. This match was over with moderate ease. I side in Slusher Big Game Hunter (to eat wurms) and two duress. I get an early Vexing Slusher but doesn't matter as he got a aggro draw. Figures right. Anyway I slowly disolve a rootwalla 3 treetop villages and
an aquamoeba leaving him with a mongrel taking damage all along. I come back with goyf wearing a cloak and combo him out on the turn he would have died anyway just for fun. 4-1

Finals My same teammate from from round 4 I scoop and we split prizes. 4-2
and both losses were scoops to a teammate.

I really enjoyed piloting this deck and it has ton of potential. I am thinking of making one change and that is to go up to 3 Polluted Deltas for a better chance of getting basic swamp. Other than that everything else was pretty solid.

[yawg07]

Congrats on your wins!
Seems like a ton of fun, it does a little of everything, almost looks like a highlander list haha
I think we need to see some matches against Thresh and Combo, if anyone can build and test :)

My meta is like 2-3 Thresh (UGr, UGw, and 4c), ITF (fuck, stupidest name ever but the deck is really really good) and then a shmear of TES, Gobs, and aggro-control decks.

[Windux]

My thoughts about the list:


3x Tarmogoyf
2x Eternal Witness
2x Trinket Mage
1x Armadillo Cloak
1x Faerie Maccabre

Do you need the Armadillo Cloak? Ok on goyf it rocks, you can tutor it up and Goyf kills other Goyfs, but I mean: It's one slot.

Trinket Mage: What about just run 1? For that slot you could run another Witness oder even Tarmogoyf #4!

I know Faerie Maccabre is good. But against what is it THAT good?
Against Ichorid you need to recurr him + the first action is Round 2 (with Bird) and normally Round 3, which is too late.

Isn't there any space for more Removal? More Deeds?

[Mental]

I have tested the crap out of this deck lately and ended up with this list:

4 Windswept Heath
2 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
2 Bayou
1 Scrubland
2 Savannah
2 Forest
2 Tropical Island
1 Plains
1 Swamp

4 Birds of Paradise
4 Tarmogoyf
2 Sakura-Tribe Elder
2 Eternal Witness
2 Trinket Mage
1 Painter's Servant
1 Academy Rector
1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
1 Genesis
2 Shriekmaw
1 Harmonic Sliver

4 Survival of the Fittest
4 Thoughtseize
3 Cabal Therapy
3 Swords to Plowshares
3 Enlightened Tutor
1 Grindstone
1 Moat
1 Pernicious Deed

This list cuts the combos down to 1 (or 2, if you count rector). I just found Salvager's to be inefficent and never used when paired with a far superior combo, so I cut it. Also this deck had some mana problems, hence the 2 STEs. Still, I think there are 1-2 too few creatures in this deck.

[superman]

My thoughts about the list:

Do you need the Armadillo Cloak? Ok on goyf it rocks, you can tutor it up and Goyf kills other Goyfs, but I mean: It's one slot.

Trinket Mage: What about just run 1? For that slot you could run another Witness oder even Tarmogoyf #4!

I know Faerie Maccabre is good. But against what is it THAT good?
Isn't there any space for more Removal? More Deeds?

Cloak is a meta choice for me we have lots of aggro. It is one of the things I changed from the original list.
The double trinket is so you can easily tutor up LED and Pyrite from Survival to combo out.
My thoughts on Faerie Macabre is being a toolbox deck you need a maindeck graveyard hate so It is that, Loaming Shaman, or Tormods Crypt. I like the faerie cause they don't know if you have it or not untill it's too late and can double as a threat. It can shrink goyf / threshold and hit loams.
I actually would like another deed but I am short on space as it is.

Also I find Confinement better than Moat cause it gives you a wider range of protection.

[superman]

I have done some more testing and 1 of the sideboard Null Rods has become a Pithing Needle. Null Rod shuts off your combos as well plus Needle can be more easily fetched by Trinket mage as well as E Tutor. The other benefit is that needle hit more targets such as Wasteland, SGC,Gempalm Incinerator, Deed, and Nomads in Breakfast.
I also tried some minor testing dropping the Salvagers combo. I replaced it with 1x BOP 1x STE and 1x Murderous Redcap. Tribe Elder helps smooth mana, get basic and removes Bridge From Below. Redcap pops utility creatures and almost always 4-1 cardadvantage against Goblins. Persist with Recurring Nightmare is insane I now want a Kitchen Finks in because of it. It might replace the Armadillo cloak I got so much flack over.

Also Yawg07 Survival based decks usually have a decent thresh match up because of the recursion, more threats than answers, and discard. After board you gain 2x Duress 1x Shusher 1x Loaming Shaman 1-2x Crypt and possibly 1x BGH.
Against TES Game 1 isn't in your favor unless you get good discard followed by your own combo. After board its a little better with 2x Duress 2x Plague. Probably not favorable I will get some hard test results for you soon.

[superman]

I piloted (WTF) again this Sat. and tried out some new choices. I swapped A. Cloak for Kitchen Finks. Didn't gain as much life as the Cloak did but better against sweepers. I also swapped out the Salvagers combo for 1x BOP, 1x Murderous Redcap, plus bringing BGH into the main instead of the sideboard. Without The Salvagers combo I no longer needed the second Trinket Mage and dropped it completely to lower the deck count back to acceptable number. I tweeked the manabase by changing one Scrubland into Basic Swamp.
With the extra spot in the side plus dropping Shusher I added PDeed and Seal primordium. I then swapped the last Null Rod and Kataki for 2x Gaddock Teeg. So the new list is as follows.

3x Forrest
3x Swamp
1x Plains
4x Windswept Heath
2x Flooded Strand
2x Polluted Delta
2x Tropical Island
1x Savanah
1x Scrubland
1x Bayou
1x Academy Ruins

4x Survival of the Fittest
4x Birds of Paradise
3x Tarmogoyf
1x Squee Goblin
1x Genesis
2x EWtiness
1x LoxodonHierarch
1x Kitchen Finks
1x Murderous Redcap
1x Shriekmaw
1x Big Game Hunter
1x Harmonic Sliver
1x Faerie Macabre
1x Academy Rector
1x Painter's Servant
1x Trinket Mage

1x Grindstone
1x Engineered Explosives
1x Pernicious Deed
1x Recurring Nightmare
1x Solitary Confinment
3x Enlightened Tutor
4x Thoughtseize
3x Cabal Therapy

2x Duress
2x Gaddock Teeg
2x loxodon Hierarch
1x Yixlid Jailer
1x Loaming Shaman (Probably should be Gaea's Blessing)
2x Engineered Plague
2x Tormod's Crypt
1x Pernicious Deed
1x Seal of Primordium
1x Pithing Needle



Round 1 Lucas with Rav Affinity

I play BOP follow with Deed sweep, Witness back Deed sweep and he never recovers. Game 2 is similar but I have 2 Deeds now and had to tutor it instead of in the opening grip.
1-0

Round 2 Teammate and I scoop 2-1
1-1
Round 3 Tyler playing my Charbelcher

Game 1 Chars my face turn 1
Game 2 I bring in mass hate Mull to 5 with Forest, BOP, Academy Ruins, Duress, Therapy. Play Forest BOP. He Goes off with 2x Land Grant, Lotus Petal, Desperate Ritual, Simian Spirit Guide, Chrom Mox, 2x Charbelcher. He doesn't have mana to activate till turn 2 but the damage is done I duress him to see the 2nd Charbelcher in Hand and the 2nd Land from LandGrant. Pack it up angrily. He ask if I want it since it was my deck and I say no you won fair and square but remember me if you win.
1-2
Round 4 Jeff Dreadnought Goyfs and counters

I have combo availible but use Survival and such to bait counters. He has two Goyfs When I Thoughtseize drop combo and a chump blocker BOP. He says WTF and I say thats the name of the deck. PRICELESS. Next turn activate FTW. He say I never saw that coming. Game 2 I lead with turn 2 goyf he follows with Dreadnought I take drop Goyf #2 he drops Goyf as well and I cant get an answer. Game 3 I lead with Discard and land a Survival. He gets Dreadnought I kill with BGH. He gets Goyf I kill with Shriekmaw. I beat down with Goyfs and BGH His last play was KGrip Painter.
2-2

I barely make Top4 with tiebreakers
I get paired with my teammate and Tyler is in second with my Charbelcher.
Tyler wins his game I scoop and still get cuts from 1st and 2nd. Not too bad.

Overall I am happy with the changes but I would have liked to get a chance to try the new combo hate GTeeg and P Needle but what can you do turn 1/0 without Force.

[superman]

This past Saturday's tourney was not that great for a report so I'll just hit some highlights. We only had 8 people most of which were new players or borrowing a deck that they have never piloted. I ended up 4-1 scooping in the finals to get to work on time 3rd shift FTL.

Anyhow Faerie Macabre saved me twice allowing my to shrink an opponents goyf after blocking with chaff. Seal of Primordium was an all star unlocking deed from pithing needle and a preemptive answer to survival and counterbalance.

I don't miss removing the salvagers combo at all plus with finks/redcap and recurring nightmare you have a mini combo that fills in but the independent pieces are more valuable than say an LED or spellbomb would be on their own.

i would really like some comments and/or advice this deck is really fun and wins games try it out and let me know what you think.

[TheLion]

I began testing 1 Grindstone and 1 Painter in my Full English Breakfast deck.
Then i saw this deck here, and recognized that there are many cards in common.
So, what about replacing B with U and play the Volrath's Shapeshifter/Akroma/Phage combo, too?

Hm, maybe it would change the deck too much, but just a few thoughts...

[superman]

Well black is far too important for discard and creature removal. Dropping white could be an option because Academy Rector is just for cute tricks mostly. Losing Enlightened tutor is the problem it searches for so many answers and grindstone combo. Heirarch can be replaced with either Baloth or another Finks. I don't know where the last slot will come from unless you cut recurring nightmare. I will test this option and see but I don't think it will be any better.

[nupert]

Oww, I don't want to interrupt your enthusiasm for the name of the deck, but there already is a deck called WTF. It means "worse than fish" and is an UG Fish-deck that was popular a few years ago. Using this name for another deck is confusing.

Aside from that, the deck seems like fun to play.