Rainbow Stairwell Extended

[Poesjuh]

First of all let me tell you what rainbow stairwell means. It is a decktype where you have to play 6 cards of each color + 6 artifacts, and these cards have to be with a CC from 1 to 6, so 1 of each CC. Therefore, logically, the deck is highlander (except lands, but that depends). You are not allowed to play cards with CC 7 or higher, no split cards, no hybrid, no multicolored and no X CC cards. For the manabase usually its 2 of each basic, + something else. However, this depends on where you play, in my case its 3 of each basic + 1 of each shockdual.

The reason I'm posting this deck is because I'm thinking about playing a tournament in this type in my city in two weeks. I'm not 100% sure whether I'm going to play it, because I don't have some cards and not sure if I really should be spending the money on them.


I could use some advice regarding card choices, some are obvious for me and without doubt, but other, Green 3CC for example, are hard choices and you really would like to play 4 cards of that CC. Anyway, enough chit-chat, here's my list, divided by color.

Total: exactly 61 cards, no more, no less

Artifact

• 1) Chromatic Star
  2) Umezawa's Jitte
  3) Sword of Light and Shadow (I don't own a Fire and Ice), other possiblity is Darksteel Ingot
  4) Solemn Simulacrum
  5) Razormane Masticore
  6) Duplicant

White

• 1) Weathered Wayfarer
  2) Disenchant
  3) Oblivion Ring
  4) Wrath of God
  5) Battlegrace Angel
  6) Exalted Angel

Blue

• 1) Ponder
  2) Boomerang
  3) Counsel of the Soratami
  4) Sower of Temptation
  5) Bribery
  6) Keiga the Tide Star

Black

• 1) Thoughtseize
  2) Smother
  3) FLeshbag Marauder
  4) Damnation
  5) Puppeteer Clique
  6) Kokusho / Visara

Red

• 1) Shock
  2) Pyroclasm
  3) Squee, Goblin Nabob => early chump block + for R. Masticore
  4) Rakdos Pit Dragon
  5) Shard Phoenix => not sure about this
  6) Slice and Dice

Green

• 1) Birds of Paradise
  2) Utopia Tree / Sakura Tribe-Elder
  3) Call of the Herd / Eternal Witness / Farhaven Elf / Journey of Discovery , I don't know... I'm leaning towards either Witness or CotH
  4) Nantuko Vigilante
  5) All Sun's Dawn
  6) Quagnoth => looks like a really good control and overall creature to me

Manabase

• 1 Blood Crypt
  1 Breeding Pool
  1 Godless Shrine
  1 Hallowed Fountain
  1 Overgrown Tomb
  1 Sacred Foundry
  1 Steam Vents
  1 Stomping Ground
  1 Temple Garden
  1 Watery Grave
  3 Island
  3 Plains
  3 Mountain
  3 Swamp
  3 Forest

As you can see my list is pretty much pointed towards control. I think that because of the week manabase games won't really be that fast. Therefore I have the feeling that you should create a deck that in the early-game has spells that help you to improve your manabase, get rid of threads and prepare for mid- and late-game. I've tried to keep the double color CC cards (WW, UU, etc) to an absolute minimum, and If I play one, it should be superb. This is also a reason I'm not sure if I should play Eternal Witness, it is, offcourse, an incredible card! But the double Green now is a big drawback. The other options are Call of the Herd, for beating, and 2 cards that fix your mana.

Some other places I'm not sure about are:
1) Utopia Tree vs Sakura Tribe Elder => Tree is vulnerable, but really improves your mana base. STE is less vulnerable, but doesn't give you 5 colors.
2) Sword of Light and Shadow vs Darksteel Ingot => manabase vs killing... Are my threads strong enough on their own.
3) Kokusho vs Visara => BBB from Visara suuuuucks, however she kicks ass!!!
4) Boomerang => really do I have to play this, I can find no other suitable card :S

I don't really play that much creatures, that's why I've chosen to play Battlegrace Angel so make it appealing to attack with one and keep the other(s) for defending and maintaining control.

That's about it. I hope that some of you can help me develop this deck and give some advice on the card choices. I really don't know if there is any specific forum for this game type, so I just post it on the forums I know (A)

[Atwa]

This one might be a very basic one, but why no Tarmogoyf? It's legal and it kicks ass. I understand the reason for mana-fixing, however I think you can expect others to play Goyf in the G2 spot, so why not play one yourself?

I'd keep the Swords in. Although you won't have to face St, black targeted removal will be played. And being able to return one of the few creatures back to your grave might even be better for your deck than drawing some extra cards.

Your white cards also seem pretty solid, good find on the Battlegrace Angel.

In green, I think you should go for the Call of the Herd. You are also light on creatures, and getting two of one card seems strong here.

I'm not sure how sold you are on All Sun's Dawn, if you decide not to play it in the end, Gurzigost can be a very good creature. Although I wouldn't play it if you decide to play Goyf.

[Poesjuh]

Tarmogoyf indeed for the mana fixing problem, plus the fact that at his moment, I don't have one. But I totally understand your point and that is (although not mentioned in my post) a thing I'm still thinking about.

I can agree with you on Call of the Herd for exactly that reason, no problems with double CC and and a 2 for 1 situation.

Regarding All Sun's Dawn, I have absolutely no idea. It looks pretty darn good, but I really don't know if it is. Haven't tested it, never played it, so it could suck ass really.

Thx for your feedback :)

[Nihil Credo]

Artifact

• 1) Sensei's Divining Top
  2) Coldsteel Heart / Mind Stone / Prismatic Lens / Fellwar Stone
  3) Coalition Relic
  4) Bottled Cloister
  5) Stuffy Doll
  6) Duplicant / Planar Portal

White

• 1) Genju of the Fields
  2) Temporal Isolation
  3) Oblivion Ring
  4) Wrath of God
  5) Battlegrace Angel
  6) Exalted Angel

Blue

• 1) Ponder
  2) Remand / Telling Time
  3) Compulsive Research
  4) Sower of Temptation
  5) Aeon Chronicler
  6) Keiga the Tide Star

Black

• 1) Thoughtseize
  2) Smother
  3) Undead Gladiator
  4) Damnation
  5) Shriekmaw
  6) Twisted Abomination

Red

• 1) Flame Jab
  2) Magma Jet / Tribal Flames / Pyroclasm
  3) Puncture Blast
  4) Desolation Giant / Lay Waste
  5) Shard Phoenix / Jiwari, the Earth Aflame / Torchling / Anarchist
  6) Slice and Dice

Green

• 1) Birds of Paradise
  2) Farseek (hello duals!)
  3) Call of the Herd
  4) Harmonize, or Break Asunder if you want another Disenchant
  5) All Sun's Dawn
  6) Quagnoth

[Poesjuh]

Could you explain some of your card choices? I have added my comment in blue, some cards in can understand but others just seem weird to me.

Artifact

• 1) Sensei's Divining Top
  2) Coldsteel Heart / Mind Stone / Prismatic Lens / Fellwar Stone => Prismatic lens is pretty good, I can see myself playing that, however, then I lose Jitte... Do I want to lose Jitte, it's just insane.
  3) Coalition Relic
  4) Bottled Cloister => didn't even know this card, pretty cool!
  5) Stuffy Doll => is this really thát good? It is offcourse a indestructible blocker that spells: "attack me and hurt yourself", so from that point of view I can understand it.
  6) Duplicant / Planar Portal => As you have seen I prefer Duplicant here

White

• 1) Genju of the Fields => why?
  2) Temporal Isolation => same, why?
  3) Oblivion Ring
  4) Wrath of God
  5) Battlegrace Angel
  6) Exalted Angel

Blue

• 1) Ponder
  2) Remand / Telling Time => I'll go for Telling Time then :)
  3) Compulsive Research
  4) Sower of Temptation
  5) Aeon Chronicler => good suggestion :)
  6) Keiga the Tide Star

Black

• 1) Thoughtseize
  2) Smother
  3) Undead Gladiator => studid I didn't think of this
  4) Damnation
  5) Shriekmaw
  6) Twisted Abomination => huh? for the Swampcycling?

Red

• 1) Flame Jab => in which way is this better dan shock?
  2) Magma Jet / Tribal Flames / Pyroclasm => Pyroclasm for me
  3) Puncture Blast
  4) Desolation Giant / Lay Waste => to cast the Giant effectively, you need RR ánd WW, is that achievable?
  5) Shard Phoenix / Jiwari, the Earth Aflame / Torchling / Anarchist
  6) Slice and Dice

Green

• 1) Birds of Paradise
  2) Farseek (hello duals!) => no argument here
  3) Call of the Herd
  4) Harmonize, or Break Asunder if you want another Disenchant => I'll play Harmonize then
  5) All Sun's Dawn
  6) Quagnoth

The main cards that I don't understand are:
Genju of the Fields
Temporary Isolation
Twisted Abomination
Flame Jab

That's pretty much it, the rest I can understand although I don't really agree on all of them, but then again I have no experience whatsoever with playing either extended or rainbow stairwell, so I'll go for what others say pretty fast :)

[Nihil Credo]

The main cards that I don't understand are:
Genju of the Fields

Awesome blocker, hard-to-kill win condition, massive lifegain provided enough mana (you can animate it multiple times, each time it gains another instance of Lifelink i.e. +2 life).

I realise now, though, that you have "only" 7 plains. Duh. That is probably going to be a problem. If so, replace it with Weathered Wayfarer, Condemn, or maybe Guilty Conscience if you want a bad removal spell that also gives you an insta-win combo with Stuffy Doll.

Temporary Isolation

Closest thing to 1W: Destroy target creature that I know of.

Twisted Abomination

An extra fat guy that won't get stuck in your hand. You already have a half-dozen expensive win conditions, so it's a good thing if you can do something else with a few of them.

Flame Jab

It's more or less a Darkblast that can go to the head. It's not just "I can kill all your 1/1 guys almost anytime I want", it can also combo with combat damage and other Red removal to kill creatures just out of range.

[Poesjuh]

Ok, thx for your reply. I think I'll make my list like this then:

Artifact

• 1) Sensei's Divining Top
  2) Umezawa's Jitte / Prismatic Lens
  3) Coalition Relic
  4) Etched Oracle
  5) Stuffy Doll
  6) Duplicant

White

• 1) Weathered Wayfarer
  2) Temporary Isolation
  3) Oblivion Ring
  4) Wrath of God
  5) Battlegrace Angel
  6) Exalted Angel

Blue

• 1) Ponder / Whispers of the Muse
  2) Telling Time
  3) Compulsive Research
  4) Sower of Temptation
  5) Aeon Chronicler
  6) Keiga the Tide Star

Black

• 1) Thoughtseize
  2) Smother
  3) Undead Gladiator
  4) Damnation
  5) Shriekmaw
  6) Twisted Abomination

Red

• 1) Flame Jab
  2) Pyroclasm
  3) Resounding Thunder
  4) Desolation Giant
  5) Shard Phoenix
  6) Slice and Dice

Green

• 1) Birds of Paradise
  2) Farseek
  3) Call of the Herd
  4) Harmonize
  5) All Sun's Dawn
  6) Quagnoth

The only card I'm not sure about at this moment is Jitte vs Prismatic Lens. I mean, jitte is insane ^^ And prismatic lens is chromatic star on a stick :)

Anyway, with this list I kept most of my own choices, but replaced some with your suggestions, I think I'll have a pretty strong list like this :)

[frogboy]

This is an interesting format. Are you forced to play with the manabase you listed, or can you play more fetches and duals?

Control decks are usually awesome in these formats so I'll figure something out after I know how far I can stretch the mana.

[Poesjuh]

Well, as far as I found out on the net, it really depends on where you play, however I have not yet been able to find a recent post about it, the one I found was pretty outdated. For the tournament I'm going to play I have to use those lands, and the ravnica duals can be proxied. With the last I'm pleased 'cause I really don't feel like buying those for one simple tournament. I've got all 40 duals and have no plans whatsoever to buy the shockduals.

If it were up to me (and I actually asked the organizer or the tournament if this could be possible) the type would be changed to legacy instead of extended. Or even Vintage with some extra bannings like Balance, but keeping Demonic Tutor etc. That would be totally awsome :D

[Bigface]

CounterTop could be something really cool for decks like these.

[Atwa]

When and more importantly where is this tournament?

I haven't played a game of real competive magic in a year and a half, a semi-casual tournament could be nice, since I really lack the time at the moment to really put some time into serieus magic for at least another half year.

If I can make a decent deck and have the time, I might even decide to show up.

[frogboy]

I'd have to probably play some games to see how reliably you could cast double colored cards, but MWS was giving me 50% or so. You can add green fixing to mitigate this, but now all of a sudden you have like thirty mana sources. Rough.

I think Etched Oracle should be the default artifact 4 over Cloister; it would suck to get Mind Twisted by some Stomphowler thing. Top is actually pretty bad in decks that don't have that many shuffle effects. I think you want to play Terror instead of Smother, too.

This format would rule if you could play more than seven sources of each color. As it is you're really limited in what you can do.

[Poesjuh]

When and more importantly where is this tournament?

I haven't played a game of real competive magic in a year and a half, a semi-casual tournament could be nice, since I really lack the time at the moment to really put some time into serieus magic for at least another half year.

If I can make a decent deck and have the time, I might even decide to show up.

In The Netherlands, so I think you don't really wanna come ;) Shame though, at this moment only 3 people so far including myself that have registered, really got to get more people to go.

I'd have to probably play some games to see how reliably you could cast double colored cards, but MWS was giving me 50% or so. You can add green fixing to mitigate this, but now all of a sudden you have like thirty mana sources. Rough.

I think Etched Oracle should be the default artifact 4 over Cloister; it would suck to get Mind Twisted by some Stomphowler thing. Top is actually pretty bad in decks that don't have that many shuffle effects. I think you want to play Terror instead of Smother, too.

This format would rule if you could play more than seven sources of each color. As it is you're really limited in what you can do.

You are indeed very limited by your mana sources, that's why I really don't want to play Counterbalance. I don't want to play that anyway, it's boring :P Oracle vs Cloister is something I have yet to decide, both are very capable cards so I don't know yet.

[Nihil Credo]

I think Etched Oracle should be the default artifact 4 over Cloister

Totally forgot about Etched Oracle: +1 to this.

On another note, I just realized Resounding Thunder is very likely > Puncture Blast. Also, if the format is as slow-ass as it promises to be, it might be worth it to go with Whispers of the Muse over Ponder.

[Poesjuh]

Totally forgot about Etched Oracle: +1 to this.

On another note, I just realized Resounding Thunder is very likely > Puncture Blast. Also, if the format is as slow-ass as it promises to be, it might be worth it to go with Whispers of the Muse over Ponder.

Well, then I´ll propably put Ethed Oracle in on the 4CC spot. Resounding Thunder for Puncture Blast is a good idea! :) Lategame cycling might actually happen :P Give the manabase, which basically suuuucks, I think the format is really going to be slow. I expect a lot of waiting for the right mana, that's why I want to play land searchers and mana fixers as much as possible and with the last list we got that pretty much covered :)

[Atwa]

In The Netherlands, so I think you don't really wanna come ;) Shame though, at this moment only 3 people so far including myself that have registered, really got to get more people to go.

Haha, misschien wil je eerst eens kijken naar de locatie onder mijn naam voordat je dat soort uitspraken doet :)

Edit: For our english readers: I was just making fun of him not looking at my location.

[Poesjuh]

Edited because of absolute stupidity

[saspook]

Ancestral Vision for U spot?

Ancestral Vision doesn't have a CC of 1.

As another poster has said, Terror >> Smother. Smother hits a potential 50%, Terror hits 66%. When you factor in important targets, the value of Terror is even higher than that.

[Poesjuh]

Ancestral Vision doesn't have a CC of 1.

As another poster has said, Terror >> Smother. Smother hits a potential 50%, Terror hits 66%. When you factor in important targets, the value of Terror is even higher than that.

*slap myself around with a very very very large trout* Vision for U cc, blegh, it's sunday, that must be it...


I'll replace Smother with Terror then, it is indeed the better card in this format :)
Edit: SDP is, offcourse, banned. I'm restricted to normal bannings + what I said above, so no Top for me. I think I'll but Chromatic Star back in then.

[mugs]

A Survival Control Deck with Painter/grindstone combo.

go for combo or just apply removal and LD to control the game.

if the land base should ever be less restrictive ie. you can put in some other non basics, then a Life of the Loam version similar to this is likely even better (Volrath's Stroghold)


// Deck file for Magic Workstation (http://www.magicworkstation.com)
// NAME: 5cRainRecursion Legacy

// Lands
3 [MM] Island (1)
3 [MR] Forest (3)
3 [ST] Plains (4)
3 [B] Mountain (3)
3 [P2] Swamp (2)
1 [RAV] Watery Grave
1 [RAV] Overgrown Tomb
1 [RAV] Sacred Foundry
1 [RAV] Temple Garden
1 [DIS] Breeding Pool
1 [GP] Stomping Ground
1 [GP] Steam Vents
1 [DIS] Hallowed Fountain
1 [DIS] Blood Crypt

// Creatures
1 [4E] Birds of Paradise
1 [SHM] Painter's Servant
1 [CS] Jotun Grunt
1 [GP] Tin Street Hooligan
1 [FD] Eternal Witness
1 [OD] Auramancer
1 [UL] Viashino Heretic
1 [UL] Avalanche Riders
1 [AL] Krovikan Horror
1 [LE] Nantuko Vigilante
1 [LRW] Shriekmaw
1 [LRW] Mulldrifter
1 [JU] Genesis
1 [SC] Noble Templar
1 [TSB] Twisted Abomination
1 [SC] Shoreline Ranger
1 [SC] Chartooth Cougar
1 [SC] Elvish Aberration
1 [MR] Duplicant

// Spells
1 [TE] Grindstone
1 [6E] Enlightened Tutor
1 [EVE] Ghastly Demise
1 [MI] Mystical Tutor
1 [US] Gamble
1 [CHK] Journeyer's Kite
1 [EX] Survival of the Fittest
1 [8E] Merchant Scroll
1 [TE] Disturbed Burial
1 [ARE] Darksteel Ingot
1 [TE] Intuition
1 [EX] Recurring Nightmare
1 [5E] Nevinyrral's Disk
1 [CHK] Gifts Ungiven
1 [REW] Wrath of God
1 [TSP] Evangelize
1 Anarchist
1 [MR] Gilded Lotus

just use tutors and get survival,or intuition,or gifts ungiven , or set up some other small combo in the mean time