Uwgr Intuition CounterTop
by Mana Drain, with substantial editing, added content, and influence from Valtrix and significant influence from ivanpei.
(Disclaimer: We’re well aware that there are two older threads that use both Intuition and CB (It’s the Fear and the previous Intuition/CB thread). This deck is not ITF, and the other Intuition/CB thread was only 2 pages long, with the second page about primarily about combating a deck that is no longer in existence. This deck can now be considered optimized. This thread’s main focus is about Uwgr Intuition CounterTop, utilizing Tarmogoyf, Jace TMD, and the Ruins/EE combo to take control of the game and end it in swift order, while having multiple internal synergies and a huge number of both MD and SB options due to color choice. If you want to play Pernicious Deed, Innocent Blood, and recur Eternal Witness and Etched Oracle with Volrath’s Stronghold, please go to the (very old) ITF thread. If you want to play Daze, Rhox War Monk, Qasali Pridemage, and Ponder, please go to the Countertop Goyf thread. If you want to play the best control spells in blue, red, green, and white, have a diversified game plan that can play around any single form of hate or beat it, while controlling the board with the most effective and versatile cards available, please continue reading.)
Contents
Introduction
Decklists
Overall Strategy of the Deck
Card Choices and Explanation
The Sideboard
Matchup Analysis
Why Play this Deck?
The Future
First and foremost, if this deck is any good, why didn’t it show up months ago? The answer to this is simple: The deck did show up months ago, but like many (most) other decks in the format, we had serious problems with a certain 1G enchantment. I mean serious. As in, “we have to dedicate about 7-8 slots in our board to Needles, GY hate, Spell Snares/Spell Pierces to have a chance” serious. So for the latter half of 2010, Intuitive remained in the same position all CB decks were in: a bad one. Now that the green menace has been removed from existence by the powers that be, the deck is in a favorable position, as Aggro, Combo, and other CB strategies are predicted to make a return. Why play this deck over any other CB deck, or any other deck utilizing Intuition? My answer to that is: Why not play the best of both? CB is undoubtedly the most powerful control element in the format, providing a passive wall of counters for only UU, when paired with the best piece of card-quality in the format: Sensei’s Divining Top. Top is strong enough that the deck would run 3-4 even if we weren’t playing the overpowered enchantment. Together, they allow you to save your removal and hard-counters like Force and counterspell for the rare things that CB can’t stop and dramatically alter the game, like a Natural Order, opposing Jace/Elspeth, Tombstalker or other big-mana bomb.
Intuition is a 3 mana engine or a 3 mana, instant-speed Demonic tutor that pitches to FoW. For 3 mana and a card, you have the ability to set up a long-term late game strategy no other deck can handle pre-board. Recurring Explosives will win you the game against any deck that relies on permanents to win. The combo does take time though, which is why so much of the deck is centered on staying alive. If you do manage to stay alive and resolve an Intuition, you will win the game. Why? I’ll explain further in a later section. Utilizing Intuition as a Demonic Tutor in the end step is also completely acceptable, turning it into a Force of Will, Counterbalance, Firespout, StP, or a Jace/Tarmogoyf to win the game quickly. More info on Intuition later.
Finally, we come to the fact that most Counterbalance decks are not really control decks at all. They’re often mid-range aggro decks that just happen to run a one-sided shifting Chalice of the Void and some counters. This isn’t always the case (Supreme Blue for example), but most Counterbalance decks fit this description. Their overall strategy is to drop CB, some dudes, and lay the beats. This is an extremely solid and proven strategy, but what if the opposing deck doesn’t care about your CB? More than likely, you’re in trouble. Hence, decks that control-ish decks should be good against, like Zoo, are actually bad matchups. In addition, most CB decks don’t focus on board control, rather laying down a single, efficient beater/utility dude backed up by CB. This lack of board control is a significant weakness against decks that can quickly overwhelm you like Tribal and Zoo or decks that are not crippled by CB like Landstill and Dredge. Whether the community chooses to acknowledge the fact that many CB decks are significantly weaker with their namesake enchantment not in play or neutralized (via Needle, Pridemage, Grip, Vial, etc.) is extremely relevant due to the ease of hating on CB. When CB is not in play, most CB Goyf lists plays like a 2007-era UGx Threshold list, without the tempo package. This is not acceptable for me. We’re not proposing that Intuitive CB should or would replace all current CB decks (which are indeed powerful decks when the metagame is favorable), but will do better in a metagame with a strong Zoo, Merfolk, or Goblins presence, without having the difficulties that more traditional blue control decks like Landstill have with Combo and to a lesser extent, Tempo decks. Now, show us the decklists damnit!
Originally Posted by Mana Drain’s current list
Overall Strategy of the Deck
The deck wants to do multiple, independent things, all of which support the same goals: Stay alive, Stabilize, and Win. The removal suite (StP, Firespout, EE, Shackles) and hard-counter suite (Force, Counterspell) all support the first objective effectively. Counterbalance helps you stay alive if dropped early enough (providing free countering of threats/disruption), and is a major benefit to the second and third objective. Intuition’s purpose is very similar to CB’s, by providing recursive permanent destruction, but primarily for the second objective, and solid support for the third. Jace does all three at any time he wants, bouncing lone threats, drawing you into answers to stabilize, and being a disruptive win condition once the smoke has cleared. Like Jace, Tarmogoyf also serves all three goals effectively; Goyf is much faster and can stall multiple threats, but less stable due to the ease of removability.
All four work together in conjunction with the counter/removal suite and the card quality provided by Brainstorm/Top to ensure early-game survival, mid-late-game stabilization, and late-game victory. They also allow the deck to utilize different methods of controlling the game, depending on what is required against the opponent’s deck. When you need blow up the board against a horde of little dudes and become pseudo-Landstill, you can. When you need to use CB and StP to stop a big beater who is backed up by disruption and become CB Goyf, you can. When you need to be the beatdown and start swinging with a monster to lock the game up, Tarmogoyf has your back. Many games you’ll do all three. Running so many varied ways to dominate the game also makes it very difficult for your opponent to stop your strategy, as answers are rarely versatile enough to deal with creatures, planeswalkers, card quality, Ruins-EE, and Counterbalance-Top.
Card Choices and Explanation
The manabase
Fetches: 9-10 fetches instead of the usual 8 for increased color consistency, resilience against T1 Wasteland, and additional shuffle effects. If you’re not comfortable with the increased vulnerability to Stifle and extra lifeloss, feel free to trim the number to 8. My experience has proven the -1 life loss to be far less relevant than not having the mana to play StP, Goyf, or Firespout. Additional fetches bolster the power of Loam, Top, BS, and Jace. Whichever fetches you use doesn’t make a difference if you’re not running any non-Island basics, but I suggest to staying away from Flooded Strand unless you are running the basic Plains. Why? Because “Flooded Strand, Go” is a signature play of blue control and an obvious tell, whereas “Rainforest/Tarn/Delta, Go” leaves room for the other player to guess between Tempo Thresh, normal CB variants, Combo, etc. It may seem ridiculous and irrelevant, but why not possibly change the way your opponent plays and save information about what you are playing if it costs you nothing? Also, proper use of fetches (only cracking when necessary, saving them when possible) is required when playing this deck. Failure to comply will lead to much more common color screw.
Basics: I choose to run just 2 basic Islands, as I like to live dangerously. In all seriousness, I’ve found that not being able to play Counterbalance or Counterspell on T2 is highly relevant, and choose to run the 2 basic Islands as my only basics. That said, guaranteeing that you always have access to either Loam/Tarmogoyf or StP/Path is strong in the face of Tribal. This is a matter of personal preference and risk vs. reward that you as the player must decide on. When you run basics the Plains is better than the Mountain because you’ll usually have more relevant white cards against aggro (Swords and Path) than your lonely Firespouts, and there are oftentimes when you want white but not red, but never the other way around. Plus, you really only want a Mountain turn 3 to Firespout, but might want Plains sooner than that.
Duals: Three of each is a perfect balance of all colors, as they all have the same necessary requirements in the deck. Three duals plus nine fetches gives you 12 lands that can provide the colors you need to cast your spells. Nothing costs two of any non-blue mana in the deck, so fetching out one of each is recommended if you need crack a fetch to play a blue spell. The highest priority color is green, as it allows you to cast your Goyfs for defense, and recur your other colors with Loam. This is followed by Tundra for StP defense, and finally, Volcanic, for wrathing away hordes of little dudes. You may cut a dual of a respective color if you add a basic of that color (i.e. cut a Tundra if you add a plains) if you so choose. Unless you’re constantly playing decks with Wastelock (not decks that just play Wasteland) or serious non-basic hate (Blood Moon, Back to Basics, Price of Progress), I highly suggest running 3 of each dual for maximum color consistency.
Academy Ruins: What allows you to recur your artifacts, and set up the dreaded EE lock. Amazingly powerful, but try to hold it until necessary to play, to avoid Wasteland and spontaneous self destruction from an opposing Ruins. Also, it doesn’t produce blue, so factor that into your mulligan decisions, although this is kind of obvious. Always run 1. Not 2, not 0, but 1.
Creatures
Tarmogoyf: Suddenly, out of nowhere, Tarmogoyf. Yes, the ubiquitous green monster makes another appearance, and is put to great use. The best wall in the game, a 2 drop for the CB curve, easily protected under Counterbalance, and a great finisher with easy color requirements all make Goyf a 4 of. You want to see him in just about every matchup, and in multiples. Significantly improves the Zoo, Goblins, and pretty much every other aggro matchup out there, while still being relevant against non-aggro strategies. But you probably know this already. Run 4.
Spells
Brainstorm: We’re blue, and play fetchlands. Duh. Serves double duty since we’re playing Counterbalance. As always, save your Brainstorms until absolutely necessary. Common Brainstorm rules apply. Play 4.
Force of Will: We play blue cards, and about 20 of them including this. Duh. Save them for the “OH SHI-“ moments, like a Choke, Price of Progress, Show and Tell, Counterbalance, NO, Standstill, etc. Play 4.
Counterbalance: Our curve is about 12-14 1 drops, 10-12 2 drops, and 6-8 3 drops, which has been optimal. A solid card in almost all matchups, with exception against Vial decks and some fringe decks (like Affinity and Chalice/Tomb decks). It’s a pillar of the format for a reason. 4 of, no exceptions.
Sensei’s Divining Top: Amazing card quality by itself, and an unbeatable advantage at almost every point in the game, and of course a passive counterwall in combination with Counterbalance. Every opening hand with one is significantly better than one without. Great synergy with Loam and fetchlands. Run 4.
Swords to Plowshares: The best removal printed, and the reason to run white. There is no control deck that can’t be made better by including Swords. Run 4, all day, every day.
Firespout: 3 mana WoG in the tribal matchup, and still amazing in the Zoo matchup, all of which are extremely dangerous for their ability to kill you before stabilization. A 3 drop for the CB curve, a significant boost in the matchups mentioned above, and easy on the color requirements. Awful in multiple matchups, but any matchup where Firespout is dead, we’re probably in good standings. Run 3 in the MD, with the fourth in the board for extra insurance against Tribal/Zoo/Affinity/littledudes.dec.
Vedalken Shackles: Slow, but game breaking. If you untap with it in play against a creature deck, you’ll probably win. Another 3 drop for the curve, recurable with Ruins, and significantly improves the Goblin matchup. It can be too slow in matchups about speed, but in G1 few decks have an answer for it and it certainly will win games on its own. For this reason, it’s a one of.
Engineered Explosives: Versatile removal for almost any problem that you have. With Ruins, a soft lock that shuts out almost any non-land permanents that your opponent draws since the deck runs 4-colors. Also, a great way to remove opposing CB’s by making X greater than 2 while only using 2 colors. Unfortunately, 0cc doesn’t do much for the curve, and it can get mana intensive quickly. You only want one in the main for these reasons, and its slowness. Extras in the board are great to get around graveyard hate and have versatile answers.
Life from the Loam: The heart of the Intuition engine. Provides infinite shuffles and lands for the rest of the game, a 2 drop for CB, card advantage (in the form of lands), synergy with Top, Brainstorm, and Jace, easy color requirements, and of course enables Ruins and possible other land combos (Cephalid Coliseum for example). Obviously amazing against land denial strategies. Is in effect extra lands for the deck. However, you don’t really want to run too many land effects and deck space is tight, so there’s only room for one.
Counterspell: When I first started playing this deck, I didn’t like Counterspell. While it’s the most consistent and versatile card in the deck, I was convinced that there was some other 2 drop more powerful, and I should be running something else. The truth is, CS fills many important rolls in the deck. It’s blue (Force consistency), a 2 drop (CB), and a hard answer for whatever serious problem is on the stack (NO, Jace, KotR, Vindicate) that CB can’t answer or when you don’t have CB (common). Spell Snare was played in this slot, but didn’t have much synergy with the rest of the deck, and was not versatile enough in topdeck mode. Besides that, you want to be dropping Top T1 or StPing an important dude. All serious 2 drops (besides Standstill and CB) can be answered with an StP, and CS is important when trying to stabilize or trying to maintain stabilization when your opponent topdecks something dangerous. All in all, it’s a fine card to SB out for something more important, and is a huge help against a number of matchups (Bant, Rock, other control decks, combo). A big thank you to Valtrix for pointing out to me the importance of this card in the deck.
Jace, the Mind Sculptor: Superman makes another triumphant appearance, and does not disappoint. If you have 4 mana, and aren’t facing down an army of dudes, playing Jace is probably a game-winning play. In fact, he’s a large reason for the removal suite, allowing you to one-for-one, get to 4 mana, drop him and win. A six-turn disruptive clock that can also create card advantage and quality, bounce problematic creatures until an answer is found, and just be all around amazing is truly, no joke. Three is just the right number, allowing you to Intuition for him, and have multiple copies in the deck incase an early one dies, but rarely drawing multiples and clogging your hand. If you don’t have any, start selling drugs and buy some. He’s that good. Run no less than two, period.
Intuition: Finally, the namesake card of the deck. As mentioned above, a three-mana engine and Demonic Tutor. Resolving it creates inevitability that other decks can’t compete with G1. Postboard, if forces the other player to put in GY hate or EE hate, diluting their strategy at a minimal cost to ours, or face the inevitability of being blown out if they don’t kill us fast enough. As the pieces for the combo are solid and useful on their own, this is a serious advantage for us. Hating on the GY is necessary against us, but doesn’t affect the other 54 cards in the deck at all. They still have to deal with Goyf (feeding off their GY), CB (which requires an entirely different set of hate), and Jace (who is that fucking good). Even hating on the yard will accomplish very little, as Intuition is still a 3 mana Demonic Tutor for whatever you need at the time. The most common pile is “Loam/Ruins/EE”, but more will be mentioned below. A blue 3 drop for CB, always castable with 3 lands, and a shuffle are just bonuses. It’s creates an entire late game strategy out of 3 cards in your deck, in addition to some already great and synergistic cards already present. Three is the right number, as you never want to see two in an opener, and resolving one is all it takes, but you still want to see at least 1 a game. Additional Intuitions after the first are used to strengthen a board further, or as a tutor for a kill condition. It also allows for a number of different internal combos that can be played that aren’t included in the lists posted, like Thopter/Foundry, and Grove/Punishing Fires. The card opens unlimited possibilities, but for now, we’re sticking to the most effective, independent, and space-conservative ones.
(SB Choices and Matchup Anyalisys on next pages)
Last edited by Mana Drain; 02-15-2011 at 09:35 PM. Reason: Edits will be made constantly to keep the deck up-to-date
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The Sideboard, and possible choices for YOUR metagame
Core choices that should be in your SB no matter what the metagame. These are must haves that are too good to pass up.
Path to Exile: Additional StPs in the matchups where you need it, somewhat self-explanatory. Amazing against decks with low threat densities or fat men that FS can’t handle. Tempo Thresh/TA, The Rock, New Horizons/Bant, Zoo, Merfolk, Affinity, and even Goblins are all reasons to keep an extra Path or two in the board. Run 1 at the minimum, extras at your discretion.
Extra Engineered Explosives: The obvious question here is: Why don’t you run more EEs in the MD then? Well, you don’t always need extra EEs, and one is all it takes to lock the other guy out. It also messes with the CB curve having multiples in the MD. Because of its cost running a lot can be cumbersome, but post-board your deck will be more streamlined against the opponent so that you can more-easily afford to run additional EEs without much detriment. This card is useful in just about every matchup, since it’s such a versatile answer, and is definitely crucial in dealing with resolved counterbalances and is a great answer to vial. Running extras in the board also negates in large part graveyard hate strategies. For this reason 2 EEs in the board is recommended, so that even if they take out one or even two you can still just not care and continue to lock them out when you get another. Major thanks to Valtrix for pointing this out to me.
Pyroblast/Red Elemental Blast: The second reason to run red, after Firespout. At any given tournament, you can reasonably expect that 40% of the metagame will consist of decks playing blue cards. One mana hard-counters and Vindicates for Jace and fishy men are no joke. A serious advantage against any blue deck and makes the Merfolk matchup much more tolerable. I highly suggest three of these in any combination, but if your metagame is either heavy blue or very little blue, you may certainly add or subtract one.
Grave hate of your choice: Because you never know when Dredge/Lands/AggroLoam is going to show up and just wreck your shit. Recurring engines are difficult for us to stop or race preboard and generally cause a loss if assembled. I personally use one Crypt (for speed and recurability) and one Relic (for versatility and the draw) in addition to Enlightened Tutor (more on that soon) to find them. I have also had great success against GY decks with Ravenous Trap. Any time that you want the Trap in postboard, it’s always a Crypt with flash that is immune to all forms of anti-hate, sans Therapy from Dredge (if they’re casting Therapy, they’re not naming Trap first). Always run at least one Crypt, so you can Intuition for “Loam/Ruins/Crypt” to perpetually hate the grave when needed, but more GY hate is advised. Relic is also great against Tempo Thresh and Rock decks running Loam as it shuts down Goofy, KotR, opposing Loams, Lavamanacer, and Mongoose at no cost of cards to you. The quantity and type of GY hate is to be determined by what you predict your metagame to warrant, but I suggest at least 1 Crypt for locking out GY dependant opponents with Intuition for “Loam/Crypt/Ruins”.
Ratchet Bomb: You should probably play one of these in the board. The main reason to play this card is to get around needle on EE, and sense its so versatile you can board it in with no risk. It effectively allows you to run more hate on creatures, planeswalkers, enchantments, artifacts, and the like with one card in your board so its slowness is often negated by the fact that this just supplements your answers in your deck to any type of threat. I also like having another 2cc to bring in for the combo matchup. This was straight stolen tech from one of Valtrix’s posts.
Firespout: You should have 3 in the main and one the board. Firespout is the card that really allows you to stomp on aggro the most. By running all 4 copies of it you give yourself great odds against any type aggro deck as you start having a critical mass of removal spells between firespouts, swords, paths, EEs, shackles, etc. that makes it difficult for decks even with a lot of creatures to win.
Other SB choices that are worth consideration
Krosan Grip: Counterbalance isn’t any less of a problem just because we’re running them too. Obviously great against CB, Top, and other Control, but many decks will have Arts/Enchantments you would like to kill. Grips main purpose though is helping you not scoop to a resolved Counterbalance, which does happen. Always be aware of possible Chokes coming in from The Rock and Zoo. If you choose to run more EE’s in the board, it’s fine to cut one of these, but I suggest at least 1 in addition to other Art/Ench hate (EE, Ratchet, Claim) as the color requirements are easy and it’s another 3 drop for CB. Nature’s Claim is also an option if CB isn’t present in your metagame, but Art/Enchant hate is coming in against you (Choke, Needle, Relic/Crypt, etc.). Just an all around solid card for the purpose it serves, but it can be slow and better alternatives exist for killing off non-CB arts/enchants.
Pithing Needle: Great against the Vial and Wasteland decks. I don’t feel that there are enough other activated abilities to worry about were this would be significant. In addition you need to land one early to stop the above, which would require multiples, or Enlightened Tutors. A major no-go with EE. Some may get good mileage out of Needle, but I don’t feel it’s necessary. Solid targets include Waste, Vial, Pridemage, Mutavault/Mishra’s Factory, Planeswalkers.
Vendilion Clique: Modern tech CB Goyf players have been putting to good use. A blue 3 drop, a 3 power flyer for trading, a possible clock, a disruption piece and some info on what’s coming up. I like it as an answer to possible Grips/Extirpates, and forcing the removal spell if they have it, and hits their strongest card in hand. Can also be used on yourself, trading a bad card for a draw in the late game. Amazing against Control, effective against The Rock and New Horizons for stopping their hate. A useful card against most non-fast-aggro decks.
Enlightened Tutor: This choice is confusing to a lot of people, but I love the Tutor. It functions as additional Counterbalances/Tops against decks where CB is a blow out (Loam decks, Combo, Burn), as additional Relics/Crypts (where GY hate is important), and as a tutor for EE, Shackles, and Ratchet, but those are weaker and far less common targets. With CB in play it’s a hard counter and a Tutor in one. It also opens up a million different silver bullets in the SB if you choose to run them like Circles of Protection (serious here), Needles, Ensnaring Bridge, O-ring, etc. I suggest giving this a spin if you want to get some additional mileage out of your sideboard without dedicating more slots than necessary to GY hate and Combo hate.
Nature’s Claim: I really don’t like getting blown out by Choke. It’s an extremely common SB card from any deck not running blue that’s not combo. It’s more backbreaking than any other hate we will face with any pressure on the board what so ever. Claim is the best removal for it I can think of but also great against Needle, Sylvan Library, GY hate, Tops in response to a fetch, and a bunch of other nuisances. It’s constantly going in and out of my board as a meta card, but I’ve always enjoyed having it against any mid-range deck. It’s less effective than Grip against a resolved CB and other control decks, but half of the SB comes in against those matchups anyway.
Peacekeeper: Even though the green menace is gone, this is still a solid SB card for the Merfolk, Dredge, Madness, or Sneak and Tell matchup and usually wins the game as soon as it hits. If you’re going to run this, make sure you have the basic Plains MD. Don’t side it in against Goblins (duh).
Spell Pierce: Great combo hate, great CB hate, and just all-around great cards. The MD doesn’t have the room to accommodate them, but you may find them great in the SB for the matchups they’re amazing in (Combo, CB, Control, and Tempo). Huge insurance against Combo, and very helpful against Tempo.
Spell Snare: Like Spell Pierce, an all-around good card, there just isn’t room in the MD for it and CS serves the curve and mid-lategame a bit better. I like it more than Spell Pierce because there are a number of 2 drop creatures that can wreck our shit. Goyf, Pridemage, Confidant, Stoneforge, and LoA to name a few. Being a hard counter has also proven to be relevant, when topdecked threats in the mid-lategame can be dangerous. Not nearly as good against combo or heavy control, but much better against CB Goyf, Zoo, Merfolk, Bant, Rock and other creature decks.
Blue Elemental Blast/Hyrdoblast: Anti-Zoo and Goblin cards, also hating on randomness like Moons and burn. Too narrow and insignificant to warrant space in most metas, but if you find yourself being overrun by Goblins, Zoo, or other red decks constantly, give it a try.
Core choices and user customization
These cards are not to be cut under any circumstances, as talked about in card choices
4 Brainstorm
4 Force
4 Counterbalance
4 Top
4 Swords
4 Goyf
2 Intuition
2 Jace
1 Loam
1 EE
3 Firespout
22 mana sources, including Academy Ruins
So, there isn’t much room for change right now. The two lists posted (Mine and Valtrix’s) look almost identical for a reason. Dozens upon dozens of cards have been tested in various slots, and what was posted was what made the cut. But, the most flexible slots in the deck would be: Vedalken Shackles, the third Jace, and if need be, the third Intuition. Below are a few choices that didn’t make the MD cut, but were still effective or useful enough to keep in consideration for the future.
Maze of Ith: Turns Intuition into an immediate removal spell in addition to the Loam engine. “Loam/Maze/x” guarantees Maze next turn facing down a single threat. Although it doesn’t help the CB curve and costs a land drop, this is still a powerful option and may warrant space. Ivanpei was a big proponent of Maze in the first Intuition CB thread, but it was eventually deemed unnecessary. While it can be a saving grace to Intuition into the package and is helpful against the midrange decks and Zoo, the loss of a land drop and vulnerability to Waste is significant. If you’re going to try this, I don’t suggest running more than one.
Wasteland: Wastelock is a scary thing for most decks in the format, especially if early enough. It’s great insurance against Landstill, and handles problematic utility lands like opposing Ruins, Strongholds, Ports, Factories, and Mutavaults. I don’t feel it’s worth the loss of a blue-producing land, and really, with one-Wasteland you can’t do a whole lot of waste-locking without having to stop your draw every turn.
Cephalid Coliseum: Allows for “Loam/Coliseum/x” Intuition packages that will win a stalled board. It’s a draw engine that costs U and a land-drop, to draw 3 cards and discard 2 lands and something else. It’s a nice option to have, but EE recursion accomplishes the same task almost all of the time. I used it in some of my original lists, but dropped it for the second Delta for more mana consistency. Try this and see if it works for you.
Daze: Daze was originally played in my list, but it had a few problems that turned out to be big. Setting yourself back a land-drop is big, even as nice as it is to have another free counter. It being dead in the lategame is also a big consideration. Not being a hard-counter for NO, Jace, KotR, and other gamebreaking topdecks is just too big of a drawback. That said, if you play a lot of the other CB decks, Zoo, or combo, you may want to swap the 2 CS with Daze. It's an amazing card in regular CB Goyf, but here, CS does what we need it to do while always being useful and never becoming dead.
Pernicious Deed: While it’s possible you could trade an Island for an Underground Sea and play a pair of Deeds, it doesn’t solve any of the decks problems, namely being overrun early game or massive disruption backing up a Tarmogoyf/KotR/Tombstalker. Major non-bo with CB. An absolutely amazing card, it’s a little slow here and just doesn’t fit in the deck neatly enough to warrant play.
Bojuka Bog: Possible MD GY hate that is tutorable. While the effect can be amazing, it effectively taps for colorless and comes into play tapped. This has proven significant enough to not include it, but it may still be a valid SB option for people looking for more functional, but versatile GY hate.
ManLands (Mishra’s Factory/Mutavault/Nantuko Monastery): With nothing but Loam to take advantage of them, I feel that they are suboptimal. Monastery is actually an effective win condition, killing in five swings, but doesn’t come online early enough to be an effective blocker and Factory/Vault are both just too small. Not tapping for colored mana also is major lameness.
Regrowth: Regrowth can be a great way to strengthen your Intuitions or recur win-cons/removal mid-lategame. It's also another 2 drop, and easy to cast. But it tends to suck when you see it in the early game. For this reason, it was not included in the MD. We need every card we draw to be focused on staying alive.
Etched Oracle: An Ancestral Recall when it hits the field, and a 4/4 body to block/beatdown when need be. Cut because anytime you have the opportunity to start recurring and playing Oracle, you could just be sealing the deal recurring EE/Coliseum. Also, intensive color requirements, does nothing for the CB curve, and isn't very good at helping you stay alive when facing an assault.
Matchup Analysis
Note: I had actually written card by card SB plans, but I feel that it would be better to let you guys make your own decisions on your SB and what cards to swap. I will give suggestions for what to side out each matchup, to give you a better idea of how to maximize your SB. I highly recommend tuning the board to your own metagame, while still playing the always solid cards like Path, Blasts, Grip, and EE, with GY hate as insurance. Everybody’s board should be different and there is no correct way to SB for everyone. Just play with the deck and feel for yourself what cards should be what and when to side them in. Best of luck in this regard.
Tier 1 and other very common matchups
Goblins: Well shit, we play CB, they play Vial. Autoloss right? Not quite. The nice thing about non-blue decks is they don’t counter your spells, which is good seeing as we run Firespouts, Tarmogoyfs, Force of Wills, Counterspells, and Shackles. Obviously, prevent the Lackey from connecting. Their most dangerous spells cost between 3-5 mana, so CB isn’t going to be of much help here, regardless of Vial. Don’t drop Tarmogoyf too early to prevent them from just Timewalking you with Incinerator. But after a Firespout sweep, or if they keep a threat-light hand, dropping him dramatically halts whatever their plans were. Goblins has been around for almost 9 years, so everyone know how to play them and play against them. We’re control, we have massive board control elements, and we play Tarmogoyf. EE lock isn’t as strong here due to the varying cost of their dudes. Shackles is strong, and gamebreaking if they can’t kill it. CB is pretty useless here even without Vial on the table with half their deck being 3+cc. Intuition is also weak here, really only useful for tutoring for FS or slowly assembling Shackles, which is very slow.
Zoo: This can go south really fast if you keep a removal light hand. It can also be a complete blowout if you drop an early CB and they can’t answer it. Only fetch when necessary, and BS/shuffle all your Jaces away until stabilized. He’s just too slow and fragile against burn, and they always have an out to him (Burn, REB's, little dudes) unless you have CBTop online. Goyf is a huge boon in this matchup, protect him and you’ll be rewarded. Fetch basics when possible, as price of progress blowouts are not uncommon for us. Shackles is dangerous, as their dudes are not only big, but some of them are also disenchants. If you can get an EE lock out while staying above 7 life, you’ve got it. Sylvan Library, Choke, and KotR are serious threats, save your Forces for those. Intuition for Recurring EE is still good, but mana-intensive. Just play control, play around PoP as much as possible, and don’t let the Choke resolve. Stay alive long enough to set up EE lock, and stabilization with a CB out is usually game over for them. Postboard, Jace is extremely vulnerable due to burn and Blasts; I usually side them out. Shackles is too vulnerable and slow. Paths are extremely useful here, and EE’s are great for dealing with the little men while still being great latter in the game.
Merfolk: This all depends on how many Mutavaults and Standstills they draw G1. Vial is a huge threat for CB, but you’re way more concerned with LoA negating your Goyfs and Standstills chaining into each-other to just blow you out. Mutavault is a big threat because of it being immune to FS, and with a lord out they have a fast clock. The good news is we play StP and Firespout, and if we can keep LoA off the table, Goyf is a major problem for them. Shackles is also great, as they have no answer for it MD or SB, but it is mana intensive. If they kept a creature-light hand with more disruption than threats, we have a much better chance of taking G1. Losing G1 to creature-heavy draws with Mutas and Standstills is common, but you get to bring in half your SB G2, dramatically changing the odds. I like to side out my CBs and FoWs for the obvious Blasts, EE’s, and Paths. The reasoning behind siding out FoW is because other than T1 Vial and early Standstill, they have nothing worth 2 for 1ing yourself for. Their entire deck is dudes, counters, land, and Vial/Standstill. We can handle the creatures, and Vial/Standstill can be mitigated with EE and Blasts and other cheap counters. Two cards to stop one of theirs is just a bad trade in this matchup, and they run infinity cheap counters to punish you for it. Also, you’re blue count postboard is really low with CB out. Needles are common postboard for EE, Top, or Jace, so the Ratchet/Claim plays double duty in stopping those in addition to Vial. Save Paths for LoA and Mutas, since they are just too dangerous to let live. Watch out for Spell Pierce, it’s a beating. Same with Back to Basics, but thankfully we have removal for it and it’s very rare in modern builds. We have a shitload of cheap, great cards against them postboard, and this dramatically evens the odds.
Counterbalance Goyf: This whole matchup revolves around 3 cards for us: Intuition, Jace, and CB. Intuition for the EE package is game over if they can’t kill you next turn or stop the Loam. Jace is always a gamebreaker in blue mirrors, but they don’t play any Wastelands, so getting the mana to cast him is much easier. CB is the make or break card here. Either player who has it in play can do what they want uninterrupted (except from FoW of course). If theirs is in play, dedicate all resources to stopping it. If ours is in play, just make sure you don’t die next turn and protect it. Both of our decks are centered around 1-2, and both of us play some dead spells MD (FS), so having Top is also a huge boost. Always play around Daze unless absolutely necessary (like stopping a Jace or CB). Bait Spell Snares with Goyf, as they’ll always play removal for him. Postboard things get easier for us. They have way fewer cards to side in than we do, and they’ll have serious difficulty stopping EE lock, our CBs, and protecting their own CB and creatures from our hate. The basic strategy post-board is just the same as pre-board: Assemble CB lock or resolve Intuition for EE lock. ALWAYS stop the CB they play, as it’s just way to dangerous. We’re light on win-cons post-board, but we have a far heavier control element than they do, and this matchup is about control, not speed. Really, player skill, proper SB precautions, and draws can make or break this matchup, so do your own testing to find a SB plan that you’re comfortable with if the above one is not to your liking.
Landstill: Another fun control mirror. Difficulty depends on what colors they are. If they’re Ugbx Deedstill, then Deed is a major problem. If they play UWx, then the matchup should be easier. Both of them have the punishing T2 Standstill, and most builds run Spell Snare, which complicates decisions further. Their Wastes are insignificant unless you kept a bad hand, as they have no pressure to back it up. Both our deck and theirs run significant creature control, so both decks will be drawing dead cards. This makes our Tops extremely powerful against them, and good players will counter our Tops if possible. The only things you really have to fear are the Planeswalkers, and a Factory when you’re at 8 or less. CB doesn’t beat them, but it will help win counterwars when it comes to protecting Jace or a Tarmogoyf. Also, resolving Intuition will almost always lead to a win, as they can’t handle EE recursion without Cunning Wish (modern builds have mostly discarded wish anyway). If you run her, Clique is majorly important against the Ugbx version, as they have access to both Extirpate and Grip. Also, being a 3 drop for CB is highly relevant, as Landstills 3 drops tend to bad news for you (Crucible, Grip, Vindicate). The gameplan here is resolve Intuition, fight off GY hate, and win. CB is much better post-board as most of their hate will be centered around 1 and 3. Control mirrors are often decided by who has the best/most support for the gameplan (Blasts, Pierce, Counterspells), not who has the most bombs. That said, resolving Jace is a very solid strategy for winning, and should be played for, slowly assembling cheap counters to force him through. Keep a few StPs in for the Factories/Eternal Dragon.
Storm Combo (TES, ANT, Fetchland/Doomsday): Ah, now we’re talking. Firstly, all ritual Storm decks are cold to most of the same cards, CB and FoW being the best of them. Secondly, ~85% of combo players you will play really don’t use their deck to the full potential, and commonly mis-mull hands and make play mistakes (any mistake made with combo is significant). Doomsday being the most powerful and consistent against us, also is by far the hardest to play correctly and I’ve had many a player punt a game to me by misplaying cantrips or SBing incorrect cards (with this deck and others). If you’re playing Bryant Cook or somebody competent, disregard the previous. Most likely, you’re playing against someone who played Merfolk a month ago and thinks they know what they’re doing after a few weeks practice. Assemble CBTop ASAP, and life is much, much easier. If you make it to your third land, being able to intuition for forces or either piece of countertop gives us a huge edge over other CBTop decks. Tarmogoyf really helps here, giving you a fast clock to back up the CB/Counters, important pressure to force them to act, and the 2 drop is the second most important flip against combo (first is 1). We’re a CB deck here, so just play for CB lock and usual blue control elements. If they’re TES, drop an EE at 0 whenever you see one. While we have FS to stop EtW, Duress, plus a few rituals/LED into Wish/Tutor into EtW is much easier for them to do than fetch Ad Nauseam. I’d say cut Jace here, but we really want as many blue cards as possible for Force, and our threat density is low enough. Blast is great for stopping the cantrips. Spell Pierce is obviously amazing here. If it’s ANT and you expect Swarms, keep some number of StPs in for them. You guys know what to do from here. One of three things will happen in this matchup: 1) They will blow you out because you kept a counter/disruption light hand or they just got an amazing hand and blow you out regardless or 2) You assemble CB with counter backup so that even after they Grip it, you’re still ready for them and win, or 3) You assemble CB early and they just can’t stop it because MT was banned and they can’t tutor for Grip any more (most common).
Dredge (LED and Non-LED): This can go either way. Either you have the counter for their discard outlet and they’re in slowmo mode, or they just blow you out. I’ve won a fair number of G1’s against them, mainly from Forcing the outlet and dropping Goyf for the win. But, you’ll still probably lose the first game, which is understandable against Dredge, because they are the anti-blue deck. If you think your about to be blown out (like them dredging 30 cards on T2), just scoop and save the time and the info about what you’re playing. Put in your extra Paths are for stopping the Pimps/Tribes and also nailing Ichorid/Ghast. The Blasts are useful for stopping the draw spells (Careful Study/Breakthrough) and stop Chains if necessary. CB is useless against a deck that casts 2-3 spells a game, so swap them out first. I’ve also found that FS is only useful when you’re already losing and most of the time says “die 2 turns from now instead”, so swap them for the EEs/Ratchets to stop the tokens. Dredge’s postboard plan against Blue control is to slowroll us and win the war of attrition. With Intuition for “Loam/Ruins/Crypt”, your lategame beats theirs, ten times over. Goyf plays a great defense and Jace draws you into answers. Force them to play at a slower pace and you will probably win, forcing the concession with recurring Crypt or Goyf beats.
Tempo Thresh (UGR with Goose+Goyf): Uhrg, I hate this matchup. We’ll win if we survive to the lategame, but Spell Snare, Daze, Mongoose, and heavy Waste draws end it quickly. If you manage to land a CB/Top, they’re in deep shit, but it’s harder than it looks against a deck that is pretty much land+cantrips+counters+8-10 beaters. Be extremely careful with your fetches, cracking in response to theirs, their cantrips, or if they tap out (extremely rare). Only Force the kill-cons, unless you’re defending a fetch from Stifle and don’t have the land to lose it. Good luck on this one, you’ll need it. Trying to reduce the cost of your spells in important here. EE lock is too good in this matchup to reduce Intuitions, and getting Loam by any means possible ensures mana. They will have Blasts of their own and burn, so Jace’s survivability is low, but if you untap with him in play, you’ll probably win. I still suggest removing at least 1-2 in addition to the obvious Shackles and FS. Play the same as preboard, just be aware of REBs and Spell Pierces. Needle on EE is common, don’t depend on them. Throw in all Relics you have here; they buy time against beaters without costing a card.
The Rock: Another bad matchup. Preboard is not so bad, as their only disruption is hand-based and possibly some permanent hate in Pridemage, Vindicate, Pulse, etc. Don’t let Confidant or KotR live/resolve. They will beat you fast with either of them. Top is huge against them, as it voids all of their disruption, but they usually run a few too. This gives them a huge boost, because they otherwise have no draw engine. Force their Top if possible. CB breaks their entire deck open if you can land it without dying next turn; their whole curve 1, 2 , and 3 with no instant speed disruption. Jace is also a beating, and if they can’t kill him next turn, you’ll usually win. Goyf will likely eat a Swords, don’t count on him.
Extirpate is a killer here, usually stealing CB, FoW, or even worse, a Trop/Tundra. Clique is great at combating their hate, Relic is a stall-piece, Ratchet and EE remove the Needles, scary dudes, and possibly Chokes. Spell Pierce can help with the discard and stop a Choke/GY hate. Nature’s Claim is great in this match if you run it, with plenty of important targets (Choke, Top, Needle, Mox, Relic/Crypt). This matchup is harsh postboard, and all the creatures they play are dangerous (Goyf, Confidant, KotR, Pridemage). Draws can make all the difference for you though, because they need to see multiple threats early in addition to some good disruption (Thoughtseize, Duress, Extirpate). FS is kinda weak here, since the real threats are Goyf, KotR, and Confidant, which Paths handle more efficiently and neither deals with Choke.
New Horizons/ProBant/BantAggro: This is like the Rock matchup, only with counters and no Confidant. KotR is still amazingly good and will demolish us if he sticks. Stoneforge(if they run it) is also great, turning all of their dudes into monsters. Most of these decks I’ve seen don’t run Vial, but they do run Pridemage, which is harsh on the CB plan. If you do manage to land a CB though, they don’t run Vindicate/Pulse to stop it, and are up shitcreek unless they can kill you shortly afterwards. Most list’s countersuite consists of Daze, FoW, and possibly Spell Stutter Sprite, so you can reasonably guess at their countermagic and options available to them. Some lists do run Spell Pierce/Snare, which is extremely dangerous, and should be kept in the back of your mind. Basically, as long as they’re not running NO/Prog, this matchup is an easier Rock. This is another deck that if you can stay alive long enough to set up EE lock, you will win. They play many of the same cards as Rock, but not the really dangerous ones like Thoughtseize, Confidant, Vindicate, and Extirpate. The exception to this is NO/Prog, which will always lose you the game. Side out your Firespouts, and possibly your Goyfs. They run Swords MD, and will probably bring in some Paths, expecting regular CB Goyf. I also like to side out the CBs, due to the million and one answers they have to it (Pridemage, Grip, Pierce/Snare, Needle on Top). Throw in the Blasts, Paths, and some Spell Pierces/Cliques. EE and Ratchet also have merit if you saw no Stifles. Grips are obvious from them, but thankfully no Choke. Do your best to save your hardcounters for a possible NO, as it’s as good as game if it resolves. This is certainly not a great matchup, but is better than the Rock. SB strategy should be mostly the same as The Rock, but with less emphasis on Art/Enchant hate.
Less common matchups that are worth mentioning
Lands (of the 43 variety): If they don’t lock you out of the game early enough, you win. CB beats Loam recursion, and Jace beats their deck. This is all draw dependent on whether or not they get a fast Wastelock hand with an accelerant (Exploration, Manabond). Most builds also run Intuition to set up their own EE lock, which is just as dangerous against us as any other deck. Set up CB as soon as possible, GY hate supplements the gameplan. Jace may not be able to be played due to manalock, so side one out. Expect Chalice of the Void at 1 or Null Rods (far less common). GY hate from them and Needles are also a big possibility. We have tutors and recursion in addition to CB, we can do this. Out with the FS, Counterspells, Shackles, and Swords (unless you saw a shitload of Manlands).
AggroLoam: Without an early Wastelock or a Chalice at 1, these decks just fold. CB > their deck for this exercise, but they usually do run Maelstrom Pulse. Don’t let the Confidant or the Crusher live, as they’ll both end the game in short order. Just set up CB and try to get a 2 in there to shut out everything but Crusher and Pulse. Only Force the threats and a Chalice. If you’re running them, put in the Cliques for additional Loam hate. They usually side out their Chalices if they’re on the draw, but will bring in Chokes to replace them. Thankfully, their threat density is so low that even if they do drop some hate, you’ll probably have time to find an out their hate and beat them regardless. Artifact/Enchantment hate that doesn’t cost 1 is extremely useful postboard, pack all of it. If you run it, Needle is great against Wastelock, and also good to name EE if they are running blue + Ruins (This is not the common build though). Out with FS, Shackles, and possibly Intuitions as they probably will be siding in Leylines or other hate to stop your EE lock. GY hate is mandatory here.
Enchantress: It never ceases to amaze me how people disregard the deck completely and end up getting blown out by it. If you play in an aggro-heavy metagame, you can reasonably expect some Enchantress in there somewhere. The key to winning the matchup preboard and postboard is 1) Never let an Enchantress effect resolve (Presence and Argothian), 2) Don’t get blown out by random hate. This includes Choke, City of Solitude, Karmic Justice, Blood Moon, and others. These decks always have at least 5-6 cards for the blue matchup postboard, including some in the main, usually being 2-3 each of CoS and Choke postboard. Both of those are backbreakers. If you can prevent the Enchantress effect, they extremely slow, and will not be able to handle recurring EE or Jace. Hate cards from them are usually preceded by drawing multiple cards off of the draw effect, then tutoring for their bombs. If you can do the two things mentioned above, this will be a piece of cake.
Countertop Thopter: The same as CB Goyf, only they have way fewer threats and a more consistent CB. What they do have is Thopters, which if assembled early enough will single-handedly win them the game. Don’t let them assemble the Thopter combo, and you can win this with a single Intuition for EE lock and shut out their Ruins recursion. They also have no draw engine, and the deck is inherently full of card disadvantage, but the tutor adds amazing consistency for them to find what they need and they pack a shitload of cheap counters. Take out the obvious cards (FS, StP), and put in the Blasts, Grips, EEs, Cliques, etc; standard anti-control cards. Also make sure you throw in at least Crypt, for the Intuition package, completely stopping their main route to victory. Some of these builds side into Tarmogoyfs to avoid being blown out by GY hate, this is something to keep in mind if you see even 1 Tropical. Jace is still a major threat, and most lists play 2-3, so save your blasts for something worthwhile. I’ve found Goyf to die a lot here, pre and post board. They’ll be siding out their Ensnaring Bridges/Moats/Humilites, but will still keep some StPs in, so make a judgment call on whether you think Goyf would be better than extra GY hate/Spell Pierces/EEs. Their deck is designed to beat combo and aggro, not control, so we have the upperhand with overall more powerful cards and options.
Random Black decks (Pox, Eva, whatever jank playing mostly black non-combo cards): These decks all fold to CB, and Top is extra strong here (all of their disruption is discard). Jace stops them in their tracks just as well. Barring the absurd “Ritual, Thoughtseize, Hymn” draws, it’s pretty hard for these decks to beat you. If they play a recursion game (Bloodghast, Loam+Raven’s Crime, etc.), just scoop and beat them the next games with GY hate. They have a low threat density, and very little significant hate to side in (Duress, Extirpate is about it). Seriously, I don’t know why people play these types of decks. Side out whatever was underperforming.
Madness/Intuition Aggro (UGB Vines, UG Vines): Survival decks, without Survival. That still doesn’t make them a good matchup for Control. Hanni’s UGB deck is extremely fast, and with good draws they are difficult if not impossible to stop preboard. UG usually runs a mana denial plan in addition to the VV monstrosity that both decks play, and has more independent creatures. Both decks are GY dependant, although the UG lists usually have a NO plan or other non-GY dependant strategy in the board. Never let the Madness outlet resolve, ever. They run less than 18-19 lands, and try to play 3-4 mana spells, so manafuck is a possibility for them. But the Madness dudes are 1-2 cc and are enough to get the ball rolling quicklike. Black lists run Bloodghast, which is another recurring problem for us. Both decks are very difficult G1. Postboard, we’ll have GY hate, Paths, and Blasts to help out. Black lists certainly have Extirpate, but Intuition is too powerful if they can’t stop it, locking out their GY. Spell Pierce also helps immensely here, stopping Intuition/Buried Alive/NO and is great against UG’s tempo plan. If you expect these decks in numbers, pack more GY hate. UGB can’t win in the face of GY hate, and UG is significantly slowed down. These are bad matchups for sure, but dedicated SB hate and playtesting the matchup will help dramatically. Both decks rely on speed and you not knowing how to play against them, and both of the decks most powerful draws are uncommon compared to their usual hands. This is you trying to stop them from doing what they want to do, and they rarely have any significant hate for you, just anti-hate for your cards.
Affinity and its variants (Raffinity, AFoWinity, Erayo, Red Cards Affinity): These decks will either lose quickly, or blow you out with fast Cranial Plating/Ravager + Disciple draws. The only 3 cards in their entire deck that matter are Cranial Plating, Ravager, and Master of Etherium. Disciple is also dangerous, but usually just a nuisance without Ravager. Stop the Plating at all costs, as it turns every dude they have into a gamewinner. Master can be Sworded, but is still a beating if all by himself. Ravager is extremely dangerous if they have another dude, because you don’t know when they’re going to decide to go all in. Stop those cards, and they play an inconsistent aggro deck with cheap, but shitty dudes. Erayo relies on Glimpse and Glint Hawk, and you can just Swords the Erayo in response to the fourth spell. The red versions run Shrapnel Blast and Galvanic Blast, but play the same as the above. Just try to stay at a higher life-total and side out your Jaces against these guys. Goyf is the best defense, as he’s always Huge/Huge against a deck full of artifact creatures. Throw in the Grips, Paths, EEs/Ratchets, and possibly a few Blasts if you feel some MD cards are weak in the matchup. CB is a bit too slow in here, so I would take them and some Tops out. If you have extra cards you want to side in against them, a few Jaces are also acceptable to side out.
Chalice decks (Dragon Stompy, Faerie Stompy, whatever Stompy): First of all, if your metagame has a significant presence of these decks, don’t play this deck. You will lose a lot. These are pretty terrible matchups, and Dragon Stompy is about the worst matchup in Legacy. Thankfully, these decks shit all over themselves randomly, and you opponent may just mull to oblivion or scoop when you Force their T1 Blood Moon/Magus. The overall gameplan is stop the disruption element, then StP their overcosted dudes and win. None of these decks run removal for Goyf, none of them have a draw engine, none of them can deal with Jace preboard. Good luck, this is a shitty matchup all around. Side out the FS against non-red versions and Intuitions + Loam against the red version. The rest is up to you. I’ve only tested against these decks a few times, and all of those times I’ve lost (at least to the Moon deck). Win the die roll and play from there to be honest. If you know how to stack, stack their deck when shuffling. Fuck you Chalice of the Void and Moons.
Red Decks (Burn, Rxx Sligh): I only mention these decks because no matter where you play, what the metagame, or what the current deck of choice is, there is always some asshole playing red. Burn and Sligh operate differently from Zoo, because they absolutely no long-term potential. They both scoop to a CB. They both scoop to a Jace fateseal. They both can’t handle Tarmogoyf. But they both can just randomly win if they get the right draws. Put in all your counters that are applicable in the matchup, and all of your Paths to nail Guide, Lynx, Nacatl, or Shusher. Just get a CB, and watch out for Blasts. After the match, pick up your chair and beat the red player with it, to as punishment for being douchebags.
Last edited by Mana Drain; 01-09-2011 at 12:55 PM.
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Why play this pile over something else?
This is a valid question anybody who is reading this is asking themselves. I actually didn’t have high hopes for this deck when I first started playing it (Summer ’10). I had in it a number of janky combos that didn’t do anything until I was already winning. My curve was awful, and my SB was just as bad. It didn’t help that Survival was beginning to pick up steam, and this deck was simply cold to the strategy. I kept working on the deck anyway though, testing the deck against everything in the format except the green menace. Eventually, the card choices became clear and the most effective and synergistic cards made the cut. The deck started showing it's power and it's versatility. Why am I mentioning all this? Because you’re probably thinking exactly the same thing now that I was thinking months ago. But my opinion has certainly changed now, most importantly due to Survival leaving Legacy. This deck is poised to take advantage over an Aggro presence, while beating the Combo decks, and giving other controling decks (CB Goyf, Landstill) a run for their money.
Why play this over regular CB decks (CB Goyf)?
Because regular CB decks are omnipresent, and everybody knows how to play against you, what cards are necessary to beat you, and you are in primary consideration when other people are building their decks. The best ways to beat CB are to overwhelm the CB player, pack versatile answers that are solid on their own while still being effective at stopping CB, or just not care about CB. These strategies are present in Zoo (Pridemage, raw speed, and half of the SB), Goblins (Vial, Blasts, speed, high-mana curve), Merfolk (Vial, cheap counters, speed, manlands, unblockablity), The Rock (Vindicate, Pridemage, Thoughtseize, half of their SB), Bant (Pridemage, cheap counters, NO), Landstill (cheap counters, manlands, infinite answers, PWs), Affinity (raw speed, varied curve), Dredge (just doesn’t care about anything but FoW), and I’m going to stop there because there is no need to continue. Most of the decks I mentioned are all creature decks, either Swarm (Gobs, Folk), Midrange Disruption (Bant, Rock), or just really efficient at beating down (Zoo). Your vulnerable to these creature strategies AND creature-hate (from other control decks, like Landstill and CB Thopter). Modern CB decks are really mid-range decks themselves, and the faster strategies can put you out well before you have your blockers up. Tarmogoyf, Daze, and StP are not always enough to stop these guys. Against other mid-range decks, you’re creatures are often not the size or quality that KotR, Tombstalker, Dark Confidant or their exalted Goyfs are. With no source other than CB for card advantage or inevitability, falling behind often happens, and it’s hard to recover from. Against other control like Landstill, you have to match power plays like Standstill, more PWs, Humility/Moat, Thopter/Sword, and Crucible/Shackles and a much better long-game strategy against you’re tempo counters and creatures (which they play a million and one removal spells for). In addition, other control decks are well aware that CB decks exist, and cards like EE are not only difficult to stop without FoW, but can completely nuke your board in spite of your CB/Top sitting on the table. You’re the beatdown against these decks, and you don’t play a fast beatdown game.
Intuition CB is primarily aimed at beating creature decks, where other similar decks may fall short. With a MD StP, Firespout, Shackles, and EE, we can deal with the opponent resolving a few dudes. We all know that this happens. We can deal with an active Vial on the table. We play the same solid defenses that CB Goyf plays, just more of them. In addition, we can handle falling behind. Our topdecks either generate card advantage, remove difficult threats from play, set up inevitability, or stop future threats from hitting the field. We can also handle control and less-linear strategies like Lands, Dredge, and Aggro-Loam more effectively. We are a control deck, and we can match the Landstill player’s bombs, with either bombs of our own or effective answers. We also have a lategame strategy that can’t be matched answered by a control deck preboard, in addition to excellent card quality mechanisms like Top. All of this is in addition to the CBs that we play. If we happen to set CB/Top up, great. We now have an advantage over our opponent. If they stop it via counters or EE, no problem. We can function without it in play just fine. This is the primary advantage this deck has over other CB decks. We have multiple synergies and tactics to take advantage of, none of which can be answered by the same cards. It’s not too difficult to answer EE recursion. But can you do that when CB is online? How about when Goyf is on the field? Or worse, Jace? Can you stop the Jace from sealing you out of the game when Goyf/StP is defending him? Or when your team of dudes gets swept by a FS? Can you handle the early CB I dropped? Oh, you do have the Grip for it. Good work. I’m going to untap and Intuition, putting you on the clock to kill me before I start blowing up your stuff every turn.
Then why not play Landstill instead?
Because Landstill has the same problems that it did 7 years ago: falling behind when your draw engine is voided because there is a threat on the board, and not living to 4-5+ mana. While Landstill certainly handles the Tribal matchups many times better than most CB Goyf lists, decks like The Rock and ProBant are big problems. They run extremely dangerous threats, that are cheap, and often disruptive or give them a huge advantage (KotR, Pridemage, Confidant, No/Prog/Clique). Landstill is also a very top-heavy deck on the mana curve, and this has caused problems for years. Double-Waste draws can blow you out when you keep a mana light hand. The same thing can happen to this deck, but we compensate for Wasteland with more fetches, a playset of Tops, Loam, a lower mana-curve, and more cheap answers, especially postboard. Tempo Thresh, TA, and other Tempo decks are not easy matchups by any means, but this deck handles the above with more card-quality, fewer big-mana bombs, and the addition of CB, which is a complete blowout against any Tempo deck.
We also have something that Landstill has also, but we can utilize it dramatically more consistently: recurring EE. This combo wins any game with a stabilized or even “not going to die next turn” board, with exception for Progenitus and Tombstalker. Landstill doesn’t run any tutors or consistent engine cards, just an extremely powerful, but unstable draw engine. Landstill hopes to draw into its’ bombs when it hits 4 mana, and hopes it doesn’t draw them when stuck on 2 land. This deck’s curve tops out at 4 with the 3 Jace, possibly spending more mana than that on Shackles + Activation or EE at 3+ with activation in a single turn. Besides that, after an Intuition resolves, we have all the land we need for the rest of the game. We can operate with less land in play, because we play Tarmogoyf and CB. When we’re fighting off an assault, we don’t shit bricks because we only have 3 mana available and a hand full of PWs or Moat/Humility/WoG/DoJ. We start doing stuff to stay alive, by dropping FS, Shackles, StP, EE, or Goyf. When we do happen to have 4+ mana lying around, we just start winning the game with Intuition for gas or Jace or just protecting a Tarmogoyf. CB seals the deal when we set it up on a clear board, and helps prevent future threats from showing up while we dig and draw to find an answer for a problem currently present.
The gist of these last 4 paragraphs can accurately be summed up with just one word:
Options. That’s why we play this deck. We can handle anything (except Progenitus, that guy’s a motherfucker) with time and we have the tools to buy us the time we need. Playing 4 colors also gives us a huge number of SB options, to be tailored to a predicted metagame. The versatility of the deck prevents it from being hated out by a single type of hate, making SB decisions on your opponents part difficult and giving us the ability to side out a particular engine for more effective cards. This deck doesn’t get shut out by any single card or strategy, and has the card selection available to deal with any particular card or strategy.
The Future: Where to take this deck from here?
While I do feel that for now, the MD is pretty much optimal, future printings of cards or a resurgence in a particular strategy may warrant a change. This is where you guys come in: expressing concerns about matchups or potential problems and the community figuring out answers together. The SB certainly changes from meta to meta, while certain cards should remain static (Path, Blasts, EE). Here are some questions I’ve been pondering and am eager to hear the opinions of the community on:
Should this deck play black? Hell, we’re a four color deck right now. Throwing in a USea or two and putting in some power cards like Deed, Extirpate, Perish, EPlaugue, Volrath’s Stronghold or Duress is not out of the question. The only cards on that list that I find interesting are Extirpate, Perish, and Deed, just due to their raw power. Perish in the board would really help the mid-range matchups while also making Zoo easier. Midrange is a problem matchup right now, and Perish would make a huge difference. Extirpate is the best piece of GY hate ever printed, and stops decks like Madness, Dredge, and Lands cold. It’s also a great card against other control decks and is somewhat useful against combo (nailing a fetch, cantrip, disruption piece, or accelerant and giving info on their hand). I would love to pack 3 Extirpate in the board as the sole GY hate, and it would probably be more effective than the current GY hate. Deed is just good, but mana intensive in both color and quantity. If GY or Mid-range decks are abundant in your metagame, you may want to try splashing black.
Should this deck play more engines? I’ve tried Grove + 2 Punishing Fire, and was impressed at how effective it was against Tribal. Thopter/Sword would take up 2 slots in the MD, but add another effective kill condition that can be used on an unstabilized board while also adding 2 more 2 drops to the CB curve. Both of the engines have problems in that they aren’t very effective without Intuition, and the Thopter/Sword combo takes 2 Intuitions if you haven’t already seen a Loam or Ruins. In the end I didn’t like either as much as Ruins + EE, which are both solid cards on their own (at least the Ruins taps for mana). But I’m sure there are some decent engines that are possible that I haven’t tried.
In a large tournament setting and metagame (like a GP), what decks should we SB for or be most concerned about? The meta I play in (about 16 -20 people) is composed of entirely of Tier 1 and Established archetypes with very little randomness, and my board reflects this. I haven’t had serious problems with Storm combo as of yet, but my SB isn’t tuned heavily to beat them. CB, FoW, CS, and Blasts have been pretty successful for me so far, but the Storm players in my area aren’t GP caliber either (with Combo, that is). I’m wondering if something like Spell Pierce should be added to the “must have” list of SB cards, mainly due to combo, but they have their uses in other matchups as well. Combo decks are always updating and adapting their hate, staying current with them is extremely important. Against Merfolk, the deck has performed exceptionally well for a blue control deck. I’ve won many G1’s against them and postboard the odds are much better with Blasts, Paths, EEs, and other dedicated creature removal. Goblins is less common in my area, but I've still had great success riding FS, Shackles, and Goyf to victory. I’m interested to hear concerns about any Tier 1 or Established archetypes that people are having problems with, and how we can deal with these decks effectively.
So after over 12,000 words, I hope I’ve at least gotten your attention. I’m eager to listen to any concerns or answer any questions I can on the deck. Immense amount of credit goes to Valtrix and ivanpei as chief contributors to the old Intuition CB thread. Many ideas and card choices came from their lists and reasoning, and they certainly influenced my build (which coincidently is almost identical to Valtrix’s) for the better.
Thank you for your time and I hope you found this primer useful and helpful, or at least a decent read.
Take it easy all.
"Bingo, man, bingo. 7-Minute Abs. And we guarantee just as good a workout as the 8-minute folk."
"You guarantee it? That's - how do you do that?"
"If you're not happy with the first 7 minutes, we're gonna send you the extra minute free. You see? That's it. That's our motto. That's where we're comin' from. That's from A to B."
Very cool deck. Let' say for whatever reason you only run 2 Jaces what would your other Jace turn into? Thanks!
I didn't see a reasoning behind why the U cycler land shouldn't be included in your mainboard. I understand with colliseum, but I believe its called lonely sandbar.
Excellent write-up and analysis on an archetype I really enjoy. Intuition + Loam is one of my favorite combinations in Magic. I have been thinking about lists like this one a lot in the wake of Survival's banning and this list sums up many of my thoughts.
One thing I think the deck could use to its advantage is at least one recurrable artifact creature threat to make intuition piles and abuse Academy Ruins.Etched Oracle was good in ITF lists, but combat rule changes have diluted its power significantly and just isn't as big as I would like. Here's hoping to the new Mirrodin block giving a 4cmc or less artifact beater that has synergy with this deck.
And as has been pointed out in the UBgx Landstill thread: Punishing Fire + Grove of the Burnwillows is pretty damn good. It could be super-synergistic with this shell, piggybacking on both Swords to Plowshares(MD) and Nature's Claim(SB). I might attempt to use your list as a jumping off point and testing the combo's potential with Intuition. Recurrable removal turning into a clock? Yes please.
While the deck would function no differently with 2 Jace (you'd just see Jace less often and couldn't Intuition for him), I honestly would have to suggest running Regrowth in the 3rd Jace slot. This allows you to Intuition for him still (albeit slower), and have another 2 drop for the CB curve
The deck is light on win-cons, and Jace is that good. Regrowing him or a Goyf to win it is slower, but still viable. Also having a 1GW StP in your deck is still good. I talked about it in the original draft, but excluded it as a non-obvious choice. I'll edit the opener to put it back in.
Cycle lands were excluded for just not doing enough, and comming into play tapped. This is a big negative, and if your Intuitioning for "Loam/Sandbar/x", you're not making the most out of your Intuition. Coliseum doesn't come into play tapped, and does what you want the Sandbar to do, only more effective. It's not awful, but just not significant enough to make our MD cut.
Like Regrowth, I did include a writeup for why Oracle was excluded, and I'll go back and include it. Basically, any time you have the mana to start recurring Oracle, you're already winning and recurring EE/Coliseum would do the same thing, only they are more useful by themselves. Besides that, Oracle does nothing for the CB curve and is only playable when you have all 4 colors available (not always there for you).
As was pointed out in the primer, Grove + Fires is awesome against Tribal, but we don't need any more help against Tribal. The original lists had them, and they were cut for not doing enough, and are more GY dependant cards postboard. Although, if you're still interested, Grove for a fetch and 2 Fires for possibly CS or some other 2 drop could be good. It also may be a good SB strategy in the SB for aggro. Give it try.
"Bingo, man, bingo. 7-Minute Abs. And we guarantee just as good a workout as the 8-minute folk."
"You guarantee it? That's - how do you do that?"
"If you're not happy with the first 7 minutes, we're gonna send you the extra minute free. You see? That's it. That's our motto. That's where we're comin' from. That's from A to B."
Nice primer Mana Drain. I've piloted my own list when this was independently being explored by Valcrix and Ivanpei. I went for a Fire/Groves approach with Loam for a UGwr build. The only issue I ran into was Knight of the Reliquary and Goyf ignoring PFires, and the riskiness of a 4c-manabase against Wasteland.meta. Aside from that, and the risk of running to time (the deck was even slower than Landstill, and most UGwx countertop lists are actually slower than Landstill), the deck was very strong against all other decks.
Aside from that, I'm not sure if you've explored this route, but Intuition-> Loam + Groves + Pfires (or one to two of these pieces if you already have one in play) is very game-winning against tribal, control and non-Goyf.dec. Another issue with such a list was that the engine is super strong (even Extirpate cannot stop PFires since Groves is a mana-ability putting the trigger on the stack) but was fairly slow. You usually start abusing it on turn 6, but with Countertop, you can severely lock out a lot of decks and ride it to victory, although it is slow.
However, my list was a creatureless approach with 4 Factories (23 lands supporting UGwr with 4 factories) so that maybe a key reason I find the mana instability. If you play 4 Goyfs no Factories, I haven't tested how that would pan out. Intuition when used in the right shell (e.g. this list and my list) is an insane broken 3cmc instant tutor that fetches 3 cards.
Like I said, the Fires+Grove plan isn't bad, but it just isn't optimal for this deck. Fires really wants multiple Groves going, and at that point you want multiple Fires. It also forces the deck to play more red, or fetch red way more than you want to without it, making Wasteland more powerful. Unless you're about to cast a FS, you rarely want to fetch a Volc. With Fires, you have to fetch a Volc, and multiples are required. Basically, it takes the deck into a direction that isn't as productive or resilient as it is now. Fires is a great engine, but want's it's own deck, without Intuition. The fact that it can't take out Goyf and KotR is also extremely relevant, and Extirpate does infact blow Fires decks out.
Factories are no good in this build. They only belong in Landstill, because that's Landstill. And I wouldn't call Intuition (in any shell) broken by any means, but very powerful and quite skill intensive if you intend to build around it effectively.
"Bingo, man, bingo. 7-Minute Abs. And we guarantee just as good a workout as the 8-minute folk."
"You guarantee it? That's - how do you do that?"
"If you're not happy with the first 7 minutes, we're gonna send you the extra minute free. You see? That's it. That's our motto. That's where we're comin' from. That's from A to B."
Nice deck. Can Knight of Reliquary fit in here? It seem like a huge beat stick with Loam around.
I know Elspeth is less effective than Jace with Intuition Engine and require double white, but is it possible to replace one Jace with Elspeth?
This may be the best primer EVER. I ran the deck last night and it was really incredible. It is a streamlined minimalist ITF. While I think there are too many bad matchups (tempo thresh, rock) or toss ups (dredge, landstill, merfolk), along with a lot of 4 wasteland.decs in my meta to run it i will continue to monitor this thread.
-Great shell.
- Missing trinket mage in your cards that got cut section.
-Your landbase feels incorrect. I'll work on it with you if you'd like.
Wow, I loved ITF a few months ago and I could really see myself playing this one.
Awesome primer btw.
And I agree with Mossivo, the Manabase looks a little awkward
KotR unfortunately doesn't have much to do with this decks gameplan, and the color requirements are something that I try to stay away from (2 non-blue colors). He's off the hook amazing in any aggro deck, but Tarmogoyf fills the wall/beater role better while being easier to cast.
I assume you're looking for a replacement for the 3rd Jace? Elspeth is awesome, in Landstill and Big Zoo, where WW can be gotten easily. Here, WW doesn't do anything for your ability to cast spells. She'd be a good finisher, but I think she would stick in your hand to much to be worth it. Go for it if you're playing a lot of Zoo/mid-range where she'd be better than Jace most of the time. Otherwise, I'd go with either: Regrowth, Maze of Ith, Vendilion Clique, or possibly Trinket Mage (as suggested by moss below). You won't see Jace as often or be able to Intuition for him, but it should significantly impact the way the deck plays and all of the above do add either options, or solid cards to the deck that didn't make the cut (or your 3rd Jace in Regrowth).
Thanks, I put some serious effort into it. As you can tell, I'm not a writer.
I really don't think that Tempo Thresh is a bad matchup or that Landstill and Merfolk are toss ups. We have a low curve of answers and dig/draw spells (StP, EE, Top, BS, Counterspell), CB (blows them out), Gofy to block/trade, and of course, EE recursion causes them to scoop (all the time). Postboard we have Blasts, EEs, Ratchets, possibly Relic, Snare/Pierce to lower our curve and increase our interactivity with the deck, in addition to our normal "you lose" cards. Landstill may take it G1, but postboard the deck is streamlined with EEs, Ratchet, Blasts, Art/Enchant hate, and possibly GY hate in addition to our own Jaces, Intuitions, and CB (better postboard). Playing Goyf forces them to keep in their StPs, leaving them with less useful cards while our deck is completely tuned. Merfolk can beat you G1, but postboard you literally bring in 8-11 cards for the deck. Blasts, Paths, Snares, EEs, Ratchets, Firespout, etc. all are a beating on Folk. So much 1for1ing leading into a Jace/Intuition wins the game handily. My experience has proven all these matchups completely beatable in the match. Please playtest more before jumping to conclusions.
The Rock is indeed a terrible matchup. Thoughtseize, Confidant, Goyf, KotR, Pridemage, Vindicate, Top, and Wasteland are like a "Best of: Anti-blue cards" deck, and they are even more difficult postboard with Grip and Extirpate. This is why I considered the B splash for Perish to improve our game against them. If you have any tech to share for this matchup, please do so.
Dredge is entirely beatable postboard. Of course they'll probably win G1 - They're DREDGE! That's what they do. But postboard, Blasts, Pierces, Paths, and most importantly, recurring Crypt will dramatically even the odds. They have to get a nut-hand that can kill you fast even with their draw spells/disruption being countered, or just lose to an Intuition. Not to mention having their PImps/Tribes nailed by Path/StP, dudes blocked by Goyf, and tokens swept by EE/Ratchet. It's better than it looks for us. Play it some more and find out.
Against Wasteland.dec, if they're not Lands or Aggro-Loam with Wastelock, you play through it. Yeah, you'll lose games to double Waste draws when you kept a 1-2 land hand. It happens to every deck in the format. The deck is completely aware that Wasteland exists, and things like StP, Top, BS, Force, and Counterspell are cheap answers to threats or help you dig to find more land. That's also why the deck runs 3 FS in the main, to comeback against Tribal decks when we've been slowed down. And it works pretty damn well too. In addition, proper usage of fetches is required when playing this deck. Fetching Island T1 for your Top is one example of how to play around Wasteland. There are a million methods of minimizing Wastelands impact on the deck. Practice will prove this.
In all honesty, I had never thought of Trinket. Please explain further on this, as he could prove useful, but I don't know what slot he could occupy in the current shell. Tutors for EE/Top/Needle(?) could be hot.
My manabase is greedier than Valtrix's. His manabase is probably the most conservative and resilient possible in the face of Waste.dec without sacrificing significant color consistency. Mine has proven itself extremely consistent in it's ability to produce whatever color I need to cast my spells, and I'm completely satisfied with it. This is supplemented by 4 Top, 4 BS, and 1 Loam. Thus far, I have no complaints. Wasteland hurts, but if you're playing a deck with nonbasic lands, Wasteland hurts. If you have any suggestions moss I will definitely take them into consideration, but for the most part, I believe my manabase does everything I want it to do: Play my cards when I need to. Wasteland happens, and if they get a super-fast, double Waste + Gas hand, I may lose, but that's Magic. Wasteland is less relevant than your own deck shitting out on you because you're stuck with 2 Islands, a Volc, and a Trop with 2 StPs in hand while Tarmogoyf beats you to death.
For what it's worth, in the meta I play in (~16-20 people each week), at least 8-10 deck I could be playing that play 4 Wasteland. This includes Tempo Thresh (1), TA (1) Goblins (1), Merfolk (3), Bant (1), The Rock (1-2), Lands (1), possibly Aggro Loam. With the exception of The Rock, and to a lesser extent Bant/ProBant, I've not had major problems with any of them that couldn't be fixed with a few SB cards (mainly Lands and Aggro-Loam). Play and practice with the deck, learn the SB and play techniques that apply to it, and I promise you'll be able to recreate my findings.
Yes, this is a 4 color deck. Yes, my list does run 9 duals. No, I have not had any problems with the deck that other decks playing 3-4 colors (like all CB lists, Zoo, Bant, The Rock) don't have. Look at the color requirements for the non-blue cards in the deck and that should give some understandting to this. We don't play RWM, or KotR, or any other card with 2 non-blue requirements. Red is not necessary against decks where FS is useless.Wasteland has been a consideration in Legacy deckbuilding as long as Legacy has been in existence. Deal with it and plan/play around it. None the less, I'm still open to any suggestions, and will give any well-thought-out manabase a shot. Besides that, this is just a primer filled with suggestions. If you don't feel that either manabase posted is effective/resilient enough for you, change it! I want people to come up with their own ideas, because they may be better than mine (completely possible). And then I can steal them and use them to my benefit!
"Bingo, man, bingo. 7-Minute Abs. And we guarantee just as good a workout as the 8-minute folk."
"You guarantee it? That's - how do you do that?"
"If you're not happy with the first 7 minutes, we're gonna send you the extra minute free. You see? That's it. That's our motto. That's where we're comin' from. That's from A to B."
How does the deck fare against POX? I haven't played against it yet, but the version I'll encounter runs 2 crucible, 4 wasteland, 4 sinkhole and 4 Vindicate. Is the mana base strong enough to stand against that deck, or should I leave the deck away if I expect POX to show up (I run into the guy every tournament, we both start 2-0 or 2-1, and eventually meet in the tournament). Alternatively, could I pack some dedicated hate such as Divert? (Hymn, resolves? Divert, Hymn you? OWNED)
It's also scientifically proven that resolving Nicol Bolas during a competitive legacy event causes the caster's penis to grow a good two or three inches.
To be completely honest im not sure what slot Triket Mage would fill. The old UGw Countertop spod lists used to run bunches of tutors for singletons IE 1-2 mage 1-2 e tutor and I just thought it should be something thats explained. You do run ee, top, and could run several other tutorable cards for mage in the board clearly. I think its worth a shot.
The original list that I made played trinket Mage. Really the issue is that intuition is almost always better and there aren't enough artifacts in the deck. As for the manabases, are you saying that both presented are awkward? The manabases I play with basics has been very consistent and manageable in general. While the deck is four colors, you run such a small committment to everything nonblue that you'll rarely get color screwed since you often fetch for whatever color you need at that moment. What would you recommend?
As for match ups I disagree with merfolk or landstill being that much of a toss up. To start, ruins we destroys landstill. They have no way to beat it main( except maybe wish, but then you're still fine. Goyf and countertop can also be quick to victory and shackles negates factories.
Merfolk always deserves credit, but I've played the match a lot and you have so many tools against them, and especially postboard they can never attack into a goyf and you have an absurd amount of answers to their entire deck.
Last edited by Valtrix; 01-07-2011 at 05:03 PM. Reason: Apologize any typos they are from me typing on my iPod.
I don't think your being fair to landstill. We should test on mws.As for matchbox, I disagree with merfolk or landstill being that much of a gossip. To start, ruins we destroys landstill. They have no way to beat it main( except maybe wish, but then you're still fine. Goyf and countertop can also be quick to victory and shackles negates factories.
Well, this is the way that the several matches I've played against landstill have gone. There are several builds of landstill, so perhaps this is due to the types that I've played against. As such, tell me in what ways I'm "not being fair" to Landstill so that we could discuss the issue more thoroughly.
The manabase isn't where the threat is, it's the T1 Thoughtseize stealing your gas. Against these guys you're probably playing a 3-color deck, because FS is probably useless. Fetch Trops to make sure Goyf and Loam are online. Assuming that their win-con is Tombstalker, and the rest of the deck is just LD, Discard, and lands, it can go either way. The Black decks usually beat us by massive discard followed by a fast clock (Goyf, Tombstalker). Otherwise, a single Top/BS can lead into plenty of land or some gas and we win from there on the back of Jace/CB/EE-recursion. Color intensity is low here.Either way, get CB/Top online and you'll win. Divert in the board sounds perfectly fine in the slot of some Pierces or similar. If they play Bloodghasts, put in GY hate with the Paths.
"Bingo, man, bingo. 7-Minute Abs. And we guarantee just as good a workout as the 8-minute folk."
"You guarantee it? That's - how do you do that?"
"If you're not happy with the first 7 minutes, we're gonna send you the extra minute free. You see? That's it. That's our motto. That's where we're comin' from. That's from A to B."
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