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Thread: ConPhlag (NPH)

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    ConPhlag (NPH)

    OK, first up, I'm not sure whether or not it's ok to talk about cards that haven't actually been released yet on this board, but I couldn't find an FAQ anywhere that said it wasn't so I'm going to, on the basis that this is probably the best place for this list. Having said that, I am really excited about this list (well, two lists actually), so I hope you'll understand if this isn't the right place.

    Anyway, with that having been said, I introduce you to...Phyrexian Conflagration, or ConPhlag!

    I've been working on various legacy decks for a while, but this is the first one I've found that I think has a genuine shot at being competitive and winning tournaments. Not in its current form - it needs a LOT of tweaking - but the idea itself is a solid one, and the point of the list is to show the viability of the strategy. And that strategy can only exist thanks to a new card spoiled from NPH: Phyrexian Unlife (or Phyrexian Pall according to some sources, because of translation issues). For those of you who haven't seen it, it's an enchantment costing 2W that prevents you from losing if your life is below 0 but causes all damage dealt to you to be in the form of poison counters. However, because life loss is not damage, that means that, if you have one out, you can draw your whole library with Ad Nauseam. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the combo at the core of this deck.
    Now, I know, I know, Angel's Grace has been around for ages without being competitive (aside from in some early ANT lists). However, Phyrexian Unlife has some features that radically change the way you can build decks, and, as such, it means Ad Nauseam and Angel’s Grace goes from being a bad ANT deck to being a completely different archetype with its own strengths and weaknesses.

    What are these differences? Well, firstly, it can come down the turn BEFORE Ad Nauseam, making the combo just a little bit faster. Secondly, it provides a source of life-gain – 10 life might not be THAT much in legacy, but if you’re packing a combo that can insta-kill, it will often be just enough for you to get there. Thirdly, it sticks around. This means that you can do all kinds of things you couldn’t with Angel’s Grace: you can play it and know that you won’t ever die to your Dark Confidant (unless the opponent has maindeck enchantment removal) and you can Thoughtseize to your heart’s content (a minor benefit but still). More importantly, you can use Lim-Dul’s Vault to do a pretty neat impression of Doomsday, find the cards you need, and then Ad Nauseam for the win after a turn or two.

    It’s important to understand that this isn’t just a bad storm list: it attacks along completely different axes from storm lists, and plays out a radically different game-plan. It’s much more like High Tide in that it aims to use card advantage and control spells (in High Tide mainly counters and tap effects, here primarily force of wills, stifles and discard) to keep the opponent from killing you/being able to disrupt your combo before you go off. This list is, in its current configuration, somewhat slower than High Tide (although you could probably change that if you wanted to), but, in return for that, you get to use effects that are designed to permanently cripple the opponent rather than slow them down, so surviving an extra turn or two shouldn’t be too hard. Also, you have a bit more inevitability than High Tide, in that you have more actual combo pieces to draw in your deck rather than relying on draw effects like Time Spiral and co. Basically, the direction this list is going, it’s more of an anti-combo combo list than High Tide, whereas High Tide is an anti-control combo list. You know, metagame choices and all that.

    Anyway, back to the deck. I’ve got two versions. First up, the Cunning Wish version. I’ll put the list here then explain card choices:

    Cunning ConPhlag


    4 Dark Confidant
    4 Phyrexian Unlife
    4 Force of Will
    3 Lim-Dul’s Vault
    3 Angel’s Grace
    2 Stifle
    4 Cunning Wish
    4 Brainstorm
    3 Ad Nauseam
    4 Thoughtseize
    1 Conflagrate
    1 Duress

    4 Chrome Mox
    1 Mox Diamond
    4 Lotus Petal
    2 Polluted Delta
    4 Ancient Tomb
    2 Scrubland
    4 Underground Sea
    2 Marsh Flats

    Sideboard
    1 Angel’s Grace
    4 Leyline of the Void
    1 Chain of Vapor
    1 Cabal Ritual
    2 Swords to Plowshares
    1 Ad Nauseam
    1 Mindbreak Trap
    4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor


    Isn’t she a beaut? Well, not yet. That’s what forums and playtesting are for. Anyway, the cards:

    THE COMBO

    Ad Nauseam – Draws your deck. Can also be used, albeit rarely, if your opponent isn’t putting you on a clock and you DESPERATELY need cards. Don’t really know why you’d do this, but it’s an option, I guess.
    Phyrexian Unlife – Explained above. Combo piece, and buys you time, and alleviates the burden of running so many life-cost cards.
    Conflagrate – For those of you who don’t know the combo, you draw your deck with AN, generate enough red to cast Conflagrate, get it into the yard, flashback sacrificing your hand and win. You could also use Sickening Dreams, but I like the fact that even if the Conflagratre goes to the yard, you can still go off.
    Angel’s Grace – It might seem superfluous but it’s fundamental to how the deck works. It reduces your vulnerability to hate, it buys you time against aggressive decks (slow combo? How are you going to – oh, 3 time walks for W. I see...) and can lead to huge blowouts against combo. It also reduces your reliance on Phyrexian Unlife, and gives you a higher chance of drawing your combo pieces.

    FINDING STUFF

    Dark Confidant – Does so much for this deck. He blocks. He draws you into your combo pieces. He gives you the card advantage you need to cripple the opponent’s plans. He provides an alternative, albeit slow, path to victory. The life loss can be steep, especially given all the 5s in the deck, but on the other hand you can use Phyrexian Unlife to ignore the life loss.
    Brainstorm – Best card filter in the format. Finds what you need, when you need it. Often, the deck opens with Thoughtseize turn 1, Brainstorm turn 2, crack a fetch. Also feeds FoW, ofc ;)
    Lim-Dul’s Vault – Second best card filter in the format. Well, that’s up for debate, I know, and maybe there is room in this deck for Ponders and Preordains, but I went with some copies of the Vault because of the synergy with Phyrexian Unlife.
    Cunning Wish – Wanna know something cool about Ad Nauseam and Angel’s Grace? They’re both instants! So you can pluck them from your sideboard with Cunning Wish! However, a lot of the time, you’ll want to find an answer to the opponent’s cards instead. This deck is shaping up to be seriously skill-testing, and that is due in no small measure to this card.

    DISRUPTION/CONTROL

    Force of Will – Best counterspell in the format. Like Flores says, play the best cards in the format and then win. But seriously, this does so much. Sometimes you’ll be countering their big plays. Sometimes you’ll hold it back to protect your combo. Sometimes you’ll use your Ancient Tombs to hardcast it. Sometimes you’ll get huge blow-outs. This is a large part of why this deck is not simply Bad ANT – how many other lists are there that run FoW AND Ad Nauseam?
    Stifle – Not sure about this. Maybe this should be cantrips, maybe it should be more discard. I’m going with Stifle for now because of the number of times you’ll be able to use it to gain a crucial extra turn against aggressive decks by using it on fetchlands. Another key reason for its inclusion is that this deck is SERIOUSLY vulnerable to Waste Lands, and this gives you a small measure of protection from them.
    Thoughtseize – Awesome turn 1 play. Awesome against combo well into the late game. Awesome just before you want to go off. Provides awesome information. You may have realised by now, I’m a bit of a fan.
    Duress – Mise. Well, in playtesting, Thoughtseize turn 1 was such a satisfying turn 1 play (particularly since I cut the Ponders) that I felt bad only having 4 of them. Maybe this should be a Hymn to Tourach or two.

    MANA

    Fetches, Duals – Obviously. Much better than going 5c and using lands like City of Brass because of the interaction with Brainstorm. Also, the lack of permanent life loss is pretty refreshing, considering how much is going on with the rest of the deck.
    Ancient Tomb – Really not sure if this is the right direction to take the deck. However, I was convinced by looking at the mana costs on Phyrexian Unlife and Cunning Wish for a bit. Maybe the deck only wants 1 or 2. Also, they do really speed the deck up. And, they occasionally help you pay for Force of Will. And they help you play around soft counters.
    Chrome Mox – Very good card. The card disadvantage hurts occasionally, but the Confidant makes up for it. Also, it gives you the speed to race to the combo, should you need to. The deck doesn’t NEED to combo off fast, but I like having the option if I need it.
    Lotus Petal – Necessary for the combo. Also kinda make up for the Ancient Tombs. Be aware, it is often the right play to use them early, rather than holding them back to get Ad Nauseam out earlier.
    Mox Diamond – I hate it, I hate it, I hate it! In a deck with such a low land count where most of the lands do important stuff, it’s so unlikely you’d ever want this. But, it needs to be there. Why? Well, the problem with the list without it is that if you use 3 Lotus Petals before you cast Ad Nauseam, you can’t combo off, because you’ll only have 1 left. (It’s 3 rather than 2 because if you only have 2 you can cast Chrome Mox imprinting black and then Thoughtseize/Duress the Conflagrate out of your hand). Sure, this might not come up that much, but it would come up more than I’m comfortable with. I do think I might be able to make this a Coalition Relic, but I’m not sure. Coalition Relic may be useful slightly more, but it also won’t work under a lot of circumstances as the safety-valve I need. I do think I’m eventually just going to give in and replace Mox with Relic though, purely because of how much I dislike Mox Diamond.

    SIDEBOARD

    Angel’s Grace – Makes your combo easier to put together, because you can grab it with Cunning Wish. Can also be used for other purposes as well though.
    Ad Nauseam – As above, minus the last sentence (unless you need to, I dunno, imprint Chrome Mox on black?)
    Chain of Vapor – Thought long and hard about this one. Basically, I needed something that Cunning Wish could grab and that could answer annoying artifacts and enchantments (Aether Vial, Counterbalance, Chalice of the Void, etc.). I considered white stuff (Abolish, Solemn Offering, [CARD] Orim’s Thunder [/CARD]) but went with Chain because of the flexibility, and because, if you REALLY need to get rid of something permanently you can always just wait till you have a discard spell on hand.
    Cabal Ritual – For those times when you have Wish and your pieces, but not QUITE enough mana to get there.
    Swords to Plowshares – Actually considered maindecking these, but with the amount of combo out there atm I thought it unwise: I hate having cards in my deck I know are completely dead. Still, they’re there to be wished for or brought in when creature removal might be more back-breaking than stifles.
    Leyline of the Void – Looking at the list, I think it will be REALLY weak to dredge. They’re faster than you, and there’s little you can do to interact. To solve that, I decided to bring in the best (in my opinion) anti-graveyard card there is. Even if they can remove it, it should buy you enough time to either a) go off or b) get a Jace down and control their draws so that they never get to go off.
    Mindbreak Trap – Anti-storm wish option, obviously. Not going to devote that much space to them because you have plenty of maindeck ways of beating them.
    Jace, the Mind Sculptor – Bear with me here. In a lot of games, this guy will dominate. If you think the opponent will be able to make the game go long and whether all your disruption, then you can just bring this guy in, get him down before most of their disruption comes online (thanks to your friendly neighbourhood Loti) and win. Considered maindecking, but seems like he’d hamper your ability to race if you need to.

    The deck has a number of strengths - the ability to disrupt combo while also being able to survive long enough against aggro is a pretty big one, and it operates on a level few other combo decks to. It can also shift gears rapidly, taking the aggresive role at a moment's notice.
    It also has its vulnerabilities: not only is it ridiculously hard to pilot (decks that shift gears are hard, playing combo around hate is hard, and this has to do both) but the combo is also quite fragile. Although you can go off quickly, there are a lot of decks where you'll have to wait for a long time before you have adequate protection. Also, they can often just win on the spot if they can remove your Unlife, so you need to protect it. You also have to be really good at managing your life total if you want to play this deck, because it tends to plummet like a rock, so you need to really know when to cast your Unlifes.
    Having said that, few decks are equipped with the tools to beat this deck: you can play around Chalice pretty easily, you can kinda ignore CounterTop locks, storm hate does basically nothing against you...
    Anyway, the point is that if you like combo-control and like taking the time to truly learn a deck, then you might be interested in this one.

    So, that’s Cunning ConPhlag. If you’re still reading (don't tell the others, but you're my favourite type of people), I’ve got a special treat for you: Grim ConPhlag! This list is much more recent than Cunning ConPhlag, and is still very rough, but it’s another direction to experiment with taking the deck in. Basically, the idea is to replace the Cunning Wishes with Grim Tutors. This has upsides and downsides.

    Pros:
    Lets you run fewer Ancient Tombs.
    Can find Phyrexian Unlife.
    Lets you run useful one-ofs (like Boseiju, to help you get the Ad Nauseam through, and Death’s Shadow, to give you a backup plan)
    Can find lands and discard spells should you need them.
    Might let you fool people into thinking you’re running ANT.
    Lets you run more of a real sideboard.

    Cons:
    Gives you fewer maindeck answers to things.
    Forces you to race more often.
    Can’t be fed to FoW.
    Slightly harsher on the mana.
    Life loss.

    I’m not sure if the pros outweigh the cons, but I guess it depends whether you’re looking for consistency in going off (Grim) or toolbox utility (Cunning). I’d be really interested to hear your opinions on which is better. At the moment, I prefer Cunning, but that might just be because I like wishboards and because the Grim list isn’t as refined.

    Anyway, a list for Grim ConPhlag:


    4 Dark Confidant
    4 Phyrexian Unlife
    4 Force of Will
    3 Lim-Dul’s Vault
    4 Angel’s Grace
    2 Stifle
    3 Grim Tutor
    1 Death’s Shadow
    4 Brainstorm
    3 Ad Nauseam
    4 Thoughtseize
    1 Conflagrate

    4 Chrome Mox
    1 Mox Diamond
    4 Lotus Petal
    3 Polluted Delta
    2 Ancient Tomb
    2 Scrubland
    4 Underground Sea
    2 Marsh Flats
    1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All

    Sideboard
    4 Leyline of the Void
    3 Swords to Plowshares
    4 Mindbreak Trap
    4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor


    As you can see, it’s a bit rough, particularly the sideboard, but it gives an idea of the direction you might want to take the deck if you preferred the Grim Tutors over the Cunning Wishes.

    Anyway, those are the decks. I know their far from optimal at the world, but that’s why I’m releasing them into the world, so that, if the idea is as good as I think it is, the Hive Mind can set about doing its work. If enough people are interested, I might post some matchup analyses. Give them a try: you might be surprised ;)

    EDIT:

    Ok, in testing, I realised something that shoud have been pretty obvious: Dark Confidant might not be a great idea, since it suddenly turns on removal spells. Although, it might be worth it, since when he comes down, he dominates games. Hmmm.... I've been experimenting with replacing him with Sensei's Divining Top. It blanks all creature removal, it might draw out atifact/enchantment hate that they should have saved for the Unlife, and it can really help you dig for pieces. Here is a list with Top (I'm wavering between 2, 3 and 4 on the basis that you don't really want to draw multiples)

    Alternative Wish ConPhlag


    4 Phyrexian Unlife
    4 Force of Will
    3 Lim-Dul’s Vault
    3 Angel’s Grace
    2 Stifle
    4 Cunning Wish
    4 Brainstorm
    3 Ad Nauseam
    4 Thoughtseize
    1 Conflagrate
    3 Sensei's Divining Top
    2 Duress

    4 Chrome Mox
    1 Mox Diamond
    4 Lotus Petal
    2 Polluted Delta
    4 Ancient Tomb
    2 Scrubland
    4 Underground Sea
    2 Marsh Flats

    Sideboard
    1 Angel’s Grace
    4 Leyline of the Void
    1 Chain of Vapor
    1 Cabal Ritual
    2 Swords to Plowshares
    1 Ad Nauseam
    1 Mindbreak Trap
    4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor


    UPDATE:

    In testing, the large disruption suite hasn't been making up for the inconsistency and lack of speed compared to other combos. To rectify that, I've made the build a bit faster and more consistent (mainly through Dark Rituals). This is the build I'm currently working with:


    4 Phyrexian Unlife
    4 Force of Will
    3 Lim-Dul’s Vault
    3 Angel’s Grace
    4 Cunning Wish
    4 Brainstorm
    3 Ad Nauseam
    4 Thoughtseize
    1 Conflagrate
    1 Duress
    4 Dark Ritual
    2 Ponder

    3 Polluted Delta
    3 Ancient Tomb
    2 Scrubland
    3 Underground Sea
    3 Marsh Flats
    1 Simian Spirit Guide
    4 Lotus Petal
    4 Chrome Mox

    Sideboard
    1 Angel's Grace
    4 Leyline of the Void
    3 Dark Confidant
    1 Orim's Chant
    2 Swords to Plowshares
    1 Ad Nauseam
    3 Mindbreak Trap
    Last edited by jackbohlen; 04-15-2011 at 06:11 PM.

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