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  1. #1
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    Oops, All Spells! (Formerly The Rogue Hermit)


    Here's a deck idea from the Gatecrash spoilers. There's two "Hermit Druids" in the set, how can we abuse them?

    This deck has evolved significantly from the initial list (posted below). There's a great variety of ways to build the deck, and the optimal build is still being discovered.
    To the best of my knowledge, this is the most optimal core from among different builds like TallMen+Mox Opal, TallMen+Culling, Tutorless, Land Grant, LED-less.

    Core (39):
    4 Undercity Informer
    3 Balustrade Spy
    4 Living Wish
    4 Chrome Mox
    4 Lotus Petal
    4 Lion's Eye Diamond
    4 Elvish Spirit Guide
    4 Dark Ritual
    4 Cabal Ritual
    3 Kill Cards (e.g. Azami, Lady of Scrolls; Laboratory Maniac; Angel of Glory's Rise)
    3 Narcomoeba
    1 Cabal Therapy
    1 Dread Return

    In addition to this package, there's a large variety of different cards that you can add. The recommended additions for maximum consistency in turning a man into a kill:
    1 Narcomoeba
    1 Bridge From Below

    This allows you to combo even if a Narcomoeba and another combo piece are in your hand (~5% of games).

    The best mana package so far has included:
    4 Simian Spirit Guide
    4 Summoner's Pact
    1 Wild Cantor

    This package gives you 4 more G Initial Mana Sources and 1 color-fixing source. Because this deck can't run Land Grant, this package is suggested for fixing colors and adding IMSs.

    From there, there's a few slots (~6-10) to add more protection, more rituals, or more fixing.
    Cards to consider:
    Infernal Tutor
    Tinder Wall
    Rite of Flame
    Manamorphose
    Cabal Therapy
    Pact of Negation
    Unmask


    My current list:
    4 Chrome Mox
    4 Lion's Eye Diamond
    4 Lotus Petal
    4 Elvish Spirit Guide
    4 Simian Spirit Guide
    4 Dark Ritual
    4 Cabal Ritual

    4 Summoner's Pact
    1 Wild Cantor
    1 Angel of Glory's Rise
    1 Azami, Lady of Scrolls
    1 Laboratory Maniac
    4 Narcomoeba
    1 Bridge From Below
    1 Dread Return
    4 Cabal Therapy

    4 Undercity Informer
    3 Balustrade Spy
    4 Living Wish
    3 Infernal Tutor

    // Sideboard
    1 Deathrite Shaman
    1 Dryad Arbor
    1 Swamp
    1 Cavern of Souls
    1 Balustrade Spy
    1 Wild Cantor
    1 Ingot Chewer
    1 Wispmare
    4 Nature's Claim
    3 Goblin Charbelcher



    -- original post --

    I think the best base is Mono-B Belcher. After tweaking a couple of different builds, this seems to be the most consistant:
    // Mana
    4 Chrome Mox
    4 Lotus Petal
    4 Mox Opal
    4 Lion's Eye Diamond
    4 Dark Ritual
    4 Culling the Weak
    4 Cabal Ritual

    // Enablers
    4 Balustrade Spy
    4 Undercity Informer
    4 Infernal Tutor
    2 Street Wraith

    // Tall Men
    4 Phyrexian Walker
    4 Shield Sphere
    2 Ornithopter

    // Combo Pieces
    1 Angel of Glory's Rise
    1 Azami, Lady of Scrolls
    1 Laboratory Maniac
    3 Narcomoeba
    1 Cabal Therapy
    1 Dread Return

    I tried out a build that cut the LEDs and Infernal Tutors for more Street Wraiths and a Land Grant package, but Mox Opal was less consistant and you had to mulligan more to find the combo pieces. This build is a little short on IMSs though.

    The raw turn kill numbers (for all the different builds I tested):
    1: 6 (29%)
    2: 3 (14%)
    3: 7 (33%)
    4+: 5 (24%)

    Keep in mind this was on the play, with untuned lists, and almost certainly poor mulliganing. I feel like the deck has a lot of potential, but I'm not sure where to go from here. Give this list a spin! It's pretty silly.
    Last edited by phazonmutant; 01-27-2013 at 02:51 AM. Reason: Updated Lists, thread name
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  2. #2
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    Re: The Rogue Hermit

    Another possibility might be Gustha's Scepter (can't take credit for that one - @Wanderlust and I have been discussing how to break these as well). It works well to turn on Mox Opal, as well as allowing you to use LED to generate mana to cast your kill condition. Not exactly sure how to fit it in there - but if there is a way, it might not be awful since this is really a 1 card combo.

    One other thing to consider might be to actually run some lands. If you're running Tallmen, you can activate Informer a couple times potentially by saccing them if you end up hitting a land. Haven't figured out quite the right way to do that yet, but there may be something there. This might work better with a Land Grant version and a singleton Bayou or something to be able to run Summoner's Pact and Young Wolf like SI does.
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  3. #3
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    Re: The Rogue Hermit

    Quote Originally Posted by .dk View Post
    Another possibility might be Gustha's Scepter (can't take credit for that one - @Wanderlust and I have been discussing how to break these as well). It works well to turn on Mox Opal, as well as allowing you to use LED to generate mana to cast your kill condition. Not exactly sure how to fit it in there - but if there is a way, it might not be awful since this is really a 1 card combo.
    That's pretty sweet! I suspect that it's not what we want because it means you have to pass the turn, but not unreasonable.

    Quote Originally Posted by .dk View Post
    One other thing to consider might be to actually run some lands. If you're running Tallmen, you can activate Informer a couple times potentially by saccing them if you end up hitting a land. Haven't figured out quite the right way to do that yet, but there may be something there. This might work better with a Land Grant version and a singleton Bayou or something to be able to run Summoner's Pact and Young Wolf like SI does.
    I did try a build with Land Grant and it definitely wasn't awful. You're right that if you have the 3-drop and extra men you don't have to worry about lands in deck. The way I built it I felt like I had to mulligan more because I didn't have Infernal Tutor to find a kill, but maybe it's still better.
    I don't like Summoner's Pact here because it doesn't find the combo pieces.
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  4. #4

    Re: The Rogue Hermit

    The issue with Land Grant/Bayou is on hands when you have Spy instead of Informer. Obviously you're finding Informer off Infernal Tutor, but 33% of the time, you have to have drawn a five outer (Land Grants + Bayou). Those aren't miserable odds, but it's a non-zero chance of fizzling as well when you execute perfectly. That said, Informer can easily abuse spare Narcomoebas to get a 2nd flip even without Tall Men. I think the Tall Men are probably necessary to enable Mox Opal though.
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  5. #5

    Re: The Rogue Hermit

    Also pretty sure that you need the 4th Narco. Even if you don't draw one, drawing anything else and using Informer leaves you unable to kill your opponent (needing 1 creature for therapy + 3 for dread return) unless you have a tall man.
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  6. #6
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    Re: The Rogue Hermit

    Oh man this deck looks awesome. I definitely will be testing this.
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  7. #7
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    Re: The Rogue Hermit

    This is what a couple of people and I have been working on. Again, it's pretty untuned.

    4 Undercity Informer
    4 Balustrade Spy

    1 Dread Return
    1 Angel of Glory's Rise
    1 Laboratory Maniac
    1 Azami, Lady of Scrolls
    4 Narcomoeba

    4 Chrome Mox
    4 Lotus Petal
    4 Simian Spirit Guide
    4 Elvish Spirit Guide
    4 Dark Ritual
    4 Cabal Ritual
    4 Rite of Flame
    4 Manamorphose
    1 Wild Cantor
    3 Summoner's Pact
    2 Pact of Negation
    4 Gitaxian Probe
    1 Phantasmagorian
    1 Cabal Therapy

    The colors are certainly a problem, so monoblack certainly has some merit over this list.
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  8. #8

    Re: The Rogue Hermit

    One thing I was wondering about is running Fatestitcher or Lingering Souls as a complement to the Narcomoebas. A blue splash also opens up the possibility of playing Transmute Artifact/Reshape -> Lotus Bloom

    Diabolic Intent synergizes with the tall man plan.

    Since the magic number is , Grim Monolith could work for you.

  9. #9

    Re: The Rogue Hermit

    LED looks weak unless you have Infernal. I think -4 LED, -4 Infernal, 2 Street Wraith for +4 Monolith, +4 Diabolic, +2 Pact of Negation could work. Or, going -1 Ornithoper, +1 Skyshrouder Cutter/Elvish Spirit Guide, +2 green Pact depending if you'd want additional Tallmen or additional mana. Phantasmagorian sounds pretty necessary too.

  10. #10
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    Re: The Rogue Hermit

    Quote Originally Posted by emidln View Post
    The issue with Land Grant/Bayou is on hands when you have Spy instead of Informer. Obviously you're finding Informer off Infernal Tutor, but 33% of the time, you have to have drawn a five outer (Land Grants + Bayou). Those aren't miserable odds, but it's a non-zero chance of fizzling as well when you execute perfectly. That said, Informer can easily abuse spare Narcomoebas to get a 2nd flip even without Tall Men. I think the Tall Men are probably necessary to enable Mox Opal though.
    I tested 43 games with a Land Grant build, and the win distribution was very bimodal. I won 19 games on turn 1, but straight-up lost 13 games because I either tried to go for it without Land Grant'ing for Bayou or because I mulliganed to oblivion and went to turn 5+. So I think pretty conclusively you're right that Land Grant is bad.

    Quote Originally Posted by emidln
    Also pretty sure that you need the 4th Narco. Even if you don't draw one, drawing anything else and using Informer leaves you unable to kill your opponent (needing 1 creature for therapy + 3 for dread return) unless you have a tall man.
    Yeah, you're absolutely right there.

    Quote Originally Posted by rufus
    One thing I was wondering about is running Fatestitcher or Lingering Souls as a complement to the Narcomoebas. A blue splash also opens up the possibility of playing Transmute Artifact/Reshape -> Lotus Bloom

    Diabolic Intent synergizes with the tall man plan.

    Since the magic number is B3, Grim Monolith could work for you.
    Transmute is a very interesting plan. If you could come up with a list and run it through the goldfish a few times, it would be interesting to hear how it performs.
    I don't like Grim Monolith over other options because it's only a +1 and you still need to produce B. I think Cabal Ritual and Tinder Wall, possibly even Rite of Flame are better - Cabal Rit because it makes B and the latter 2 because they only cost 1.

    Quote Originally Posted by Greenpoe
    LED looks weak unless you have Infernal. I think -4 LED, -4 Infernal, 2 Street Wraith for +4 Monolith, +4 Diabolic, +2 Pact of Negation could work. Or, going -1 Ornithoper, +1 Skyshrouder Cutter/Elvish Spirit Guide, +2 green Pact depending if you'd want additional Tallmen or additional mana. Phantasmagorian sounds pretty necessary too.
    You're right that LED kinda sucks without some sort of tutor. Even without tutors, though, it's been useful multiple times for activating Undercity Informer because you only have to get to 2B before playing LED. LED is a powerful-enough effect that I think you want to play a build with Tutors. Also keep in mind that Skyshroud Cutter requires a Forest to cast.

    Ziveeman , I like where you're going with your list. I had been working some more on a list before I saw yours, and our lists are actually looking pretty similar. You and .dk are definitely right that Summoner's Pact is very necessary as an IMS, and Manamorphose is pretty necessary to fix mana problems. I really don't like that you're playing fewer than 4 Summoner's Pact; it's been so essential to winning games and multiples are almost never bad. It's either a +1 or a color-fixer with Wild Cantor.

    So after goldfishing a whole bunch, here's some data
    Code:
    BG version No Bayou
    1	18 (43%)
    2	5  (12%)
    3	6  (14%)
    4+	5  (12%)
    lose	8  (19%)
    Mulligans
    1 1 2 1 2 4 1 2 4
    
    BG version No Bayou Living Wish
    1	20 (38%)
    2	13 (25%)
    3	5  ( 9%)
    4+	6  (11%)
    lose	9  (17%)
    I didn't record mulligans very consistantly, or at all for the second list, but it seems like the deck is very capable of mulliganing to 5 or 4 and winning. The format I'm using is if I had to mulligan, I record how many times (mull to 6 = 1). From what it looks like, those numbers are not awful at all, for an untuned deck and an inexperienced pilot.

    The versions without Living Wish had LEDs and Tinder Walls. The list I'm currently most satisfied with is this one, essentially based on Pact SI:
    // Mana
    4 Chrome Mox
    4 Lotus Petal
    4 Lion's Eye Diamond
    4 Dark Ritual
    4 Culling the Weak
    4 Cabal Ritual
    4 Elvish Spirit Guide
    4 Tinder Wall
    4 Manamorphose

    // Enablers
    4 Balustrade Spy
    3 Undercity Informer
    3 Living Wish
    4 Summoner's Pact
    1 Wild Cantor

    // Combo Pieces
    1 Angel of Glory's Rise
    1 Azami, Lady of Scrolls
    1 Laboratory Maniac
    4 Narcomoeba
    1 Cabal Therapy
    1 Dread Return

    // Wishboard
    1 Deathrite Shaman
    1 Dryad Arbor
    1 Undercity Informer
    1 Bayou


    Living Wish has actually been castable, and while it may look weird to only have 3 in the deck, it may even be not-wrong. There was an article in the Belcher thread by some guy who ran the numbers and it was "correct" for Belcher to only play 3 Burning Wishes (along with 3 Empties and 4 Belchers).

    Culling has been very good when I can cast it because it gets +3 black mana, but it's definitely rotted in my hand a fair bit because I don't really have any tall men. There's a ton of awkward lines that I had to do with Wild Cantor and Tinder Wall and Culling.
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  11. #11

    Re: The Rogue Hermit

    For G2/G3, you'll see grave hate coming in, so how about using Bitter Ordeal or Charbelcher to dodge the hate postboard? You could have a "transformational" sideboard of sorts, siding out the 9 or so combo pieces (Dread Return + friends) and siding in your new win-con. Charbelcher looks a lot better because it obviously just wins by itself while dodging the hate, while Ordeal means a 2-card combo (although with Ordeal, you could get some funny wins with a gravestorm of just 6 or so vs. decks like ANT, TES, Miracles, Turbo Eldrazi, etc.). If anyone could build a manageable Transmute Artifact/Reshape+Lotus Bloom list, you could grab Belcher off that as well.

    For your Wish-board, consider Lab Maniac (in case you run into Leyline or something, you could try and go for the combo + Wish for Maniac to win on your next turn, not ideal but its a thought). Also, Khalni Garden looks slightly better than Dryad Arbor (Arbor can be Wasted, but not a 0/1 token) - I imagine there's some obscure situation where this difference could matter.

  12. #12
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    Re: The Rogue Hermit

    We were messing around with this a bit tonight - one thing that might not be terrible if you are running a full compliment of Cabal Therapy is a copy of Bridge from Below. Especially if therapy is your only protection, it can allow you to sac your Narcomoeba's to therapy, and still have zombies to sac to Dread Return.

    Our list obviously wasn't tuned either, but here's something else interesting that happened. We were running Land Grants with a Bayou - but managed to cast the Spy to start milling. We weren't totally sure how we would keep going since it wasn't informer... we ended up milling into a couple informers, a couple spies, 2 narcomoeba's, a Bridge from Below, and the singleton Dread Return. If we were running 2 Dread Returns, it would have won on the spot.

    So that got me thinking - how reasonable is it to go for a full compliment of Bridges and Dread Returns and just reanimate the Spy a couple times to blow through any lands you might have in your deck?

    Just for reference, we were messing with a version that was using Entomb and Reanimate/Exhume as a potentially easier way to get the Spy into play.
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  13. #13
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    I run the Azami kill, but I was thinking of Underworld Cerberus, how is it a better kill? If I understand it correctly you need to cast Lab Maniac, then cycle Street Wraith.

    Now what I want to ask, is being forced to cast Lab Maniac really any good? Isn't it just better to cast Dread Return and go from there?
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  14. #14

    Re: Grinder

    This version just finished top8 at SCG Portland
    http://sales.starcitygames.com//deck...p?DeckID=69452


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  15. #15

    Re: Grinder

    Liked pacts in side disliked just 2 therapies

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  16. #16

    Re: The Rogue Hermit

    I've only started thinking about this deck a week ago, and don't have much experience with Legacy, but I've read through the thread and spent some time on the deck, so I'll share a few of my observations and impressions, in case they're useful and to get feedback about where I should potentially go in a different direction.

    - Cycling is out of place in this deck. This isn't a deck that's digging for one particular card. Rather, it wants to draw some combination of cards, and being able to make good mulligans is crucial. Further, at least in the deck linked above, cyclers come at the cost of tutors and LED, substantially reducing access to a win condition in the opener.

    - A three-card win condition is unnecessary. Compare any of the Maniac kills with Sutured Ghoul. The additional vulnerabilities of Ghoul are primarily StP/PtE, Abrupt Decay (target Dragon Breath) and Maze of Ith. All but Maze can be cleared out with Therapy, and Maze isn't common.

    - Dropping the win condition to two cards saves more than one card slot. Because you're less likely to draw two combo pieces, you need fewer copies of Therapy and you need fewer Bridges to support Therapy.

    - My impression after a few goldfish games with the Past in Flames kill was that it could not consistently win as quickly as Sutured Ghoul, and I did not spend much time testing it, so I don't really have any opinions about that build.

    I've goldfished a couple hundred preboard hands of the decklist below. I have additional comments below the list.

    // Creatures
    3 Balustrade Spy
    4 Cabal Ritual
    1 Cabal Therapy
    4 Chancellor of the Tangle
    4 Chrome Mox
    4 Dark Ritual
    1 Deathrite Shaman
    1 Dragon Breath
    1 Dread Return
    4 Elvish Spirit Guide
    3 Infernal Tutor
    4 Lion's Eye Diamond
    4 Living Wish
    4 Lotus Petal
    4 Narcomoeba
    4 Simian Spirit Guide
    4 Summoner's Pact
    1 Sutured Ghoul
    4 Undercity Informer
    1 Wild Cantor

    // Sideboard
    1 Balustrade Spy
    1 Bridge from Below
    1 Cabal Therapy
    1 Desecration Demon
    1 Forest
    1 Magus of the Moon
    4 Pact of Negation
    1 Peat Bog
    1 Swamp
    3 Wild Cantor

    Based on my goldfishing, the deck won pre-board games turn one 60% on the play and 80% on the draw. I didn't consider turn two wins, though in practice a lot more hands should be kept to win on turn two (as opposed to mulliganing aggressively for a turn one).

    - 4 Narcomoeba, 0 Bridge from Below, 1 Cabal Therapy. As discussed above, with a compact win condition, you don't need a lot of redundancy. Unless you draw LED, you can't win if you draw both Dragon Breath and Sutured Ghoul or either and Therapy (unless you have spare black mana), or some number of Narcomoeba (more or less depending on whether you need to cast Therapy and whether you're using Spy or Informer). The vast majority of these hands would not be able to win even if the deck did have additional copies of Therapy and Bridge, due to the number of dead cards in hand, so I prefer to minimize the number of dead draws as much as possible.

    - The fourth Infernal Tutor would increase turn one wins more than the singleton Deathrite Shaman. I'm currently undecided which is better maindeck, as Deathrite Shaman is probably better in the FoW matchups, where LED comes out (search with Pact to imprint on Mox or case off of Mox/Chancellor for additional turn two mana).

    - Sideboarding:
    vs. FoW: -4 LED, -3 Infernal Tutor, +4 Pact of Negation, +3 Wild Cantor
    vs. significant removal: -2 Infernal Tutor, +1 Therapy, +1 Bridge
    vs. mirror: -4 Narcomoeba, -1 Dragon Breath, -1 Sutured Ghoul, +1 Cabal Therapy, +1 Forest, +1 Swamp, +3 Wild Cantor (probably doesn't come up much, but I wanted to point out that it might be valid to try to win by milling them instead)

    - As the deck is designed to win by being very fast, the sideboard should impact on speed as little as possible. Basically, I expect to win more games by being fast than by having answers in the sideboard that typically also require using up a mana source. LED's obviously don't synergize with Pact of Negation, so they come out, and Infernal Tutor comes out by extension. Additional Cantors are the best way to ensure black mana, and are playable off of Chancellor and Mox to increase the number of turn two wins.

    - The second Therapy is to be able to target yourself and a removal spell, and the Bridge is to support the additional sacrifices.

    - The rest of the sideboard is Wish targets and has been covered earlier in this thread.
    Last edited by B.B. Flemm; 07-05-2014 at 06:35 AM.

  17. #17
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    Re: The Rogue Hermit

    I am planning on building this deck so i can play combo from time to time with a reasonable budget, thus i am asking for comments on my list below :

    1 Underworld Cerberus
    1 Laboratory Maniac
    1 Dread Return
    4 Narcomoeba
    4 Undercity Informer
    4 Balustrade Spy
    (the 15 cards above swap for the belcher package when needed)
    2 Cabal Therapy
    1 Wild Cantor
    4 Elvish Spirit Guide
    4 Simian Spirit Guide
    4 Dark Ritual
    4 Cabal Ritual
    4 Manamorphose
    4 Lotus Petal
    4 Chrome Mox
    4 Gitaxian Probe
    4 Street Wraith
    4 Pact of Negation
    2 Summoner's Pact

    SB: 4 Chancellor of the Annex
    SB: 4 Goblin Charbelcher
    SB: 4 Lion's Eye Diamond
    SB: 3 Spoils of the Vault

    When i want 4 Chancellor of the Annex as additional protection post-board, i usually side out -2 Summoner's Pact (really not comfortable with this card), -2 Street Wraith (Need at least 1 for the kill, so i keep 2 in case i pitch one to imprint on chrome mox).

    Any advice ?

  18. #18

    Re: The Rogue Hermit

    B4l4,

    I like the list, I'm running something similar. Honestly, I find you don't need that many can trips for consistency. My list runs similar but...

    - 1 Narcomoeba
    -4 gitaxian probe

    + 2 summoner's pact
    +1 cabal therapy
    +2 bridge from below

    This bridges allow you to combo when you have been dealt an unplayable narcomoeba hand and they imprint nicely on chrome moxs.

    The extra cabal therapy us usually used on a chrome mox or fired off before you combo naming force.

    The summoner's pact are there for obvious reasons and I feel are too good to cut.

    Sideboarding is the same plan but I keep Cerberus in and take the bridge package out.

    Just my thoughts/list use it if you want.

  19. #19

    Re: The Rogue Hermit

    Quote Originally Posted by B4L4 View Post

    When i want 4 Chancellor of the Annex as additional protection post-board, i usually side out -2 Summoner's Pact (really not comfortable with this card), -2 Street Wraith (Need at least 1 for the kill, so i keep 2 in case i pitch one to imprint on chrome mox).

    Any advice ?
    I would never ever board out Street Wraith. I feel you have to have him because many times your combo depends on having an extra black card to imprint on chrome mox.

    A problem I found with the "new" Underworld Cerberus kill is that you are dead to Chalice at 1. It stops you from casting Wild Cantor to play Laboratory Maniac. The solution to these matchups seems to be to run 1 of Ancient Grudge in the sideboard to kill the chalice after saccing the Cerberus.

    I am a huge fan of running 4 Pact of Negation main.

    4 Gitaxian Probe
    4 Street Wraith
    4 Elvish Spirit Guide
    4 Simian Spirit Guide
    1 Wild Cantor
    3 Manamorphose
    3 Summoner's Pact
    4 Pact of Negation
    4 Lotus Petal
    4 Chrome Mox
    1 Bridge from Below
    3 Narcomoeba
    2 Cabal Therapy
    1 Laboratory Maniac
    1 Underworld Cerberus
    1 Dread Return
    4 Undercity Informer
    4 Balustrade Spy
    4 Dark Ritual
    4 Cabal Ritual

    This is my 60.

    My sideboard
    1 Ancient Grudge
    4 Goblin Charbelcher
    4 Lion's Eye Diamond
    1 Manamorphose
    1 Summoner's Pact
    1 Empty the Warrens
    3 Seething Song

    Previously all 15 cards in the sideboard came in to transform into 4 Belcher, 4 Lions, 4 SSong, 1 MM, 1 SPact, 1 Empty. With the Ancient Grudge now for Chalice it's potentially 1 dead card sometimes that has to come in anyway.

    2 Bridge from Below would also be desirable especially since that is another black card to imprint. A third Cabal Therapy would also be desirable since it can get problematic when you draw 1 naturally. Sometimes you just need 2 to cast against Force of Will and maybe even Flusterstorm or Spell Pierce if its beyond turn 1 or to discard your drawn Cerberus after stripping Force. For me personally 2 are fine since I run 4 Pact of Negation main anyway as additional FoW protection.
    Minor thing I dislike that for matchups where I know that there is no interaction from my opponent I don't want to sideboard into Belcher and I don't want to keep Pact of Negation main so I have to board in SPact and MM which is fine but 2 more and Seething Song or Lion's Eye Diamond are just not that good.
    It would be better to have sideboard cards that are good for Belcher and are better than Seething Song or LED for Oops. Maybe 2 Spoils of the Vault would be fine since they are at least black cards to imprint on Chrome Mox and also very helpful in Belcher setup.

    A redundant Bridge from Below, Dread Return, Underworld Cerberus, Wild Cantor and Laboratory Maniac would be nice against DRS. But that is too many cards to commit to that issue, I just tend to sideboard into Belcher when I am not on the play and up against DRS. If you are not using a Belcher sideboard however I would reccommend putting these redundant pieces in the sideboard against DRS when you are not on the play so you have a chance to go off through DRS.

    PS: I will never consider Chancellor of the Tangle. It's just a dead card that can make you lose if you draw it. Chancellor of the Anex is better but still the same issue. Pact of Negation is just a better protection card and if I was to run additional I might consider Force of Will before.
    Last edited by Quizzlemanizzle; 09-13-2014 at 07:31 AM.

  20. #20

    Re: The Rogue Hermit

    I just 3-1 the Daily

    Round 1: Matchup against Elves
    Game 1 : Won dice roll and won on turn 1
    Game 2 : Did not sideboard into Belcher, had a turn 1 hand but he had turn 1 Thoughtseize, turn 2 Thorn Amethyst and Turn 3 Null Rod
    Game 3 : Won on turn 1

    Round 2: Matchup against TES Storm
    Game 1 : Won on turn 1
    Game 2 : Won on turn 1

    Round 3: Matchup against PJund with Veteran Explorer
    Game 1 : Won on turn 1
    Game 2 : did not sideboard, mulligan to 6, he missed with Cabal Therapy, I missed 1 mana to win turn 1, turn 2 he Veteran Explorer to stip Informer, followed by 2 Thoughtseize and Slaughter Games on Underworld Cerberus
    Game 3 : First hand drew Dread Return, Cerberus, Bridge , Second hand drew Dread Return, Bridge and Narcomoeba, Third hand was average but Cerberus again in hand - game lasted a lot of turns he made me discard the win next turn twice, I was impatient and ran a Chrome Mox into Abrupt Decay instead of discarding something, then I went for the win and he found mindbreak trap on top of his library with Sensei's Divining Top to counter the Balustrade Spy which was spell #3 exactly
    I think I would have won game 3 if I avoided the Abrupt Decay and played around Mindbreak Trap instead of going for the win although I dont blame myself for that decision.
    He brough in 2 Mindbreak Trap, 2 Surgical Extraction plus running 1 DRS, 2 Thoughtseize and 2 Cabal Therapy and drew into all his hatecards in both games he won. If I could have found 1 decent hand in 3 mulligans of game 3 I win in turn 1 but that is Oops..

    Round 4: Matchup again RWU Delver
    Game 1: He won the the dice roll, I keep a hand with 2 Pact of Negation, Mana but no Spy

    He opens with Probe and Delver, and turn 2 SFM and flipped Delver.
    On my turn 2 I draw Informer and combo off through Force of Will.

    Game 2: I sideboarded Belcher and my opnening hand was Chrome, Petal, Petal, Manamorphose, Dark Ritual, Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual. I risk the keep.
    He plays fetch and nothing on turn 1.
    I draw Belcher on turn 1. Play Chrome Mox, he spell pierces. I play both Petals, all rituals and then Manamophose. He lets everything resolve I have 5B1G1R in Pool and Manamorphose draws into Pact of Negation. I play Belcher with 3 mana floating, he forces and I pact and that is GG.

    Got lucky in the last game drawing into Pact of Negation exactly.

    In round 3 I should have taken 2 different lines of play and I could have won that game and played for 4-0 against Miracles. I also should have boarded in Belcher in Game 2.

    My list was:

    Maindeck configuration was the Underworld Cerberus version key choices were
    3 Summoner's Pact
    2 Manamorphose
    4 Pact of Negation
    2 Cabal Therapy
    2 Bridge from Below
    3 Narcomoeba
    1 Wild Cantor

    Sideboard was : 1 Ancient Grudge, 1 Seething Song, 2 Empty the Warrens, 1 Summoners Pact, 2 Manamorphose, 4 Belcher, 4 LED

    I am contemplating if I should make room for 1 Maniac, 1 Cerberus, 1 Dread Return and another Wild Cantor in the sideboard so that 1 DRS cant stop the combo. -2 MM, -1 Seething Song, - 1 Grudge

    On the other hand I dropped out at 0-2 on thursday

    Round 1 : Fish
    Game 1 : I win though maindeck Chalice of the Void at 0 and Force of Will.
    Game 2 : He opens with Chalice at 0, Turn 2 Chalice at 1, Turn 3 Thorn Amethyst
    Game 3 : same stories with the chalices

    Round 2: Elves
    Game 1 : He wins the dice roll, I kept a starting hand that was turn 1 if I could draw just 1 more mana to sac my Informer. He opens with Forest and Deathrite Shaman.
    I can't draw the mana source so I had only the choice of deploying Informer and waiting to untap to sac him with Chrome Mox and hope my opponent is stupid and taps DRS for mana on his turn. Either way I had to hope my opponent did not know my deck and would tap his DRS.
    Game 2 : I am on the play, did not sideboard Belcher and removed Pact. I mulligan to 5 before I find an acceptable hand but still cant win on turn 1. He found DRS again, and on my turn I draw but am again 1 mana short, He follows up with 2 more DRS.
    Maybe should have went Belcher but usually when on the play against Elves I think going full combo is best when they don't have Mindbreak Trap in the sb.

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