Hello, everybody!
Realizing a couple of people asked to see my list and I completely forgot to respond. I've been tinkering with the structure of the deck a fair bit lately—especially after we lost Gitaxian Probe—and I'm debating taking it out for a spin on Tuesday for the first time since 2015. Without further ado, here's what I've been working with:
ROGUES:
4x Balustrade Spy
4x Undercity Informer
PRIMERS:
4x Lotus Petal
4x Chrome Mox
4x Elvish Spirit Guide
4x Simian Spirit Guide
4x Summoner's Pact
FUEL:
4x Dark Ritual
4x Cabal Ritual
3x Narcomoeba
2x Bridge from Below
PAYLOAD:
4x Street Wraith
1x Dread Return
1x Garna, the Bloodflame
1x Laboratory Maniac
FIXERS:
2x Manamorphose
1x Wild Cantor
DISRUPTION:
4x Pact of Negation
3x Unmask
2x Cabal Therapy
SIDEBOARD: Working on it; quads of LED, Charbs, and Spoils are set for now, along with an Ingot Chewer to face Everybody's Favorite Artifact. Leaves two open slots.
So as I mentioned before, I've been disliking Manamorphose for a long time, but I also feel like Chrome Mox has been a bit of a thorn in my side when I'm short on black Imprint cards. So I decided to try out Unmask instead of Chancellor of the Annex. We're a bit cold to T1 discards, but I think Unmask gets better as the game goes on, and oftentimes (both before and [in testing] after the Probe ban) I've found myself keeping hands with, say, 3 mana, a Rogue, and two pieces of disruption. Not ideal, but it can be tough for opponents to break even if we're not out-turbo-ing them the way we want to. So from what little I've seen, it can actually be worth it to draw-go a couple of times if we're sitting on a loaded hand. (By contrast, Chancellors become useless if they don't do their thing on the first turn.)
I'm on quad-Wraith for the first time in a while because I actually think we want a bit of cantrip power. Not too much (for obvious reasons), but we're less likely to hit an essential card (Narco or Bridge) than we are to hit what we want (disruption, mana, Rogues). I'm not the kind of scrub to just concede a game in the face of a Daze (/joshing), so I like having a slight chance to rebuild if we're up against it.
One thing I've noticed is that Cabal Therapy is still a handy card—not just for stripping combo pieces out of our hand, but also as a way to compensate for a topdecked Narcomoeba. I might add a third Bridge for just that reason, though I'm not sure what I'd cut. Probably a Manamorphose or a Street Wraith, but I'm not sure.
The search for a ninth piece of business continues. I've got my eye on Doomsday, though I'm not sure how we'd get that to work best. Would necessitate making room for some weird singletons, and probably for at least one LED in the main. Something like +1 Doomsday, +2 LED, +1 Act on Impulse, -1 Street Wraith, -1 Manamorphose, -2... Something. Probably a Cabal Therapy and another card, but I don't know which one yet. Anyone have any ideas?
All Spells Primer under construction: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e...Tl7utWpLo0/pub
PM me if you want to contribute!
I may try Unmasks instead of Chancellors although I prefer to combo t1 with all the free protection I can gather. Unmask has an advantage of being handy when rebuilding though. Not sure about the Bridges though. I think I'll try something like this.
PRIMERS:
4x Lotus Petal
4x Chrome Mox
4x Elvish Spirit Guide
4x Simian Spirit Guide
4x Summoner's Pact
FUEL:
4x Dark Ritual
4x Cabal Ritual
3x Narcomoeba
PAYLOAD:
4x Street Wraith
1x Dread Return
1x Garna, the Bloodflame
1x Laboratory Maniac
FIXERS:
1x Wild Cantor
DISRUPTION:
4x Chancellor of the Annex
4x Pact of Negation
2x Unmask
1x Cabal Therapy
All Spells Primer under construction: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e...Tl7utWpLo0/pub
PM me if you want to contribute!
dont get me wrong. It is not like we have a tons of free cards to choose from and Unmask is a solid valid choice. It deserves a spot but maybe not in place of Chancellor.
BTW This deck mulligans way better than Belcher and I pulled the combo of a 4 card hand whereas in Belcher you cant even go lower than 5.
Confession: I actually think this deck is better than Charbelcher. We can pack mainboard protection, we don't need to worry so much about Flusterstorm, and as you said, we mulligan way, way better.
My major dilemma at this stage is in figuring out how much protection we can pack in without the deck's devolving into a pile of cards. And that's a real and increasing risk. So how many pieces of protection are people running? I'm on seven (plus two Cabal Therapies): four Pacts, three Unmasks.
All Spells Primer under construction: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e...Tl7utWpLo0/pub
PM me if you want to contribute!
I ran 9 - 4 Pacts, 4 Chancellors and a Therapy. Still havent tested cutting the Manamorphoses to 1 or 0 and try 1-2 Unmasks and 1 more Therapy. I think caprino played with just one Pact and one Therapy but the main thing I love in this deck is the access to protection. I'd never play without some.
This deck is generally more convenient sister than Belcher, but Belcher can steal more games with empty. Can't really empty when you have summoner's pact.
Otherwise there's a few other minor things, but both decks are fun to play.
-rob
This deck wins on the spot where Belcher needs two turns to win with empty (last tournament I hit t1 10 goblins and t1 12 goblins against two different Land players and lost to Crop Rotation into Tabernacle turn after which almost forced me to flip both of the tables - this is what I like in it at most - winning on the spot. This and protection.
Oh on the downside - you either win fast or lose rather fast and wander the rest of the round until Miracles mirrors go into time.
Maybe you're missing some cards in your list. Do you run bridges?
-rob
Do you side in the Belcher package every g2? or is it only against specific decks?
With 3 narcomoeba and no bridges you have a mull a hand that would normally win with 3 drop if you have a narcomoeba in opening hand since only 2 narcomoeba will be available to dread return. That seems a bit risky.
-rob
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