Page 1 of 58 123451151 ... LastLast
Results 1 to 20 of 1143

Thread: Oops, All Spells! (Formerly The Rogue Hermit)

  1. #1
    Undefeated hair
    phazonmutant's Avatar
    Join Date

    Jan 2012
    Location

    Seattle, WA
    Posts

    1,152

    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
    Languages and dates for every set. For all you true pimps.

  2. #2
    shallow
    .dk's Avatar
    Join Date

    Aug 2010
    Location

    denver, co
    Posts

    1,129

    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.
    Find me on Twitter: @beanaman

    Quote Originally Posted by Richard Cheese View Post
    His graveyard was a fucking encyclopedia of countermagic.

  3. #3
    Undefeated hair
    phazonmutant's Avatar
    Join Date

    Jan 2012
    Location

    Seattle, WA
    Posts

    1,152

    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.
    Languages and dates for every set. For all you true pimps.

  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.
    BZK! - Storm Boards

    Been there, tried that, still casting Doomsday.
    Drawing my deck for 0 mana since 2013.

  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.
    BZK! - Storm Boards

    Been there, tried that, still casting Doomsday.
    Drawing my deck for 0 mana since 2013.

  6. #6
    Land Destruction Enthusiast
    Megadeus's Avatar
    Join Date

    Jul 2012
    Location

    Kennesaw, GA
    Posts

    5,572

    Re: The Rogue Hermit

    Oh man this deck looks awesome. I definitely will be testing this.
    Quote Originally Posted by Richard Cheese View Post
    I've been taking shitty brews and tier 2 decks to tournaments and losing with them for years now. Welcome to the club. We meet for cocktails after round 6.
    Quote Originally Posted by Stevestamopz View Post
    Top quality german restraint there.

    If I'm at the point where I'm rage quitting, you can bet your kransky that I'm calling everyone involved a cunt.

  7. #7
    Site Contributor
    Ziveeman's Avatar
    Join Date

    Aug 2006
    Location

    Arizona
    Posts

    276

    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.
    Magic: the Gathering players in Arizona, click here!
    @mtgtwin1 on Twitter
    3 SCG Open Top 8s
    GP Denver 2013 Top 64
    GP NJ 2014 110th/4001
    AZMagicPlayers.com Legacy Series Tournament Organizer
    Random Brews/Decks Galore!

  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
    Undefeated hair
    phazonmutant's Avatar
    Join Date

    Jan 2012
    Location

    Seattle, WA
    Posts

    1,152

    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.
    Languages and dates for every set. For all you true pimps.

  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
    shallow
    .dk's Avatar
    Join Date

    Aug 2010
    Location

    denver, co
    Posts

    1,129

    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.
    Find me on Twitter: @beanaman

    Quote Originally Posted by Richard Cheese View Post
    His graveyard was a fucking encyclopedia of countermagic.

  13. #13
    Undefeated hair
    phazonmutant's Avatar
    Join Date

    Jan 2012
    Location

    Seattle, WA
    Posts

    1,152

    Re: The Rogue Hermit

    Quote Originally Posted by .dk View Post
    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.
    Haha, we had come to the same conclusion about Bridge. It's just necessary when you draw a Narc and have a combo piece in hand.

    If you can figure out how to fit in Bridges, Dread Returns, and lands, that would be pretty hot. The idea of reanimating spy a bunch is...sweet, awesome, crazy, take your pick.

    I tested a few more lists - ones with Simian Spirit Guide, Rite of Flame, ones with the above and no Living Wish, and finally one with Simian Spirit Guide and Living Wish. This so far is the most consistant list I've come up with.

    Data:
    Code:
    BGr with Living Wish, 8 Spirit Guides, no Culling
    1	24
    2	13	
    3	11
    4+	7
    lose	5
    Mulligans
    1 3 3 1 3 2 1 2 2 2 1 2 1 1 3 1 2 2 1 2 1 2 1 1 3 3 2 2 2 3 2 1 2 3 2
    Living Wish Kills
    6
    // Mana
    4 Chrome Mox
    4 Lotus Petal
    4 Lion's Eye Diamond
    4 Dark Ritual
    4 Cabal Ritual
    4 Elvish Spirit Guide
    4 Simian Spirit Guide
    3 Tinder Wall
    4 Manamorphose

    // Enablers
    3 Balustrade Spy
    4 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
    1 Bridge from Below

    // Wishboard
    1 Deathrite Shaman
    1 Dryad Arbor
    1 Balustrade Spy
    1 Bayou

    Cutting the Culling for more IMSs is definitely great, and Living Wish has been reasonable. You definitely want the all of the 3-mana guy main because that helps LED be more live.

    As far as mulliganing goes (and this may be obvious to everyone but me ), just count the number of "outs" you have to turn the hand into a kill. If it's above 20 on 7, keep, if it's above like 12 on 6-5, keep, otherwise mull. It's helped my mulliganing decisions quite a bit.
    Languages and dates for every set. For all you true pimps.

  14. #14
    Site Contributor
    Ziveeman's Avatar
    Join Date

    Aug 2006
    Location

    Arizona
    Posts

    276

    Re: The Rogue Hermit

    I really think Pact of Negation needs to be present in some form maindeck. Force of Will is bonkers against this deck because we don't have a fallback of Empty the Warrens that completely dodges Force (and is the reason why you have to Force of Will Rituals against Belcher, not just the final spell).

    With this list below, I have approx ~30% win rate on turn 1, and in addition, approx ~30% of all wins with having one or more Pact of Negations in hand. Even if the deck is a tiny bit slower, I think it's worth it to not be totally dead to a single Force in game 1.

    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

    1 Cabal Therapy
    1 Phantasmagorian

    4 Elvish Spirit Guide
    4 Summoner's Pact
    4 Simian Spirit Guide
    4 Chrome Mox

    4 Lotus Petal
    4 Dark Ritual
    4 Cabal Ritual
    4 Rite of Flame

    3 Manamorphose
    3 Pact of Negation
    3 Gitaxian Probe
    1 Wild Cantor

    Summoner's Pact is insane in this deck. Ramp or filtering is basically all I wanted.

    Now that I have the pacts, the Living Wish version looks appealing, but again, I'm a fan of Pact of Negation maindeck.

    As far as the SB goes, I definitely think Belcher + LED (if LED isn't maindeck already) is a good way to go. Perhaps Empty the Warrens too.
    Magic: the Gathering players in Arizona, click here!
    @mtgtwin1 on Twitter
    3 SCG Open Top 8s
    GP Denver 2013 Top 64
    GP NJ 2014 110th/4001
    AZMagicPlayers.com Legacy Series Tournament Organizer
    Random Brews/Decks Galore!

  15. #15

    Re: The Rogue Hermit

    @Ziveeman: Would it be an idea to run a single Dosan the Falling Leaf (sideboard?) to return that to the battlefield as well, so your opponent doesn't have a chance to kill your Maniac? Or isn't that even a problem?

    Also you could use Council of Advisors (yes, is Human), Merchant of Secrets (yes, is Human) or Gryff Vanguard instead of Azami, Lady of Scrolls so you will be less sensitive to (for example) Pithing Needle.
    Last edited by Cybey; 01-22-2013 at 04:42 AM.

  16. #16
    Undefeated hair
    phazonmutant's Avatar
    Join Date

    Jan 2012
    Location

    Seattle, WA
    Posts

    1,152

    Re: The Rogue Hermit

    Quote Originally Posted by Ziveeman View Post
    I really think Pact of Negation needs to be present in some form maindeck. Force of Will is bonkers against this deck because we don't have a fallback of Empty the Warrens that completely dodges Force (and is the reason why you have to Force of Will Rituals against Belcher, not just the final spell).

    With this list below, I have approx ~30% win rate on turn 1, and in addition, approx ~30% of all wins with having one or more Pact of Negations in hand. Even if the deck is a tiny bit slower, I think it's worth it to not be totally dead to a single Force in game 1.
    ...
    As far as the SB goes, I definitely think Belcher + LED (if LED isn't maindeck already) is a good way to go. Perhaps Empty the Warrens too.
    I would prefer to just be a faster combo maindeck against the current field full of discard decks, but Pact of Negation is not unreasonable either. It feels like the deck already mulligans a ton, so expecting it to have Pact of Negation with any consistancy seems like it's asking too much, but I'll give your list a shot tomorrow.

    For the sideboard, Belcher makes sense, definitely including Pacts if they're not main, and Leyline of Sanctity can be quite good.

    Quote Originally Posted by .dk
    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.
    Dammit .dk, I need to go to bed! Stop giving me sweet ideas to test! Ran through a few iterations. I didn't have the time to actually compile data, but this list feels pretty reasonable after 15ish goldfishes:
    4 Balustrade Spy
    4 Narcomoeba
    4 Cabal Therapy
    3 Dread Return
    4 Chrome Mox
    4 Lotus Petal
    4 Dark Ritual
    4 Bridge from Below
    1 Bayou
    4 Land Grant
    4 Entomb
    4 Reanimate
    4 Animate Dead
    1 Flame-Kin Zealot
    2 Exhume
    4 Elvish Spirit Guide
    1 Wild Cantor
    4 Summoner's Pact

    It feels inconsistant as hell to basically be going for a 3-card combo - definitely IMS- and "in"-light - but it seems to respond well to mulliganing all the way to 4. I think it's a bit slower than the belcher list, but it kills reasonably consistantly by t3. The cleanup step is clutch.
    Languages and dates for every set. For all you true pimps.

  17. #17
    Psilovibin
    Vacrix's Avatar
    Join Date

    Apr 2008
    Posts

    2,203

    Re: The Rogue Hermit

    I see this deck going a completely different direction..

    You have the option with Informer to sacrifice as many creatures as you choose. That means you can actually play land, as long as you are sure you can activate it multiple times. So... Veteran Explorer looks rather attractive. Forgo Land Grant, play basics that you can fetch out with Explorers, Diabolic Intent, Cabal Therapy, tallmen... it might have fewer turn 1 kills.. but its not like other decks in the format don't already specialize in turn 1 kills without also exposing their entire graveyard. I'd imagine it would be a full turn faster than Dredge, play protection.. and have a better long game against graveyard hate since you can sit on an Informer til you get rid of the hate with, say, a Living Wish toolbox. Playing land gives you time to set up the combo. I want to stress that you don't need to hit your entire graveyard for a deck like this to do ridiculous things. As Emidln was saying, you can pop your Narcomoebas once you mill them to mill more.

    Entomb looks like a very versatile tutor. You can turn it into a creature by finding Narcomoeba, a protection spell with Therapy, on occasion find a land in order to mill deeper, Informer if you have Reanimation, and obviously if you play Entomb, you'll want to play at least one Golgari Gravetroll in the case that you want to slow play like Dredge.
    Luck is a residue of design.



    I'm an aspiring Psychedelic Trance musician. Please feel free to enjoy my sense of life:
    http://soundcloud.com/vacrix


    Expect me or die. I play SI.

  18. #18
    In response: Snapcaster Mage
    catmint's Avatar
    Join Date

    Feb 2011
    Posts

    923

    Re: The Rogue Hermit

    Looks like the deck is also loosing to surgical extraction so a different sideboard route and/or Pact of negation (in addition to discard which migth only be cast when the gy is already targetable by extraction) is surely a good idea.
    Currently playing: Elves

  19. #19
    Undefeated hair
    phazonmutant's Avatar
    Join Date

    Jan 2012
    Location

    Seattle, WA
    Posts

    1,152

    Re: The Rogue Hermit

    Quote Originally Posted by Vacrix View Post
    I see this deck going a completely different direction..

    You have the option with Informer to sacrifice as many creatures as you choose. That means you can actually play land, as long as you are sure you can activate it multiple times. So... Veteran Explorer looks rather attractive. Forgo Land Grant, play basics that you can fetch out with Explorers, Diabolic Intent, Cabal Therapy, tallmen... it might have fewer turn 1 kills.. but its not like other decks in the format don't already specialize in turn 1 kills without also exposing their entire graveyard. I'd imagine it would be a full turn faster than Dredge, play protection.. and have a better long game against graveyard hate since you can sit on an Informer til you get rid of the hate with, say, a Living Wish toolbox. Playing land gives you time to set up the combo. I want to stress that you don't need to hit your entire graveyard for a deck like this to do ridiculous things. As Emidln was saying, you can pop your Narcomoebas once you mill them to mill more.

    Entomb looks like a very versatile tutor. You can turn it into a creature by finding Narcomoeba, a protection spell with Therapy, on occasion find a land in order to mill deeper, Informer if you have Reanimation, and obviously if you play Entomb, you'll want to play at least one Golgari Gravetroll in the case that you want to slow play like Dredge.
    I can see how that direction could be quite powerful, but I really don't know how to build it. When I tried putting a list together, I just couldn't fit all the pieces. Do you have a suggested list? I definitely value any insight you have on this deck given how much work you've put into SI.

    I was originally proposing a new Belcher (style) deck because that's the most obvious way to take it. Clearly these new cards are powerful, we just have to be smart enough to solve them.
    Languages and dates for every set. For all you true pimps.

  20. #20
    Tundra Player
    alphastryk's Avatar
    Join Date

    Feb 2011
    Location

    Atlanta
    Posts

    1,072

    Re: The Rogue Hermit

    Man, this deck is sweet.

    I really feel like you need Living Wish to have enough business (well, some tutor at least, and I think thats the most efficient).

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)