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    MossNought

    This is not a new deck (see: MossNought, Aeon Bridge) but I've haven't played in a while (a decade, give or take) and I'm interested in developing this deck for the new meta.


    // MossNought

    // 60 Maindeck
    // 10 Creature
    4 Phyrexian Dreadnought
    4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
    2 Snapcaster Mage

    // 17 Protection
    4 Force of Will
    4 Stifle
    4 Thoughtseize
    2 Counterbalance
    1 Devastation Tide
    1 Vision Charm
    1 Reality Ripple

    // 12 Deck Manipulation
    4 Brainstorm
    4 Ponder
    4 Lim-Dûl's Vault
    1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

    // 20 Land
    4 Mosswort Bridge
    2 Island
    4 Tropical Island
    4 Underground Sea
    2 Polluted Delta
    2 Flooded Strand
    2 Misty Rainforest


    // 15 Sideboard (rough draft)
    SB: 3 Pithing Needle
    SB: 3 Surgical Extraction
    SB: 3 Flusterstorm
    SB: 2 Abrupt Decay
    SB: 4 Show and Tell



    The old MossNought/Aeon Bridge threads explain the strategy in more depth, but I'll give the spark notes version:

    - You win by hiding a big card under Mosswort Bridge, resolving Phyrexian Dreadnought, and then freecasting said big card
    - Alternatively, you win by sticking a Dreadnought and swinging twice

    MossNought's big card was Protean Hulk (inspired by the recently banned Flash combo). Rise of the Eldrazi came out a few years later, bringing an even bigger, badder, instant-winnier card. Though I'd quit the game by this point, Nightmare re-popularized the deck as Aeon Bridge, nixing Hulk for Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. Emrakul has many advantages over the Hulk combo--namely, 1) fewer dead draws, 2) no dependencies, 3) synergy with Show and Tell.

    Mosswort Bridge's Hideaway ability has a 30% chance of randomly finding Emrakul in a 50-card deck. If you reduce the number of Emrakuls by 1, that probability drops to 22.5%. Therefore, it's important to play all 4. Although ideally you stack the top of your library with Brainstorm, Ponder, or Lim-Dûl's Vault first, blindly dropping Mosswort Bridge isn't a bad play. In addition to Emrakul, you can hide a second Dreadnought, Stifle, or phasing card to help preserve or protect your first Dreadnought. In the list I've posted, that bolsters your probability of finding some useful card to ~70% with no prior setup.

    Though Emrakul is the primary win condition, plan B (Dreadnought beatdown) can be significantly easier to pull off because it only requires one other card and two lands. Unfortunately, it gives the opponent multiple turns to respond, and Dreadnought is more fragile than ever; Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, Krosan Grip, Abrupt Decay, and Fatal Push all make quick work of it. Abrupt Decay in particular sees a lot of maindeck play now and I felt it warranted special care--thus the phasers, which can either save Dreadnought when it first enters the battlefield, or counter any targeted removal spell (sans Krosan Grip) by causing them to fizzle.

    The central combo only occupies 12 slots, 4 of which double as lands, leaving a lot of room in deck design. Traditionally Blue has been the color of choice because it offers the best library manipulation and protection. You can go off turn 3 at the earliest, and more commonly by turn 4 or 5, so stalling decks with faster clocks is crucial. Green is also necessary for Mosswort Bridge, and offers some solid creature & land tutoring effects. Black offers the strongest tutor (LDV) which can find any piece of the combo, as well as multiple pieces at the same time. White is less explored, though I could imagine a more fair creature-based shell working well (Knight of the Reliquary can tutor for Mosswort Bridge as well as quickly build up to the 10 power needed to to activate its ability), or splashing for control elements (StP/Terminus) to help deal with aggro.

    Here I'm opting for more of a control shell, not deviating too far from previous builds. MossNought used to include Tarmogoyf for threat diversity, but today's meta seems too creature-dense and especially DRS-dense for Tarmogoyf to do much on its own. With a pure control shell, we can either hinder the opponent long enough to craft a well-protected combo, or combo more explosively whenever the opponent overextends. Now I'll go through some of the less obvious card choices:

    - Stifle is fairly obvious--it is highly synergistic with Phyrexian Dreadnought--but I also want to call out that it's probably the best card in the deck. I say this because it can function as a combo piece, protection (against Wasteland), or disruption, making it extraordinarily versatile and always a good draw.
    - Lim-Dûl's Vault is a powerful tutor effect and has always been a staple in this deck. LDV can find multiple target cards with high consistency (though I don't know the exact math), turning a 3-card combo into a 2-card or even 1-card setup. It also allows us to dig for specific answers later in the game.
    - Vision Charm and Reality Ripple provide phasing effects primarily for Dreadnought. Phasing, like Stifle, can help dodge Dreadnought's ETB ability. Unlike Stifle, they can't really be used to disrupt the opponent. However, they can be used to protect Dreadnought (e.g. phasing out in response to removal); Reality Ripple, though slightly more expensive, can also save Mosswort Bridge from land destruction without retriggering its Hideaway ability.
    - Jace, the Mind Sculptor is library manipulation + card advantage, as well as an alternate win condition in slow match-ups. Can be hard to keep alive vs. most decks since we don't have too many blockers, so I'm not sold on it yet.
    - Devastation Tide can help reset board state if you're getting overwhelmed or need to remove some hate effects before going off. LDV + all the library manipulation effects make it feasible to dig for. I want to try Terminus instead, but the land base is already fragile and not super consistent as is.
    - Counterbalance is still experimental, but seems promising so far. Even without Top, the mana curve of this deck means that it's usually an asymmetric Chalice for 0 or 1, and we play enough manipulation effects that we often get to choose. It's also nice for baiting out Abrupt Decay pre-combo.
    - Snapcaster Mage is the most tentative spot. My logic for including them was "extra Stifle/Thoughtseize/Brainstorm", though in practice they are feeling clunky.
    - Show and Tell is in the sideboard because I don't like how many dead hands it creates. Unlike Dreadnought or Stifle, which are useful in many situations, it can only be played with Emrakul in hand as well. Getting Emrakul in hand is anti-synergistic with the Mosswort Bridge combo. I could see this working better if there were more than 4 targets, but then we are moving towards Sneak and Show. I do like SnT in the sideboard because it bypasses a lot of Dreadnought hate that people will tend to board in--the only common shared vulnerability is Karakas.


    Some other cards under consideration:

    - Isochron Scepter works well with a lot of the instants in this deck. LDV-imprinted Scepter + Counterbalance seems like a mean lock (though still dies to Abrupt Decay).
    - Sylvan Library similar to Brainstorm-on-a-stick or Jace, allows you to dig deeper into your library and facilitates Hideaway.
    - Living Wish--I like this better than Wordly Tutor or Crop Rotation because a) it's not card disadvantage, b) it can fetch either Dreadnought or Mosswort Bridge, and c) provides some protection against Surgical Extraction on Dreadnought, which could be a big problem for this deck.
    - Knight of the Reliquary--Mentioned this before as an alternate shell; I think it's ability to provide bulk and tutor for Mosswort is really cool. Paired with some other beaters/hatebears, I could see this supplementing or even replacing the Dreadnought part of the combo.
    - Trinket Mage + Engineered Explosives, Academy Ruins, Amulet of Vigor, maindeck Pithing Needle, etc.
    Last edited by iOWN; 10-27-2017 at 01:42 PM.
    Quote Originally Posted by Mr Wiggl3s
    Ya, your such an amazing player iOwn (should be changed to iPwn FTW) you surpass me with your amazing chalice 1 skillzorz

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