I've been messing around with this in Modern where it isn't quite good enough, but Legacy offers a lot of stuff for it to work better.
The idea is to basically abuse the heck out of Balance, or in this case, Restore Balance. I think we're finally at a critical mass of spells to take advantage of this with.
The idea is pretty simple, resolve a Restore Balance with minimal lands/creatures/cards in hand and annihilate your opponent.
The base mix of ways to cast Restore Balance is pretty standard:
3x Collected Conjuring
3x As Foretold
3x Electrodominance
3x Finale of Promise
4x Faithless Looting
4x Careful Study
What's different is the supporting acceleration elements and manabase
4x Chrome Mox
4x Mox Tantalite
4x Mox Opal
4x Volcanic Island
4x Fiery Islet
3x Seat of the Synod
3x The Great Furnace
Then you've got your payoff spells
4x Restore Balance
4x Ancestral Vision
And finally, your win conditions
4x Greater Gargadon
4x Arclight Phoenix
And that's a rough list, but it has a lot of issues. For one thing, no interaction outside of Balance, and it's fast, but not as fast as something like 'Belcher, although it is a lot more resilient. Maybe it needs Galvanic Blast or Lightning Bolt? That would also make an 1RR Finale more likely to fire off the Phoenixes on it's own. Honestly the Phoenixes themselves might be a bad idea, maybe they should be copies of The Rack? An earlier version of this deck I was messing around with had Spirit Guides, Chalices, and stuff like City of Traitors and Crystal Vein (both better than Tomb in a deck built around Balance). Another version I messed with was Temur and featured Guided Passage and Sylvan Library.
Mox Tantalite looks funny, but it turns Electrodominance and As Foretold into acceleration and can remove itself from your hand for free. With all of the draw and stuff it's not hard to find Balance, and both Balance and Vision are strong enough that you're generally ok with CoCo only finding one of them. Also remember if CoCo just finds two draw/discard spells that's enough to set off Phoenix and usually dumps some in the 'yard as well.
Anyways, I really think there's something good here, because the deck plays like a Type 1 deck, but design-wise it's far enough out of my wheelhouse that I can't really finalize it enough to make it work.
For reference, the original Maysonet Rack-Balance Deck (this is what got Balance on the Restricted list back in the day)
Spells
4x Balance
3x Disenchant
1x Regrowth
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Chain Lightning
3x Fireball
Enchantments
3x Sylvan Library
2x Consecrate Land
Artifacts
4x The Rack
3x Library of Leng
1x Chaos Orb
1x Candelabra of Tawnos
2x Relic Barrier
Mana
1x Mox Ruby
1x Mox Pearl
1x Mox Emerald
1x Black Lotus
4x Bazaar of Baghdad
4x Mishra's Factory
1x Maze of Ith
4x Taiga
4x Plateau
4x Savannah
That deck was from 1994 if you're confused about some of the card choices.
Anyways, thoughts and suggestions appreciated.
I played balancing tings in legacy as an almost carbon copy of the standard list. That may be a good starting point for you.
The Parfait Meta-Game
Well balance is banned, so there is that.
The Parfait Meta-Game
RTFC bro
Restore Balance
Your play?Originally Posted by morgan_coke
The Parfait Meta-Game
Sorry, forgot not everyone is old enough to have actually played with Balance when it was legal.
Basically you empty your hand and fill the board with permanents that don't "count" for Balance, namely artifacts and enchantments - although Planeswalkers fit here too I guess.
You use the draw and discard spells to find a way to cast Restore Balance, my preference is CoCo for Ancestrall and Balance, then you stack them so the balance resolves first, but whatever, and then you let either Gargadon or Phoenixes hit the ground and go face vs. their no board/no land/no hand selves.
The original MRB included The Rack and a bunch of Bolts as well. Honestly, Finale for 1 would fire off Chain Lightning and Lightning Bolt, and activate Phoenix, so those should probably be in the deck too, but space is limited since we don't have access to Bazaar of Baghdad like the OG deck did, and we have some slight hoop jumping to fire off Balance - which mostly results in less deck space.
The big difference between Balance and Balancing Act is that with Act you have to be all in before your spell resolves with no permanents and no cards in hand, whereas with Balance it's a lot more flexible because it counts several specific types of things, whereas Act is just "all permanents"
I played that deck. I know what balance does. A few years ago I decided to play balancing tings because I liked it and did ok with it. I know that deck works in legacy and can probably be improved on. I think the issue you are having is that you keep saying balance and you in fact mean restore balance.
As a preference I don’t like playing expensive do nothing cards that make some cards playable. That’s why I liked tings as cards were playable still but you could set up for a devastating balancing act.
The Parfait Meta-Game
So, I thought there was something here and kept messing around with it, and have refined the list to this point. It's fast, brutal, and can absolutely annihilate people. Honestly this plays much more like a Vintage deck than a Legacy deck due to the raw speed and number of cards you're drawing and actions you're taking every turn.
It's also totally a glass cannon. Completely and totally folds to Karn the Great Creator, the Green Oophe, and Stony Silence. But otherwise it's pretty resilient. And again, it can actually win before any two or three mana guys come down to stop it. Oh, 3feri and Chalice are also bad to face with this.
New List:
Sorceries
4x Careful Study
4x Faithless Looting
4x Ancestral Vision
4x Restore Balance
Instants
4x Galvanic Blast
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Shrapnel Blast
Free Cast Spells
4x Collected Conjuring
4x Finale of Promise
Creatures
4x Arclight Phoenix
Artifacts
4x The Rack
Mana
4x Mox Opal
4x Chrome Mox
4x Great Furnace
4x Seat of the Synod
Basically you drop 2-3 mana on turn one then go nuts with draw/discard spells and then Finale out a Restore Balance or an Ancestral Vision and win from being so far ahead, and maybe you get to throw some phoenix's at their face too. Maybe Shrapnel Blast could be a Chain Lightning, but Blast lets you sac your lands before Restore Balance if needed, and it's just a big bunch of damage to the face too. It's also worth noting that you can cast Finale off of Conjuring and have it target either a Balance or a Vision, and you'll still hit three spells for Phoenix that way too.
Last edited by morgan_coke; 10-19-2019 at 07:54 AM.
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