[Deck] Baseruption (aYb Aggro Control)

[Lukas Preuss]

Hi everyone,

on June 22th, Doug Linn published a very unique decklist in his article on Starcitygames.com and stated the following:

It suffers from the European problem of 61-card lists, but check out what he crammed into the deck! Steve Sadin proved how good Counterbalance could be in Legacy at the last GP, and Hering makes full use of it here. He combines invitational winners Emo Jon, Mascara Bobby, and Chris Pikula (haven't come up with a silly nickname for that card yet) to generate a lot of early disruption and card advantage. He fits in seven cantrips to help out Counterbalance along with Divining Tops. A strong anti-creature suite comes with Verdalken Shackles, Swords to Plowshares and Ghastly Demise. And the buttercream frosting on this delicious cake is splashed-for Tarmogoyf and Tombstalker to get the job done! Hering apparently lives without fear of Wasteland, allowing him to put a seriously impressive amount of really good cards in his deck. This is worth further review.

Doug Linn wasn't aware of the fact, that Hering didn't invent the deck. In fact, it was developed by team aYb a few weeks before the Bazaar of Wonders tournament and had amazing success at two other large tournaments, as well. The deck is called “Baseruption” or, as our team nicknames it: “ayb.aseruption”. It put three people from our team (Christian “Windux” Wilczek, Dennis “Oddball” Kampelmann, and Florian “FlodO” Fischer, who did a great job inventing and developing the deck) into the top16 (with Windux and FlodO making TCool at the May Iserlohn tournament. FlodO and Oddball piloted the deck to two additional top8 appearances at the next Dülmen event, with FlodO winning the whole thing. To keep our exact decklist a secret, we asked the organizers of the events to not publish our decklists, since we wanted to further develop it and place well with it. Which we did.
After discussions and speculations on German Internet forums increased, we decided that it was time to release the Juggernaut and Dennis Kampelmann wrote a primer in German, publishing the decklist. Apparently a lot of people had been waiting for this, started to test the deck and had success with it, as well.
The following text is entirely based on his German primer. To understand some of the card choices, you have to be aware that the German metagame has some differences when comparing it to the American one. Aggro-Control is by far the largest part of the metagame, UWB Fish, Threshold, Deadguy Ale, etc. are everywhere. Landstill and Goblins are the other pillars of the metagame, representing Control and Aggro. Combo is by far the smallest part of the metagame, even though it is on the rise. Most Aggro-Control decks try to support the Counterbalance engine, which is important for some of Baseruption's card choices.
Enjoy!

1. Introduction
2. Decklist
3. Explanation of deck strategy
4. Explanation of card choices
5. Sideboard cards and alternatives
6. Matchups


1. Introduction:
In the middle of April, we realized that the impact of Future Sight and the errata of Flash would define the Legacy metagame for some time (at least until the bannings on July 20th) and, instead of complaining about the obvious brokeness of Flash, we decided to turn the tide and develop a deck that smashes the hell out of Flash and do well against the rest of the field, as well. The post-Future Sight metagame with Flash legal might not have been an important thing in the US, were large monthly tournaments are not as usual as in Germany, but to us, this meant that we had at least three 50+ tournaments that would be under the influence of Flash, Pact of Negation and Summoner's Pact. So, Oddball and Windux started to work on a deck that was able to beat Flash constantly, but could deal with Threshold and UWB Fish (both with Counterbalance), as well. They started with various aggro control builds and compared the strenghths and weaknesses of Threshold and Fish and came to the following conclusions:
Threshold doesn't have a good late game and is therefore unable to deal with control. If Threshold tries to improve its late game (for example if it plays Counterbalance itself), it becomes unflexible and slow.
Fish's mana curve makes it literary unable to deal with an opponent's Counterbalance in the late game and it is way too slow in the early game.

To improve these weaknesses, Oddball and Windux decided to create a deck that used Fish and Threshold's advantages and could control the early game with cheap counterspells and small creatures that guaranteed card advantage, but had the following, as well:
a solid draw engine instead of one that is based on cantrips only, so that the late game is strong, as well.
A mana curve that reaches from 1 to 3, with key spells in the 3-cc slot, to outplay an opponent's Counterbalance.
It doesn't depend on the graveyard, but doesn't lose speed in comparison to Threshold.

With this in mind, Windux, Oddball and FlodO, who joined the two with some great ideas, created the following decklist:

Baseruption.dec
//Lands 16
3 Underground Sea
3 Tundra
2 Tropical Island
4 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
1 Island

//Creatures 14
3 Meddling Mage
3 Dark Confidant
3 Shadowmage Infiltrator
4 Tarmogoyf
1 Tombstalker

//Spells 30
4 Portent
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Daze
3 Counterbalance
2 Sensei's Divining Top
3 Swords to Plowshares
1 Ghastly Demise
2 Vedalken Shackles
3 Chrome Mox


Sideboard
4 Engineered Plague
3 Spell Snare
2 Threads of Disloyalty
3 Pithing Needle
3 Vindicate

Explanation of deck strategy:
Baseruption is an aggro control deck that wants to put pressure on the opponent and generates an enormous card advantage, as well. This ensures that Baseruption doesn't lose its strenghth in the late game. It uses a huge amount of cards that the opponent needs to deal with, such as Confidant, Finkel, Vedalken Shackles, and Counterbalance, ...(maybe Meddling Mage) and excellent disruption to back them up. To ensure a strong early game, Baseruption plays 4 Force of Will, and 4 Daze, but also Chrome Mox. The Mox might be one of the most controversial slots, but I will explain this later. The finishers of this deck are Tarmogoyf and Tombstalker, two of the most efficient and fastest threads in the format.
Here a short glimpse on the deck's statistics:
Mana Sources: 19
Cantrips: 10
Counterspells: 11
Removal: 6
CA- Critter: 9
“Finisher”: 5

And the mana curve:
Cc0: 19
Cc1: 14
Cc2: 17/18 (Stalker)
Cc3: 5
(Cc5: 4)
/ (Cc8: 1)

Explanation of card choices:
Dark Confidant instead of Predict:
Baseruption is a very aggressive deck that wants to put threads on the table that the opponent has to deal with. Predict takes a lot of preparation to ensure a small amount of card advantage. Dark Confidant, on the other hand, can come down much earlier and creates card advantage, as well as puts pressure on the opponent. Just like other creatures in the deck, Counterbalance literary gives Confidant “Can’t be the target of spells”, which makes him a strong and reliable draw engine in the late game.

Shadowmage Infiltrator/Finkel:
The Infiltrator is one of the later additions that FlodO brought to the development of the deck. Just like Dark Confidant, he is a solid draw engine for the deck. He is not influenced by an opposing Counterbalance and makes the cc3-slot for Baseruption's own CB stronger. He blocks early Mongeese and is almost unblockable for most of the creatures in the format. Nice.

Meddling Mage:
Originally, Meddling Mage was, together with Chrome Mox, the strongest answer to Flash. Since Flash is now banned, his role is to protect our own critters from an opponent's removal, as well as to give the deck another boost against control and combo.

Constellation of Swords to Plowshares and Ghastly Demise, Shackles:
We used the split between the two removal spells, because we thought that the Flash hype would result in a huge amount of Meddling Mages. A Meddling Mage on Swords to Plowshares would make our entire removal useless. We never tested a 2/2 split, since Swords is in most cases better than Demise (for example against Mystic Enforcer, a commonly played card in the German metagame).
Verdalken Shackles is one of the most efficient cards in the deck, against all Aggro-Control decks it trades 2:1 and its casting cost doesn't care much about an opponent's Counterbalance, as well.

Tombstalker:
Tombstalker is next to Tarmogoyf the finisher of this deck. His evasion ability is very important in many matchups and just great against opposing Tarmogoyfs. His dependance on the Graveyard is not as relevant, because the rest of the deck doesn't depend on the Graveyard. It is useless to board Graveyard hate against Baseruption, and even if the opponent does, it is not as bad, since Tombstalker doesn't need many cards in the Graveyard. His anti-synergy with Counterbalance and, more importantly Dark Confidant might come to mind, but, since we run quite a lot of cantrips, as well as Sensei's Divining Top, and only two Tombstalkers, it is very unlikely to reveal one with Bob. The advantages are far more important and outweigh the disadvantages. If someone is not sure about this though, Sea Drake, Mystic Enforcer, etc. could be used as finishers, too, although they are not as strong as Tombstalker.

Chrome Mox:
This might be the most controversial slot for an Aggro-Control deck. Many decks have to do without Chrome Mox, since it is speed at the cost of pure card disadvantage. It is weak in the late game and a late Chrome Mox is the suckage. Combo like TES and Belcher are able to play Chrome Mox, because these disadvantages don't mean much to them, but how can Baseruption play Chrome Mox?
Well, just like Combo, Baseruption uses Chrome Mox to build up a fast early game and put pressure on the opponent. Even on the draw, Chrome Mox is an important tool that helps Baseruption to establish a strong early game. Baseruption's threads (Finkel, Bob, Counterbalance, etc.) all generate such an insane amount of card advantage, that Chrome Mox's small card disadvantage is not very important. Alternatively, an early Tarmogoyf on turn 1 creates enough speed to justify Chrome Mox. A late Chrome Mox isn't very good, but you have enough draw engines and cantrips to compensate these disadvantages.
But why run Chrome Mox as mana source no. 17-19, when 17 mana is usually enough for Fish and Threshold? This deck plays different than Fish and Threshold, since it wants to put more pressure on the opponent, while drawing a shitload of cards. Fish and Threshold use the first few turns to play cantrips. This is the time when Baseruption already wants to establish a strong early game with threats and gain card advantage over the opponent. Also, this deck has, on average, a much higher casting cost. To maintain its speed, the deck has to run more mana sources such as Chrome Mox.

If you have any more questions regarding the card choices, feel free to ask, I only covered controversial card choices and those cards, that serve different functions than in other decks. I will try to answer them as fast as possible and I'm sure the other members of my team will do so, too.


Sideboard cards and alternatives:
Engineered Plague: This card is the only answer to Vial Goblins, which is otherwise bad matchup for Baseruption, since it is one of the only decks that combines speed, pressure and mana curve in such a good way that it is too fast for Baseruption. Sure, Vial Goblins is on the decline, but it is still a strong contender in the metagame, so you have to run Plagues to beat them.

Spell Snare: We chose this card to deal with combo (Burning Wish, Flash, Tutors, etc.), as well as Aggro Control (Tarmogoyf, Counterbalance). These are the matchups, were bouncing a land for Daze can mean a significant disadvantage in speed. You bring in Spell Snare to take care of this. Since the deck doesn't have to rely on many slots in the sideboard to deal with bad matchups, this is a slot that makes favorable matchups even more favorable.

Threads of Disloyalty: This complements Verdalken Shackles and is a great card that takes care of your opponent's creatures (Tarmogoyf, etc.). An opponent that brings in Pithing Needle from the SB might be surprised to find ToD taking control over his creatures.

Pithing Needle: This is mainly in the sideboard to deal with Landstill, which is an important part of the metagame in Germany and was also successful due to the impact of Flash on the metagame. Needle hits Mishra's Factory, Engineered Explosives, etc.. Greenbased control is also on the rise in Germany, so Needle is even more important since it hits cards like Pernicious Deed, Survival of the Fittest, and so on.

Vindicate: This used to be Krosan Grip, but we quickly noticed that Vindicate fits a lot better into the deck since it is mostly based on black instead of green anyways. With this, you can also set Meddling Mage on Sword to Plowshares post-board since it won't affect you much anymore.

Other options include: Extirpate, Tormod's Crypt, Loaming Shaman, Duress, Stifle, etc.


Matchup analysis:

I don't like to make assumptions based on percentages, so I will only focus on the important cards in the different matchups and the sideboard options.

UGR Threshold: In the early game, it is important to prevent as much damage from early Mongeese, so that you're not under too much pressure during the midgame. Meddling Mage and Shadowmage Infiltrator are really good for this. The midgame should focus on gaining control of the game with Counterbalance and Tarmogoyf until Verdalken Shackles and the better creatures overwhelm the opponent. In the late game, Meddling Mage helps to lock the opponent down when Counterbalance takes care of most of his card (Mage on Fledging Dragon, for example).
Sideboard: -4 Daze, -1 Verdalken Shackles, +2 Threads of Disloyalty, +3 Spellsnare. If the opponent plays Counterbalance, bring in some Vindicates, as well.

UGW Threshold: Similar to UGR Thresh, but with less removal and not as fast. Meddling Mage is better in this matchup, since it is not as vulnerable. Sideboarding is basically the same as against the UGR version.

UWB Fish: Fish has difficulties to handle the amount of threats that Baseruption plays, which makes the matchup very good. If Fish has an early Mother of Runes and Umezawa's Jitte, things can get ugly, but you should be able to take care of this. Fish is slower than Threshold, so you should be focusing on the mid and late game. Counterbalance is great in this matchup. It basically nullifies the card draw from Fish's Dark Confidant.
Sideboard: -3x Chrome Mox, -1x Swords, -1x Ghastly Demise, +3x Spell Snare, +2x Vindicate. You could board Threads of Disloyalty, as well.

Deadguy Ale: This is a good matchup, because Baseruption has a very good mana base that is not easily disrupted (thanks to Chrome Mox) and enough card draw to deal with Deadguy's discard. The opponent will give you several chances to get into the game, if you use them, you should be able to win. Watch out for Dystopia post-board, you have enough answers to it, but keep one ready.
Sideboard: -3x Infiltrator, -1x Swords, -1x Ghastly Demise, + 3x Spell Snare, + 2x Vindicate

Vial Goblins: With Chrome Mox, you have 11 answers to first turn Lackey on the draw, which is very important. But even then, Goblins' mana disruption can be too much and keep you from gaining an advantage. Counterbalance is crap against them due to their mana curve and Aether Vial. Pre-board, your only chance to win is through multiple Tarmogoyfs and fast beatdown, which is extremly difficult. Postboard, things get better, thanks to Engineered Plague. But even then, it should be a bad matchup.
Sideboard: -3x Counterbalance, -3x Meddling Mage, -2x Vedalken Shackles, +4x Engineered Plague, +2x Vindicate, +2x Pithing Needle

Faerie Stompy: Thanks to Baseruption's mana curve, you're often able to ignore Chalice completely. Verdalken Shackles shines here, and in games 2&3, you bring in Vindicate as additional removal, as well. This matchup shouldn't be too bad.
Sideboarding: -1x Demise, -1x Swords, -1x Dark Confidant, +3x Vindicate

Burn: This is a great matchup, Tarmogoyf is a decent clock and Counterbalance hits their spells even without library manipulation often enough to let the opponent run out of gas.
Sideboard: -3 Confidant, +3 Spell Snare



Thanks for reading this, feel free to ask questions if things are unclear or if you want to know more about certain things. Even if this deck was created to deal mainly with Flash.dec, it will be a strong contender in the post-Flash metagame, as well. It had great success in Germany with an enourmous amount of T8 and T16 appearances during the Flash month and continued to be amazing afterwards, with even more T8 success. This deck is definitely very, very strong.

Thanks to:
- Dennis Kampelmann, Christian Wilczek, and Florian Fischer for creating this deck.
- Dennis Kampelmann for writing the German primer
- Everybody else who picked this deck up and did well with it already
- Team aYb for being awesome
- You for picking this up and winning with it, just as we did.

[burkey_boy]

"Hering apparently lives without fear of Wasteland" ... you can say that again...

[technogeek5000]

I dont like the Infiltrators in the deck. My biggest problem with them is that they are 1 power for three mana, and also for this three mana investment it dies to bolt, stp, and almost every other creature removal in the format. The way I see it is if someone edicts you infiltrator is always the card you pick. I think this card would be better as a beater slot... have you tryed negator.

[Windux]

Finkel is such a good card.
The Power isnt the relevant. It draws you cards, blocks so much (Bob, Mage, all Goblins except Piledriver, Silver Knight etc.).

Also this 1 Power is enough. You don't want to beat your opponent down with it. That's why we play Tarmogoyf and Tombstalker. You want to get Cardadvantage.

Confi, Finkel and Counterbalance give you so much cardadvantage that you can protect your Finkel 4-5 rounds, or just let him die and play some serious threads.

EDIT: We live with some fear of wasteland. Some Fish Decks play it, also here are Ale Decks. But you can play around Wastelands easily. You have so much Fetchlands and also Islands and Chrome Moxen. That's enough.
if you play smart, you don't have to fear wasteland.

[Lukas Preuss]

"Hering apparently lives without fear of Wasteland" ... you can say that again...

Well, Wasteland isn't as widely played anymore as it used to be just a few months ago. Adam Barnello wrote a lot about his reasons for dropping Wasteland from Landstill in his SCG article:

[...]the relevance of the Wasteland lock is waning in today's metagame. More often than completely shutting down an opponent, the Wasteland will cost both of you a land drop, and set you back further in tempo than the opponent. Threshold decks today (one of the most nonbasic intensive decks in the format) are built specifically with Wasteland in mind. They are able to establish a significant threat base even in the face of multiple lands being destroyed. Landstill cannot afford to waste time Wasting (no pun intended), rather than controlling the board and ramping up to four mana. [...]

This means that Wasteland isn't a major metagame concern anymore. Look at the top decks in today's Legacy environment, only Goblins play Wasteland, and they play a lot more mana denial, as well. Today, many other decks also drop Wasteland, because it is just not as good as it used to be anymore, the meta has adjusted to it and it rarely screws the opponent like it did back in the day. Even Übermadness (which loved Wasteland, because of its speed and the LftL reccursion) doesn't always run Wasteland anymore.

So, in short, even if we lived in fear of Wasteland, it wouldn't be the major concern of the deck.


Now, as Windux stated already, the mana base is much more stable as it looks. You have basically 8 Islands (one Island and 7 blue fetchlands) and 3 Chrome Mox, that don't get targeted by Wasteland. If you play smartly, Wasteland isn't such a large concern, of course it can screw you occassionally, but in general, you should be able to play around it.



Finkel is an additional draw engine, next to Dark Confidant. His main goal is to give you major card advantage over the opponent, not to beat down quickly. If Finkel lives and attacks for a few turns, you will most likely draw into Tarmogoyf, Tombstalker, etc.
Also:

it dies to bolt, stp, and almost every other creature removal in the format.

have you tryed negator.

Negator dies to StP as well, and a Lightning Bolt on Negator can be just as devastating. Finkel ensures you a great mid and late game due to the card advantage he creates, Negator gives you speed you don't need and makes you less flexible.

[C-Aleric]

Ahhh, 4-color fish. Beautiful. Or, I suppose 4-color BIG fish. More correctly, I suppose. I must start out by saying I love the list. Chrome Mox, lots of card drawers, fat threats, all the goods. If my meta wasn't full of mass board wiping Landstill players everywhere maindecking Humility/Moat/Wrath, and all that crap, I'd still be playing a different, but similar list. Though I suppose Meddling Mage needs to name something when you don't have Duress in your maindeck.

Force/Vindicate seem like your only answers to large artifacts/enchantments. Force is a nice answer, Vindicate is sweet also. However, I've found that Krosan Grip is almost needed in sideboards of decks that run in my meta, even just 2 of them. I'm sure you tested this though. The list definitely looks tight.

It's nice to see 5 MD spells at cmc of 3, for Deed is another huge issue (especially coupled with some sort of mana denial). This is why I like the Shackles/Finkel with Counterbalance.

I'm from Canada, so I'd need to change a couple things to get into my metagame, however, it looks like you've done an awesome job fitting into yours.

[Oddball]

No, it is definitlely NOT a simple Fishbuild with a further Splash, since Baseruption's ambition is to generate pressure from the earlygame till the lategame by combining cardadvantage with threats. That's a totally different aspect of gameplay that won't be seen in any Fish matchup, so it makes sence not to call the Deck 4c Fish.

Well, Vindicate has replaced the Krosan Grip in the Board as we realized that we play in its colours.
As Lukas has already explained in the primer, Baseruption always takes the role of the aggressor to force the opponent into the controlrole.
You don't want to support a card like Krosan Grip, because it doesn't fit in that plan of the deck in comparison to Vindicate for 2 reasons:
1) It is far less flexible
2) It has to achieve more conditions and is a dead card since an intended situation comes down
(i.e. boarding grip just because your opponent could have some random 1 offs like humility or moat is suboptimal)

[Bardo]

Man, ever since I read Doug's article, I sorta fell in love with this deck. Thanks for explanation of Chrome Mox and other cards that seemed a little wonky (e.g., Finkel).

About the decks name, ("The deck is called “Baseruption” or, as our team nicknames it: “ayb.aseruption”) I realize it makes sense in German, but what's a rough translation in English?

Again, well done to you and your team.

[Windux]

It doesn't make sense in german.
It's just a combination of Disruption and Base [aYb = all your base (are belong to us) for those who know it ;) ]

[Bane of the Living]

I cant get over the single copy of Tombstalker. Is he really needed?

Why not 4 confidant or 4 stp?

[Van Phanel]

I cant get over the single copy of Tombstalker. Is he really needed?

Why not 4 confidant or 4 stp?

Well, Lukas stated his posted list as the list that played best in team ayb's testing.

If you can't agree with that, then there is only one way to find an answer to your question:

If you don't believe the results of the testing of other people, you have to do some testing by yourself. But hat will always remain is the fact, that Tombstalker simply ist the best finisher (solely for the purpoe of actually finishing) of the deck.

[Windux]

In a time, where Tarmogoyfs fighting Tarmogoyfs you have to play Evasion-Critters.
Since you have so much Drawing Power and Cardquality, this one "random" Tombstalker seems to be the best way.

Normally it's just the BB bad man, who beats for 5. If this isn't enough, just think about Tarmogoyfs who are dying post-combat because you play a 5/5 Flyer, who removing a few cards to cost less.

3StoP/1 Demise is because of the result, that 4 Removals are enough. The 1 Demise is the Solution against Meddling Mages who eventually name Swords to Plowshares as you, normally, only removal.
Since this deckw as build for a Flashmeta, we expected alot of Meddling Mages.

We cutted the 4th Confidant for a Tombstalker because of the reason, that our manacurve isnt that low:
Finkel, Shackless, Vindicate, Force, Tombstalker.

[Solpugid]

I really like the premise of this deck (though I seem to like any aggro-control deck with 3 or more colors), but there are a few odds and ends included in the first post decklist that I don't really like. I'd like to address them.

First of all, I much prefer the top/balance combo in the board. Maindeck it weakens aggro matchups, which I'd much rather not do as they seem to be some of the worst for this deck. That change would free up five slots.

Second, the single ghastly demise is supposedly there for mages naming swords, but this play doesn't seem all that great when this deck runs evasive creatures (and good ones) and vedalken shackles (for addiional creature control), and swords is one of the only ways most UW decks have of threatening your creatures. More testing will tell if this is the case, but I'm going back to 4 swords.

Finally, is the single island really necessary? If you get caught in wastelock you usually still have moxen to give you colors (especially blue), so why not add another trop instead?

So, at the beginning of the post I suggested freeing up five slots in the maindeck. To fill this I would like to add 3 stifle/counterspell (dunno which yet) and two umezawa's jitte. The creatures in this deck are great for utility, but not so great as beaters (of course besides goyf). Jitte actually makes mage and confidant more relevant in the goblins matchup, which is very nice. The life-gain to counteract the now-increased life loss from Bob is also good. So the final list would look like this:

Mana: 19
4 Underground sea
3 Tundra
2 Tropical island
4 Polluted delta
3 Flooded strand
3 Chrome mox

Creatures:14
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Meddling mage
3 Dark confidant
3 Shadowmage infiltrator
1 Tombstalker

Instants/sorceries: 23
4 Brainstorm
4 Portent
3 Stifle
4 Force of will
4 Daze
4 Swords to plowshares

Artifacts: 4
2 Umezawa's jitte
2 Vedalken shackles

[Windux]

That's just bad ideas.
As you read, the deck was made against Flash and other Aggro-Controls, not against Aggro.
Also with Balance/Top Engine the Aggromatchup isn't bad at all. You have evasion-critter 4 Removal and Shackles. Also the speedup from the mox.

Counterspell/Stifle and Jitte are the totally wrong way to go. You have to wait for Counterspell or Stifle. That's just bad.
It gives no Cardadvantage. That's bad as well.
Jitte just steels your mana. Top also does, but top gives you CQ and with the Top CA.
You don't want to pay 4 mana, to get a creature sworded.
I would like to pay 4 mana, if my creatures where Troll Ascetics...Counterbalance makes them Troll Ascetics.
Why Jitte, if you have Tombstalker and Tarmogoyfs? Those guys are badass anyway.

The single Island: It's much better then a 3rd Tropical. You don't need 3 Tropicals for 4 green cards, if you have 7 fetches for it and massiv digging-power to find one of those 11 outs.
There are many situations where the Island is superior to a Tropical Islan, while the situations where the (drawn) Tropical, instead of the Island, is superior.

[Lukas Preuss]

I think the suggestion of Jitte isn't all that bad, actually. It could improve your Goblin matchup, which is pretty bad right now. I think it should be tried, of course it costs mana, but if it makes Goblins and any other Aggro matchup more in your favor without actually hurting your other matchups, it should definitely be tested. You have enough creatures to support it and Jitte is just a very good card.

I think the Counterbalance engine is pretty great in the maindeck, though and it is one of the key components of the deck. I would not want to cut it.


The fourth StP could be added over Ghastly Demise without any problems. See, we chose to run the lone Ghastly Demise for metagame purposes only. This could be StP without big problems.

I don't actually see a need to cut the Island for Tropical. As Windux said already, you don't need that many Tropicals in the deck and it makes the deck more vulnerable to Nonbasic hate. If I was in a Wastelock, I would not want to rely on Mox only. With 7 Fetchlands, you have a great chance of putting Island into play, thus making your mana base a lot more resilent towards hate.

[Solpugid]

I do understand the awesomeness of top and counterbalance, but that combo is incredibly reactive (obviously) and that worries me, since you have to sink a lot of mana into it to make it work. The same can be said of jitte, so having both in the deck is pointless.

If you take a look at my decklist above you'll see that I decided against adding another trop in place of the island. I added another U. sea instead, since black is the most needed color (eventually).

[tyrcho]

You might be interested in this deck I suggested.

The current version I am testing is :

// 17 lands
2 Underground Sea
2 Tropical Island
1 Tundra
1 Savannah
1 Scrubland
1 Bayou
4 Polluted Delta
4 Windswept Heath
1 Flooded Strand

//17 creatures
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Quirion Dryad
3 Meddling Mage
3 Mother of runes
3 Dark Confidant

//26 spells
4 Daze
4 Serum Vision
4 Brainstorm
3 Duress
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Pithing Needle
2 Pernicious Deed
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Umezawa's Jitte

//15 side
2 Pernicious Deed
3 Engineered Explosives
2 Pithing Needle
1 Dark Confidant
1 Meddling Mage
1 Duress
1 Mother of Runes
4 Force of Will

I am trying to improve the match against threshold, counterbalance and mongoose are the main problems.
I like in your version the Spell Snares and the availability of more blue cards (Threads of Disloyalty, Counterbalance, Vedalken Shackels) which I can't use because of my manabase.
The Chome Mox seem also a good addition, the decks both run so much card draw that you don't suffer from the lost card.

[Nihil Credo]

Maindeck Deed along with twenty-one permanents that all die to it makes my head hurt. Did you try Vindicate?

[tyrcho]

Maindeck Deed along with twenty-one permanents that all die to it makes my head hurt. Did you try Vindicate?

I haven't thought about it before, but you are obviously right.
Pernicious Deed was there in the previous versions where I ran fewer creatures and no Jitte.
Most of the time I blow it to get rid of a lone problematic permanent when my board is empty, or to reset the board when I have more cards in hand.
I'll use 2 maindeck vindicate, and in side 3 Deed, 2 explosives.
The only drawback is I have now 2 less answers to Mongoose...
Maybe I'll use Diabolic Edict in side instead of FoW since I seldom board them in anyways (and the matchup against most combo decks is already fine).

[Lukas Preuss]

Baseruption made third place at the German National Legacy Championship. There were 175 people that attended the tournament, so this speaks once again of the awesomeness of this deck. ;)