I have been playing this deck for about three days now so take that under consideration. The thing is, the combo with Laboratory Maniac doesn't HAVE to be dependent on the graveyard. Laboratory Maniac only costs three and is in your colors. The issue, of course, is that it's hard enough to get the en-Kor and Illusionist in play at the same time. But it is possible to remove your entire deck with a Rest in Peace in play and win.
So I've been trying to come up with a semi-transformational sideboard plan that de-emphasizes the graveyard. This has mostly been with extra Lab Maniacs and Memory's Journey... which is probably going too deep. So far not too much luck. If anyone has any advice I'd love to hear it.
If combing through rest in peace is a priority, Eladamri's Call/LDvault + aether vial on upkeep (or some modification thereof ) is a better option than multiple lab maniacs. maniac is a dead card in your hand and this deck has too many of those as is.
If we are already playing (3x) Gitaxian probe because cabal therapy and playing around answers as well as (2x) Grand abolisher to deal with grave hate and the like, why not pass on playing Azami/Researcher and just play 1-2 snapcaster mage instead?
snapcaster mage:
- Is not dead in the hand
- Rebuys our cantrips.
- Downgrades our win to sorcery speed, which does not matter because we already have abolisher
- If we play 2, we can discard one to force of will
- Baits graveyard hate if we are lucky/good
- Can sorta kinda helps against Liliana lock
- Lets us main 1x chain of vapor and and flash it back while going off to deal with some specific kinds of hate.
Hapless Researcher is similar, but this deck is usually a turn 3-4 deck. Looting is not nearly as good as flashing back a cantrip and having a body left over for therapy.
I'm asking because this seems like it must've come up before.
May be a bit late or missed it but just a thought. Merchants of secrets to hit the field the same time as lab man with an empty yard wins? Or is there something wrong with this? Is this actually any better than Azami or researcher? Again just a thought
unless I'm missing an interaction, that is strictly worse than azami when it isn't the same. With Grand Abolisher out, it does not matter too much how you win the game, but without it is 1 chance to draw vs 2.
Pre combo, you are probably better off flashing back a cantrip with snapcaster or looting with researcher.
Accidentally I remembered about the deck and has a question - why isn't it played anymore? Last decklist on tcdecks looks quite interesting: http://www.tcdecks.net/deck.php?id=15760&iddeck=117360
All of its parts are castable and works precombo and there's plan B with batterskull.
So why breakfast is not a deck for competitive play?
Gameplan:
Discard your Decay, Force your Force, nevermind your creatures, ponder-brainstorm as in any other combo, 2 cards for three mana, combo in response to removal, discard your answers with flashbacked therapies, win.
OR
Discard your combo pieces, Force your combo pieces, ponder-brainstorm, 2 cards for three mana, combo, win.
Vials let us play uncounterable combo pieces and uncounterable tutors for combo pieces.
Where's the weakness?
Pretty much every sideboard card is effective against this deck, right? The question about BUG is a legitimate one because you have to deal with maindeck disruption like Thoughtseize and Force of Will in addition to maindeck hate like Deathrite Shaman and Abrupt Decay, and that's before they even bring in cards against you. Sure, you have answers to your opponent's answers, but it looks like every deck will not only have something that disrupts your plan but also will be able to put in at least half of their sideboard in against you and attack your plan from enough multiple angles that it seems like it'd be pretty hard to play around.
Is Stoneforge Mystic actually good here? I don't know how viable Batterskull is as a plan B, but Shuko being sorcery speed doesn't seem good in a world with Abrupt Decay.
Well, it doesn't seem like this thread gets much love, but I've been having a great time with breakfast at my local legacy scene. Despite the fact that no one likes to take the deck seriously (I get a few "spicy janky" comments), it has been my best preforming deck there so far. I admit, this is partly due to opponents' unfamiliarity with the deck... but then, I'm new to it and not the best pilot yet. Then again, I get a fair number of turn 2 wins game 1, take the combo out game 2, and watch my opponent mulligan to find GY hate.
Here's the build I played most recently.
Creatures: 20
4 Nomads en-Kor
1 Hapless Researcher
1 Shaman en-Kor
4 Cephalid Illusionist
1 Phyrexian Revoker
3 Narcomoaba
3 Recruiter of the Guard
1 Peacekeeper
1 Laboratory Maniac
1 Angel of Glory's Rise
Noncreature permanents: 4
4 Aether Vial
Instants/Sorceries: 16
3 Cabal Therapy
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
3 Collective Brutality
1 Dread Return
Land: 20
4 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
1 Marsh Flats
3 Island
1 Plains
2 Underground Sea
1 Tundra
2 Scrubland
2 Cavern of Souls
SB would look like (if I had all the cards):
2 Faerie Macabre
3 True-Name Nemesis
1 Ethersworn Canonist
3 Mother of Runes
2 Containment Priest
1 Leonin Relic-Warder
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Sanctum Prelate
I've tried putting in a Stoneforge Mystic package that eschews a SoFaI for a free-equip piece, but I've found that either A. I'm not great at using her, or B. She's just a little too slow. Plus, whenever I got the Cephalid with an equip 0, the lack of instant-speed activation doomed me. On the other hand, having SFMs would theoretically make the transitional sideboard better. As is (with no SFM), after game-1, opponents tend to keep hands clogged with GY hate, so just having a bunch of swinging bodies with Moms to protect and an eventual True-Name has proved more often than not sufficient to race without equipment.
As for some of the other choices, I went with Collective Brutality over StP. Brutality hits the all-important DRS, and still takes care of stuff like Thalia and Delver. But it doubles as combo-protection and/or disruption against stuff like storm, sneak and show, and sometimes even reanimator. AND it has the hidden advantage of dumping combo pieces that were stuck in your hand into the bin for a mild payoff. Finally, I'd want to mention Recruiter of the Guard - the printing of which made me want to play this deck in the first place. It's ability to search for combo pieces while providing card advantage, and the ability to sideboard into a toolbox shell (usually just a TNN finder) really holds the deck together well.
Now that Deathrite Shaman has been banned, is this deck finally well positioned enough for a comeback?
Team Serious
1000% Serious
Seriously
I don't know about a comeback, it is a creature-based AND graveyard-based combo after all. I would like to know what else comes forward, see if we have a place in the meta.
DRS was never the issue when I was playing the deck, granted I was on a slower version than the green historical approach, but I was losing to the well-built sideboard of my opponents.
If I were to play the deck again, I would be on a much faster version in order to beat the presumably soon to be omnipresent BR Reanimator. Could even try an reanimation package to fight back in response to Exhume, or reanimated countered Cephalid and en-Kor cards.
Ooh please rezz the thread. I've been waiting and slowly building stuff.
I think it helps. The deck needs work and has been mostly left for dead it seems.
My thoughts were going mostly UW for consistent mana, colors for disruption and combo obviously, and forgoing hardcasting Dread Return all together.
UW is probably the best colors for protection and "not dying", so while I understand the black splash for cabal therapy, not sure it's necessary. And a Surgical in response to a Therapy is probably game without back up anyway, so why not just focus on the back up?
I was PLANNING on maindecking 4 Grand Abolishers for DRS, but quite possible they can be relegated to the SB now.
How about Sanctum Prelate mained for hate?
My theoretical list as of now
4 Nomads
2 shamans
4 cephalid illusionist
3 narcos
1 dread return
1 angel of glory's rise
1 azami
1 lab man
2 recruiter
4 brainstorm
4 preordain
4 fow
4 daze
4 aether vials
1 sanctum prelate
20 lands?
4 flooded
4 polluted
2 tundra
1 karakas
2 plains
3 islands
4 wastelands
A few months ago Jeff Hoogland played a variant of this deck that had a transformative sideboard into Esper Stoneblade.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89zY-YusCng
I want to try something similar, but with vials and a couple Stoneforges main. I'll post again once I get the list together.
So I've actually been playing this for some time about 6 months ago. https://deckbox.org/sets/1911779
It's very good, the sideboard sideways a lot of hate if not all. I haven't updated the list post-ban though. After the ban I got back to it briefly but opted for some other long-forgotten love of mine, Painter, in the form of Grixis Painter. Seeing Threshold as a potential new deck to beat, Jotun Grunt is a serious threat. It manages graveyard, can put things back for later tutoring in the form of Recruiter of the Guard and can even put back Narcomoeba. But mostly it fights Tarmogoyf so well. I was looking at the Jotun Grunt as a way to put pressure mid-game in the event of a late combo or a too controlling opponent.
I was also looking at a more traditional kill from Angry Ghoul, 16 extra power is plenty enough to kill them. It's also one less "dead" draw.
If I were to rework again on my list, I would go with 4 Jotun Grunt main deck, Angry Ghoul finish. I would also add 4 Dark Confidant in the sideboard.
Edit: Also, I would name it Northern Breakfast, obviously.
I like AngryBacon's list, and I have used it as a base for what I'm going to put together.
Creatures (20)
1 Angel of Glory's Rise
4 Cephalid Illusionist
2 Grand Abolisher
1 Laboratory Maniac
3 Narcomoeba
4 Nomads en-Kor
2 Recruiter of the Guard
2 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Hapless Researcher
Spells (16)
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
1 Lim-Dul's Vault
4 Force of Will
2 Daze
2 Cabal Therapy
1 Dread Return
Artifacts (6)
4 Aether Vial
1 Batterskull
1 Shuko
Lands (16)
4 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
2 Marsh Flats
2 Tundra
2 Underground Sea
1 Scrubland
1 Island
1 Plains
Sideboard (15)
2 Baleful Strix
2 True-Name Nemesis
2 Stoneforge Mystic
3 Swords to Plowshares
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Disenchant
1 Phyrexian Revoker
I dug back to early pages of this thread and noticed that, with Grand Abolisher in the deck, you can safely play Hapless Researcher instead of Azami, which is notable in that it's not a completely dead draw prior to combo'ing off. I also like the Stoneforge -> Shuko plan over playing a Shaman en-Kor.
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