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Thread: [Deck] Cephalid Breakfast

  1. #1

    [Deck] Cephalid Breakfast

    Cephalid Breakfast is a fast combo deck that utilitzes a blue control/search shell to push through and find the combo. The deck is very similar in play style to Flash in that you are running a cheap two card combo that under most circumstances wins the game on the spot. Unfortunately you have to cast both cards and can only do that at sorcery speed.

    The List
    Search
    4x Brainstorm
    4x Portent
    Tutor
    4x Worldy Tutor
    2x Eladamari's Call
    Control
    4x Force of Will
    3x Daze
    2x Cabal Therapy
    Combo
    4x Cephalid Illusionist
    3x Nomads en-kor
    1x Shaman en-kor
    1x Dread Return
    3x Narcomoeba
    Kill
    1x Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
    1x Karmic Guide
    1x Sky Hussar
    Misc
    4x Æther Vial
    1x Stern Proctor
    Mana
    4x Flooded Strand
    4x Polluted Delta
    3x Tropical Island
    3x Tundra
    2x Underground Sea
    1x Island

    How the deck wins.
    The combo is pretty simple. Get an en-kor on the table with an Illusionist. Use the en-kor ability to target the illusionist. As you mill your Library 3 at a time, put an Narcomoeba that go into the library, into play.
    Once you mill Karmic Guide, Sky Hussar, Kiki, and Dread Return you can flashback Dread Return, returing Karmic Guide into play which grabs kiki. Make a copy of Karmic Guide grabbing Sky Hussar which untaps Kiki. Kiki now makes a copy of Sky Hussar which untaps Kiki, repeat and attack.

    Card Choices.
    Search
    Brainstorm and Portent provide the dig and card selection the deck requires. Brainstorm also serves the very important function of turning kill cards in hand into useful cards. Portent's ability to dig 5 cards deep for the missing combo piece or a land is just unparalleled.

    Tutor
    Finally Worldly Tutor can get some loving in a deck. Both the combo pieces are creatures so worldly tutor actually doesn't suck in the deck. Its drawback is actually kinda nice against black discard.

    Eladamari's Call I am still on the fence with. Putting the card directly into your hand is powerful and Call combined with Worldly Tutor can put the combo into your hand from nowhere. However it costs 2 mana both in your secondary colors.

    Control
    Force and Therapy are pretty much both required in the deck. Force because the deck is base blue and Therapy because its flashback is essentially free and you do need a way to get kill cards stuck in your hand into your graveyard if you want to win.

    Daze is strong in forcing your combo through and stall opponent hate, however it is not 100% necessary and could be dropped for any number of other cards.

    Combo
    The combo is fairly straight-forward. A fourth Nacromoeba might be necessary and the fourth en-kor should be a shaman to get around Pithing Needle and E-Plague on Soldiers.

    Kill
    There are two simple kills
    The kiki-Sky Hussar kill as well as a kill utilizing Sutured ghoul, 2 Dreadnoughts, and Dragon's Breath.
    The Ghoul kill requires one more slot in the Main Deck, gets around Pithing Needle, and does allow for hard casting of Dreadnought (with a Vial).

    Misc
    Aether Vial allows the combo to get around countermagic, fixes mana/color screw, allows for instant speed responses, and allows the combo to be "hard-cast" if necessary.
    Stern Proctor is a tutorable means of bouncing annoying artifacts and enchantments.

    Matchups
    Umm, I don't test against decks, I goldfish.
    From my tournament experience.
    Deadguy and Goblins seem like they need improvement.
    Threshold I don't think is too bad considering Vial and the speed of the deck.
    Other combo is a joke
    Affinity is a joke
    Landstill isn't too bad for the same reasons as Threshold plus Landstill is slower and has less search to find its hate.

  2. #2
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    Re: Cephalid Breakfast

    I'd just note that the current maindeck has no way of dealing with a Meddling Mage on Dread Return or something like Withered Wretch or Yixlid Jailer. Now let's not kid ourselves here, this deck won't be winning very often through beatdown with an army of 1/1's, so I think you need to find a way of dealing with it. For the builds that run Lim-Dul's Vault it's less of a concern because they can easily tutor up Echoing Truth or something, but for the VA-style lists with the creature-based tutor approach I've found the best answer to be Venser, Shaper Savant. It's 4cc which I'll admit is a bit difficult and unappealing, but it's the cheapest creature you can get that will bounce any permanent. Hell, it acts as Remand too.

  3. #3
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    Re: Cephalid Breakfast

    ..and the fourth en-kor should be a shaman to get around Pithing Needle and E-Plague on Soldiers.
    I have missed why naming Soldiers with E-Plague would be better than naming Illusion (for Narco). Why is that?

    edit: I think that I have answered my own question. The deck, I assume, can slow play and still put 3 critters into play to sac to Dread Return.
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  4. #4
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    Re: Cephalid Breakfast

    Why would you name Illusion as opposed to Cephalid? If you name Illusion, they can easily play 2 en-kor + Cephalid and use Dread Return from there. If you name Cephalid, they're forced to get Stern Proctor.

  5. #5

    Re: Cephalid Breakfast

    Quote Originally Posted by Di View Post
    I'd just note that the current maindeck has no way of dealing with a Meddling Mage on Dread Return or something like Withered Wretch or Yixlid Jailer. Now let's not kid ourselves here, this deck won't be winning very often through beatdown with an army of 1/1's, so I think you need to find a way of dealing with it. For the builds that run Lim-Dul's Vault it's less of a concern because they can easily tutor up Echoing Truth or something, but for the VA-style lists with the creature-based tutor approach I've found the best answer to be Venser, Shaper Savant. It's 4cc which I'll admit is a bit difficult and unappealing, but it's the cheapest creature you can get that will bounce any permanent. Hell, it acts as Remand too.
    For a while I was running one bone shredder to tutor for to kill mage, but I decided it wasn't necessary. I did lose Rd1 game 1 to turn 3 wretch, though I did screw up to a hymn the turn before other wise it wouldn't have been relevant.
    Venser does sound like a decent answer, but considering the search in the deck, a one of truth of chain of vapor wouldn't be awful either. In my sideboarded games I was always able to quickly find my Chain of Vapor and it was only a two of.

    Why would you name Illusion as opposed to Cephalid? If you name Illusion, they can easily play 2 en-kor + Cephalid and use Dread Return from there. If you name Cephalid, they're forced to get Stern Proctor.
    Actually Wizard is a very popular choice considering the boarded Bobs.

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    Re: Cephalid Breakfast

    Quote Originally Posted by Di View Post
    I'd just note that the current maindeck has no way of dealing with a Meddling Mage on Dread Return or something like Withered Wretch or Yixlid Jailer. Now let's not kid ourselves here, this deck won't be winning very often through beatdown with an army of 1/1's, so I think you need to find a way of dealing with it. For the builds that run Lim-Dul's Vault it's less of a concern because they can easily tutor up Echoing Truth or something, but for the VA-style lists with the creature-based tutor approach I've found the best answer to be Venser, Shaper Savant. It's 4cc which I'll admit is a bit difficult and unappealing, but it's the cheapest creature you can get that will bounce any permanent. Hell, it acts as Remand too.
    Man-o'-war would also work too and is 1 mana cheaper, but this deck can always counter the Meddling Mage, or even win before it comes online if on the play. Withered Wretch and Yixlid Jailer arnt played anyways but could also be answer by Man-o'-war or counters if they arise, so I wouldnt say theres NO way of dealing with them.

  7. #7

    Re: Cephalid Breakfast

    Venser would do the job of Stern Proctor as well.

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    Re: Cephalid Breakfast

    True, I suppose the versatility and space-saving would make the 4 CC acceptable.

  9. #9

    Re: Cephalid Breakfast

    Quote Originally Posted by Di View Post
    I'd just note that the current maindeck has no way of dealing with a Meddling Mage on Dread Return or something like Withered Wretch or Yixlid Jailer. Now let's not kid ourselves here, this deck won't be winning very often through beatdown with an army of 1/1's, so I think you need to find a way of dealing with it. For the builds that run Lim-Dul's Vault it's less of a concern because they can easily tutor up Echoing Truth or something, but for the VA-style lists with the creature-based tutor approach I've found the best answer to be Venser, Shaper Savant. It's 4cc which I'll admit is a bit difficult and unappealing, but it's the cheapest creature you can get that will bounce any permanent. Hell, it acts as Remand too.
    17 lands and a 4cc bounce spell really isn't going to fly. You could probably get away with a 3cc Man o' War Jellyfish, which is useful as a tempo tool in its own right, but I think the lack of an efficient answer for Meddling Mage is just another argument against the Worldly Tutor/Eladmari's Call package. I can't see running this deck with out Lim Dul's Vault, cutting that card from a 2 card combo deck is like cutting Brainstorm from a blue deck.

    Edit: Beaten to the punch, Boneshredder sounds better than Venser or Jellyfish tho'.
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  10. #10
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    Re: [Deck] Cephalid Breakfast

    What do you guys think about my version?

    3 Delta
    4 Strand
    3 Underground Sea
    4 Tundra
    2 Island

    4 Illusionist
    3 Nomads en-Kor
    1 Shaman en-Kor
    2 Narcomoeba

    1 Sutured Ghoul
    2 Krosan Cloudscraper
    1 Wonder

    4 Force of Will
    4 Duress
    4 Cabal Therapy

    1 Dread Return
    1 Dragon Breath
    1 Shuko
    1 Bridge from Below

    4 Aether Vial

    4 Brainstorm
    4 Serum Visions or Portent
    4 Lim-Dûl's Vault

    SB

    4 Absolute Law
    4 Pithing Needle
    4 Engineered Explosives
    3 Orim's Chant

    Wonder & Bridge are techy because the 26/26 flying guy doesn't care if there are big Goyfs or not. Bridge is really good when you milled your whole library, because with Bridge you're able to flashback all Therapys first and then saccing the Zombietoken in the Dread Return. I'm playing 61 cards now, but i would like seeing an Echoing Truth or so in there against Meddling Mage naming Dread Return or Ley-Line. The rest is clear, I suppose. One Thing I really want to see in there is Daze, but I don't know, what to cut. Chants main would be techy, too. I hadn't any ideas for the Sideboard so I simply packed allround stuff in there - maybe you guys have better ideas? My meta is aggro heavy, but a few Combo are hanging around, too. Some (Aggro)-Rock Builds and very few Control. So I guess this Deck has good answers for my meta game.

  11. #11
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    Re: [Deck] Cephalid Breakfast

    Wonder & Bridge are techy because the 26/26 flying guy doesn't care if there are big Goyfs or not.
    Why does the 26/26 care if any other creatures even exist?
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  12. #12

    Re: [Deck] Cephalid Breakfast

    They could block and prevent enough damage to swing back with lethal.
    Though it is important to remember that you can remove more than just the big creatures to the ghoul.
    Narcomoebas, en-kors, and illusionists add up.

  13. #13
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    Re: [Deck] Cephalid Breakfast

    if they block, how do their creatures survive to swing back for lethal?
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  14. #14
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    Re: [Deck] Cephalid Breakfast

    With either Dragon Breath or Kiki giving haste, I am wondering why the pacts are not in the deck. Is there a lot going on on the previous turns or something?

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    Re: [Deck] Cephalid Breakfast

    which pact?
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    Quote Originally Posted by OBFREELY
    You should all immediately fire emails at the DCI requesting the banning of Tarmogoyf and Golgari Grave-Troll.
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    Re: [Deck] Cephalid Breakfast

    Why not both? You don't like Eladamri's Call. Why not use the green pact? Daze is not so good, so use the blue one. I can't be the only one to think of this.

  17. #17
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    Re: [Deck] Cephalid Breakfast

    Quote Originally Posted by Finn View Post
    Why not both? You don't like Eladamri's Call. Why not use the green pact? Daze is not so good, so use the blue one. I can't be the only one to think of this.
    The green pact only finds green creatures.

    Total number of green creatures in this deck: 0.

    The blue and black pacts would be ok.

  18. #18
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    Re: [Deck] Cephalid Breakfast

    17 lands and a 4cc bounce spell really isn't going to fly.
    I mentioned in my post the possible difficulty of using a 4cc spell in a deck with 17 lands. However, it seems Threshold has been able to do that the entire time with running Mystic Enforcer, plus this deck can always resort to upping Vial to 4 if it has to. I simply mentioned it because given the current tutor package many of you are using (Worldly + Call), it's an option you can grab that happens to deal with all permanents. With Man-o'-War/Bone Shredder, you won't be able to deal with Crypt or Leyline. With Proctor, you can't deal with Mage or Jailer. Of course, you could just run both, but that seems like a wasted slot.

  19. #19
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    Re: Cephalid Breakfast

    Quote Originally Posted by Di View Post
    I'd just note that the current maindeck has no way of dealing with a Meddling Mage on Dread Return or something like Withered Wretch or Yixlid Jailer. Now let's not kid ourselves here, this deck won't be winning very often through beatdown with an army of 1/1's, so I think you need to find a way of dealing with it. For the builds that run Lim-Dul's Vault it's less of a concern because they can easily tutor up Echoing Truth or something, but for the VA-style lists with the creature-based tutor approach I've found the best answer to be Venser, Shaper Savant. It's 4cc which I'll admit is a bit difficult and unappealing, but it's the cheapest creature you can get that will bounce any permanent. Hell, it acts as Remand too.
    If you are running the Kiki-jiki/ sky hussar combo u can vial in the combo and still win that way. Also I have won by attacking w/ narcomeba and sky hussars and nomads.


    I have added a main deck a bone shredder to deal with a creatures.


    Also joon, it is better to play Dreadnought because u still have the ability to find 2 dreadnoughts and sac 1 to the other and have a 12/12 trampling beater. Jesse Harfield did it to beat gro in 1 of his rounds.

  20. #20

    Re: [Deck] Cephalid Breakfast

    Quote Originally Posted by zulander View Post
    if they block, how do their creatures survive to swing back for lethal?
    They would have to have enough creatures to block so the ghoul isn't lethal and have other creatures that aren't blocking to swing back with, or have some creatures with protection from black.


    As for pacts. I think the risk/reward on it is too much. Very rarely does the deck have to counter something the turn it is comboing except against other blue decks. Against those decks, if they have two counters you lose the game instead of just trying again next turn.
    I think the pact is unnecessary especially considering that the creatures can be vialed in around disruption and Therapies can work around everything else.

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