[Deck] Everything In-Between

[Kuma]

...as in Life, (en-Kor + Spiritualist + Condemn/Diamond Valley) Death, (en-Kor + Spiritualist + Doran, the Siege Tower) and Everything In-Between.

Life.dec has always been a favorite of mine. I played it back in old Extended using About Face and Dwarven Thaumaturgist as kill conditions. I've toyed around with various incarnations since, and this is the best one I've come up with.

The purpose of the deck is to gain billions of life and/or swing for billions of damage. Pretty self explanatory. For those who don't know, this requires you to target a Daru Spiritualist or Task Force billions of times with a en-Kor creature and then use Condemn or Diamond Valley to gain billions of life, or Doran, the Seige Tower to attack for billions of damage.

The list:

Mana - 20

4 Scrubland
4 Bayou
4 Flooded Strand
4 Windswept Heath
2 Plains
1 Forest
1 Temple Garden

The Combo - 14

4 Nomads en-Kor
3 Shaman en-Kor
3 Daru Spiritualist
4 Task Force

Life - 3

3 Condemn

Death - 3

3 Doran, the Seige Tower

Tutors - 7

4 Living Wish
3 Eladamri's Call

Everything In-Between - 13

4 Tarmogoyf
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Thoughtseize
1 Mother of Runes

Sideboard:
1 Shaman en-Kor
1 Daru Spiritualist
1 Doran, the Seige Tower
1 Harmonic Sliver
1 Serra Avatar
1 Diamond Valley
1 City of Brass
1 Volrath's Stronghold
2 Vexing Shusher
3 Krosan Grip
2 Sylvan Safekeeper

Card Choices:

Condemn: Combo piece that doubles as creature removal.

Tarmogoyf: Best creature in the format, it can occasionally win games on its own. Gets better with Doran.

Thoughtseize: Combo protection. Every deck with black in it has no excuse for not running at least three.

Mother of Runes: Protects combo pieces and can help you swing for the kill.

Harmonic Sliver: Wish target to get around Counterbalance, Chalice, etc. Can also potentially be recurred with Diamond Valley and Volrath's Stronghold

Vexing Shusher: For Counterbalance, FoW, etc.

Krosan Grip: For Counterbalance, Engineered Explosives, Pernicious Deed, Phyrexian Dreadnaught, etc.

Sylvan Safekeeper: To protect vs creature removal. It's kind of a lame choice, but I couldn't think of anything better to do its job.

Matchups:

I haven't really tested this much. It seems very strong against aggro, okay against aggro control, poor vs board control, and terrible vs combo.

Questions for discussion:

Should more slots be dedicated to the life combo, i.e. run Worthy Cause and more cards to sacrifice creatures for life?

Dark Confidant, hot or not?

Can the sideboard be improved? The sideboard I built is for my metagame, which has little combo and next to no graveyard dependent deck like Ichorid, Loam, and Breakfast. Perhaps someone could suggest a more general sideboard.

Is there a better card than Sylvan Safekeeper?

Is the aggro backup plan worth the slots?

Spirit en-Kor and Angelic Protector to dodge Counterbalance?

[idraleo]

why not play Aether Vial to did a surprising, uncounterable alpha strike? It allows you to play more basic too, and to have a less problematic MU from Landstill, ITF and Vorosh decks...

[diffy]

Should more slots be dedicated to the life combo, i.e. run Worthy Cause and more cards to sacrifice creatures for life?

Playing more cards that are dead outside of the combo doesn't seem too good to me - you could include any number of Starlit Sanctums though as they don't really use up full slots in the main being a land.

Dark Confidant, hot or not?

Definitely hot: cards that are of use outside of the combo while still supporting the combo can't be bad.

Is the aggro backup plan worth the slots?

Yes it is: the combo is just way too slow and too easily disrupted to be worth being the main focus of the deck.

Spirit en-Kor and Angelic Protector to dodge Counterbalance?

Against most deck, things with a converted mana cost of 3 dodge Counterbalance just fine so that you don't really need Angelic Protector (you already have Task Force). If you want to play an en-kor that's good against Counterbalance, I'd suggest Outrider en-kor who is a rather decent beater too (he kills Mongeese) but I don't hink that he's necessary.

Some other random thoughts:

• Why not play any number of Shukos over some of the en-kor guys? They are cheaper than Shaman en-kor and better than any of the two when you are in non-combo mode as a Tarmogoyf equiped with a Shuko breaks Goyf standoffs. When going into the combo, there's little difference between Shuko and an en-kor: you actually can equip it an arbitrary amount of times to the same creature (explanation here). I'd probably cut 2 Shaman en-kor and 1-2 Nomad en-kor for 3-4 Shukos, retaining a Shaman main as Tutor target just in case something strange (Chalice, Needle or similar) happens. You can then also replace the Shaman en-kor in the wishboard with a Nomad to get something more streamlined.
• I would also max out on the combo pieces by playing a fourth Condemn in the spot of the Mother of Runes: a one off to protect your combo is rather random as you could just as well wish for the combo piece that was destroyed/removed with the same effect and similar speed.
• The Serra Avatar in the Sideboard is a wasted slot: once you're on infinite life you don't need any dedicated wincondition/anti-milling tech, especially not if you already play good creatures main (Tarmogoyf, Doran) which will just as well finish the job eventually.
• You probably don't need that much other removal than Condemn as you have a clock (read: combo finish) and rather good other control elements.
• Doran is redundant in the Wishboard: if you want a 'kill' you can always go for Diamond Valley which is both cheaper and faster (doesn't need the pumped guy to attack).

Rough sample list to illustrate above thoughts:

/// Maindeck (60 cards)

// Lands (20)
    4 Windswept Heath
    1 Flooded Strand
    3 Wooded Foothills
    4 Savannah
    3 Bayou
    1 Scrubland
    1 Forest
    1 Plains
    2 Starlit Sanctum

// Combo Part I (6)
    2 Shuko
    3 Nomads en-Kor
    1 Shaman en-Kor

// Combo Part II (7)
    4 Daru Spiritualist
    3 Task Force

// Combo Part III (7)
    4 Condemn
    3 Doran, the Siege Tower

// Tutors (6)
    4 Living Wish
    2 Eladamri's Call

// Protection (7)
    3 Thoughtseize
    4 AEther Vial

// Good Stuff (7)
    4 Dark Confidant
    3 Tarmogoyf

/// Sideboard (15 cards)
    1 Nomads en-Kor
    1 Task Force
    1 Diamond Valley
    1 Harmonic Sliver
    1 Shriekmaw
    1 Mesmeric Fiend
    1 City of Brass
    2 Sylvan Safekeeper
    2 Vexing Shusher
    3 Krosan Grip
    1 Open Slot

Curve:
cmc - |||||||||||||||| --- (16)
cmc - |||||||||||||||||| - (18)
cmc - |||||| ------------- (06)

Average life to loose with Dark Confidant: 1.167

With AEther Vial as additional protection against permission, I think that it is safe to go down to 3 Thoughtseizes.
I'm not really fond of only playing 3 Tarmogoyfs and 6 tutors in the main but the deck is just really tight as it is and I couldn't find any easier cuts.

Other possible approaches:

• Using a Survival shell

You should also try to get some feedback from Lejay: as far as I know he's been playing this deck for ages in good ol' France.

[Maveric78f]

Enkor + booster is not only a part of the combo it's also 2 great blockers.

You may want 4* condemn and 3* STP in this deck. If you play black you'll want dark confidant over tarmogoyf in this deck. Your mana base is too jank, you absolutely need vials.

Apart from that, I think it's solid.

[Valtrix]

Since living wish can get lands, I'd put 1 starlit sanctum in the board.

[Kuma]

Against most deck, things with a converted mana cost of 3 dodge Counterbalance just fine so that you don't really need Angelic Protector (you already have Task Force). If you want to play an en-kor that's good against Counterbalance, I'd suggest Outrider en-kor who is a rather decent beater too (he kills Mongeese) but I don't hink that he's necessary.

Yeah, you're right. I was thinking of two guys in my meta that use Counterbalance. One plays It's the Fear, and the other plays a U/W aggro control homebrew. Both decks have lots of 3-costers. In general, you're right and the deck design should probably reflect that.

Why not play any number of Shukos over some of the en-kor guys? They are cheaper than Shaman en-kor and better than any of the two when you are in non-combo mode as a Tarmogoyf equiped with a Shuko breaks Goyf standoffs. When going into the combo, there's little difference between Shuko and an en-kor: you actually can equip it an arbitrary amount of times to the same creature (explanation here).

The problem is that Shuko equips as a sorcery, which means that I can't use my pumpers as immune to damage blockers on my opponent's turn. Nor can I pump them in response to lethal damage. The +1/+0 is also useless with Doran out. That's one huge strike and one small strike against it.

I would also max out on the combo pieces by playing a fourth Condemn in the spot of the Mother of Runes: a one off to protect your combo is rather random as you could just as well wish for the combo piece that was destroyed/removed with the same effect and similar speed.

Good points, The only thing I gain from Mother of Runes is potential unblockability.

The Serra Avatar in the Sideboard is a wasted slot: once you're on infinite life you don't need any dedicated wincondition/anti-milling tech, especially not if you already play good creatures main (Tarmogoyf, Doran) which will just as well finish the job eventually.

Probably true. I've only ever wished for it against Train Wreck, and I lost anyway.

You probably don't need that much other removal than Condemn as you have a clock (read: combo finish) and rather good other control elements.

I cut the StP, but I've lost the only games I've played since to aggro beatdown. Thresh, for one, was a nightmare, as they cut me off the combo with countermagic and StP while beating me down with double goyf. Goblins wasn't as bad, but even their removal slowed me down. It seemed like a very good draw for Thresh, but the match maybe more problematic than I thought. Maybe I should run StP in the board? Maybe they just belong in the maindeck. I haven't done enough testing to be sure.

Doran is redundant in the Wishboard: if you want a 'kill' you can always go for Diamond Valley which is both cheaper and faster (doesn't need the pumped guy to attack).

Another good point. To quote Homer Simpson in the pee wee football episode, "Consider him cut."

Other possible approaches:

• Using a Survival shell

A good possibility, but would it be better than traditional Survival lists? I'll have to try it.

Since living wish can get lands, I'd put 1 starlit sanctum in the board.

Or I could just get Diamond Valley.

You may want 4* condemn and 3* STP in this deck. If you play black you'll want dark confidant over tarmogoyf in this deck. Your mana base is too jank, you absolutely need vials.

I may go back to that removal. I'd really like to run both Bob and goyf, because both are just awesome, awesome creatures. I did add vial, as you and idrealo suggested, and I'm liking it. Makes the deck more consistent and increases the number of keepable hands.

I'll test a few more games and post my list.

[Kuma]

Here's my current list for those in the Life.deck discussion thread.

// Lands
2 [A] Scrubland
3 [A] Savannah
1 [ON] Flooded Strand
4 [ON] Windswept Heath
1 [UNH] Plains
1 [UNH] Forest
3 [ON] Wooded Foothills
3 [A] Bayou
2 [ON] Starlit Sanctum

// Creatures
3 [SC] Daru Spiritualist
3 [SH] Nomads en-Kor
3 [SH] Shaman en-Kor
4 [MM] Task Force
3 [LRW] Doran, the Siege Tower
4 [FUT] Tarmogoyf
3 [RAV] Dark Confidant

// Spells
2 [PS] Eladamri's Call
4 [JU] Living Wish
4 [DIS] Condemn
3 [LRW] Thoughtseize
4 [DS] AEther Vial

// Sideboard
SB: 1 [SC] Daru Spiritualist
SB: 1 [SH] Nomads en-Kor
SB: 4 [SHM] Vexing Shusher
SB: 1 [SH] Volrath's Stronghold
SB: 1 [TSP] Harmonic Sliver
SB: 1 [AN] Diamond Valley
SB: 4 [TSP] Krosan Grip
SB: 1 [LRW] Shriekmaw
SB: 1 [LRW] Gaddock Teeg

I'm still pretty happy with this list. The sideboard could maybe use a little work, but otherwise it's fine.