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Runelore
02-15-2009, 09:46 PM
History

To my knowledge this deck has no real history that I know about. There have been attempts that I have heard of but with the new release of Conflux there are now two creatures that make the deck significantly better and playable (at least that’s what I hope). Those cards are Progenitus and Inkwell Leviathan.

The Deck [60]

Goal: Play show and tell as soon as possible and then protect your creatures until they go the distance. Against control it's important to make sure your show and tell resolves.

Creatures [12]

4x Darksteel Colossus
4x Progenitus
4x Inkwell Leviathan

Spells [28]

4x Show and Tell
4x Mystical Tutor
4x Personal Tutor
4x Brainstorm
4x Force of Will
4x Chrome Mox
4x Chalice of the Void

Lands [20]

4x Island
4x Polluted Delta
4x Ancient Tomb
2x City of Traitors
3x Boseiju, Who Shelters All
3x Gemstone Caverns

Sideboard [15]

3x Trinisphere
4x Tormods Crypt
3x Echoing Truth
3x Pithing Needle
1x Boseiju Who Shelters all
1x Gemstone Caverns


Explanation of the cards I have chosen

Progenitus: This creature is simply the best creature in the game. He can't be targeted or blocked and he will not die from blocking. Above and beyond he makes it pretty much impossible for painter servant/grindstone to win since if grindstone is ever used, progenitus will get shuffled into the deck as a replacement and grindstone will never resolve resulting in a draw.

Darksteel Colossus: He's indestructible so he’s resistant to wrath, Nev's Disk, other destroy effects, however he is probably the weakest of the three because he does not have shroud. He gets swords'ed and now path to exile. Other than that he's wins in 2 turns typically.

Inkwell Leviathan: This is second to Progenitus, with Shroud, Trample, and Island walk. Island walk makes him unblockable in a huge portion of the metagame. Shroud makes him almost impossible to deal with especially with 11 toughness even if he does get blocked.

Show and Tell: Provides an easy and fast way to put a huge creature into play. It does allow opponent to put into play whatever they have however the only trouble I have run into in regular play is moat, and tombstalker (only if I have inkwell) because stalker will win the race against inkwell.

Mystical Tutor: Allows me to get show and tell or force of will at instant speed. Putting it on top of my library allows me to avoid it being discarded.

Personal Tutor: Allows me to get Show and tell only at sorcery speed, but sometimes it’s all I need. In addition it can be pitched to Force of will or chrome mox.

Brainstorm: Serves as a searching tool and can hide cards against discard.

Force of will: its purposes should be obvious.

Chrome Mox: It helps with mana acceleration and allows for a turn 1 show and tell. It is also an additional blue source since there are only 8 in the deck.

Chalice of the Void: This is a great elf decks, storm, discard, and also allows defense main board against some major threats including, swords to plowshares, duress, thoughtseize, cabal therapy, path to exile, diabolic chainers and cruel edicts.

Ancient Tomb: Allows for fast mana acceleration. Turn 1 show and tell is always nice. It also helps to accelerate chalice on turn 1 and 2. Life typically isn’t an issue because opponents only have 1 or 2 turns to race because the creatures can typically hold off attackers the turn they hit.

City of Traitors: same as Ancient tomb except saves from loss of life. Only run 2 because it gets sacrificed and becomes useless if game goes to late game. They also got cut for 1 gemstone mine, and 1 boseiju.

Polluted Delta: This reduces the chance that I will draw more lands than I need. It is very good in conjunction with brainstorm because it can shuffle the deck and the bad cards back into the deck. It also protects against wasteland but does have a small chance of getting stifled.

Island: Made it monoblue for resistance against wasteland and weakening the manabase.

Boseiju who shelters all: I chose to mainboard three because blue and counterspells are in a great majority of the metagame. Running 4 main sometimes can hurt you if the opponent is playing aggro like goblins or slivers.

Gemstone Caverns: 3 Mainboard because half of the games I play I'll draw first and if this is in play it allows me to brainstorm during their upkeep or mystical tutor during their upkeep to assemble my combo or find a force of will to protect it. Also allows for turn 1 show and tell.

Trinisphere: This is helps against elf, burn, storm, and other decks eager to get ahead fast. Rarely this might help against control by inflating the cost of their Counterspells. This doesn’t slow me down very much either since I can cast it after I tutor.

Pithing Needle: Helps against control, Survival and belcher. Very easy to cast.

Echoing Truth: will solve some problems such as moat and meddling mage.

Gemstone Caverns: Sideboarded in after a game loss to help with speed.

Boseiju Who Shelters All: Against control decks just to max the likelihood of drawing it.

Tormod's Crypt: A must in my board because I have no control for it otherwise.

Problems and Trouble the deck has

Diabolic, Cruel, Chainers Edicts and innocent blood: Since I throw my eggs into 1 basket those cards hose me hard which is why I chose chalice of the void for the maindeck.

Swords to plowshares, Path to Exile: Only have trouble against this if the creature I pull is darksteel colossus and I don’t have a force of will or chalice.

Meddling Mage: can be problematic if I don’t draw echoing truth, chalice or force.

Wrath of god and damnation: kills the progenitus and inkwell leviathan but it's rare to encounter and when it can be cast to may be too late.

Stifle: if it hit's a fetch land I may be in trouble because of my tight mana base.

Counterspells and Force: only a problem if I don’t have force of will or boseiju who shelters all (the reason I run 3 Mainboard)

Moat: stops me completely so I'll have to get lucky and draw echoing truth or tutor for it.


Other Ideas and Thoughts

Eureka: Running eureka is an alternate to show and tell but against aggro decks is almost always a bad choice and requires 2 green to splash which isn’t easy. It also weakens the mana base.

Orim's Chant: This is a good idea against storm and control decks but splashing white and weakening the mana base didn’t seem to improve the deck considerable more than force of will


Please let me know what you think or any ideas or thoughts and problems you might come up with. I have written everything I have thought of so if it isn’t on here please suggest it.

The Legacy Weapon
02-15-2009, 10:37 PM
I used to play a deck similar to this one a while back. I found that Ancient Tomb helps out alot if you get one in your opening hand. Also, the tutors you are using are very slow at least in my testing. I decided that running cantrips was a more efficient strategy.

Edit: You might also try Gilded Drake since you will likely give your opponent a nice creature through Show and Tell.

Runelore
02-15-2009, 11:18 PM
The problem with gilded drake is that you chose your permanent first then opponent chooses if he wants to or not so if you play gilded they wont drop a creature.

As for the cantrips... im a little confused because I usually only have 1 blue mana and if I pay a blue to pay for the cantrip I wont be able to cast the show and tell until next turn anyways. Finishing the game with 1 island or 1 chrom mox isnt uncommon. What cantrips did you have in mind, I might be open to testing, even though the tutors get the show and tell for sure.

scrow213
02-16-2009, 12:20 AM
I would say lose some tutors (8 tutors and 4 copies of Show and Tell is too much), and drop Colossus. He is cool, but a waste of slots (StP much?). Then add in some more counters, and maybe Impulse or Lim-Duls Vault (splashing black). Both of these cards help you find either piece you need (creature or Show and Tell), and can find counters if you have the pieces already. Lim-Duls Vault is particularly powerful at finding what you need, as it can dig as deep as you need. Maybe slot in some Cunning Wish so you can find answers to problems (Moat, Mage, Edict, etc) or just stick with the bounce spells.

So to recap:

-4 Personal Tutor
-4 Darksteel Colossus

+4 Lim-Duls Vault (with Black) OR +4 Impulse
+4 Some counter (Thwart, Daze, Negate)

Then work out the manabase. I honestly think that would provide some better results than tutors and a deck packed with creatures.

SuperBean
02-16-2009, 01:11 AM
Isn't Protein Hulk combo a better option then huge fatties. With Show and Tell, it's just a turn slower then Flash was.

bowvamp
02-16-2009, 01:24 AM
Umm, maybe you should check out reanimator. Progenitus looks pretty good and is the only reason to run this over reanimator. I would recommend:
-4 Inkwell
+4 Empyrial Archangel

Runelore
02-16-2009, 02:12 AM
Umm, maybe you should check out reanimator. Progenitus looks pretty good and is the only reason to run this over reanimator. I would recommend:
-4 Inkwell
+4 Empyrial Archangel

Empyrial actually got cut for inwell becauase if aggro is swining in for 8 she dies with my balls on the chopping block and they still have creatures. So thats a no go. As for Reanimator, since its graveyard recursion wouldnt that make it weaker since its subject to crypt leyline extirpate faerie mcabre so on...

Runelore
02-16-2009, 02:15 AM
Isn't Protein Hulk combo a better option then huge fatties. With Show and Tell, it's just a turn slower then Flash was.

Well since flash has been banned the next best thing is footsteps of goyro and unfortunatly it takes longer than desired to setup since he has to be in your graveyard. Also he is subject to graveyard manipulation. I have tried him and its much slower and inconsistent.

SuperBean
02-16-2009, 02:17 AM
But, I'm talking about Show and Telling Hulk, and already having your sacrifice outlet on the board.

bowvamp
02-16-2009, 02:56 AM
Umm, if they're doing 8, you'll die anyways ;)
Also, reanimator is not weaker. It's stronger. This is because you have 1 main spell that you depend on to win. Counter + Extirpate is all it takes.

Pulp_Fiction
02-16-2009, 03:13 AM
This really makes me think. Is Show and Tell + Protean Hulk any good? With Mystical Tutor to fetch up whatever the hell it needs (including answers to Leyline), Summoner's Pact, Cabal Therapy, plus it should have quite a good combo matchup itself. Maybe even run something like Through the Breach or Footsteps/Necromancy. Does anyone think this could be viable?

ssilver
02-16-2009, 03:25 AM
@PF: No... 3 card combo FTL, also you have to have 1 of them in play and the other two in your hand. Personally I have build a deck like this (its in the casual new deck forum) but throughout testing I have always wished I had a better creature against aggro when Proge isnt in my hand. I think that Bogardan Hellkite would actually do well in the anti-aggro slot, as you can pretty much nuke the board.

@Bowvamp: Not if your at 9 or more life and need the Archangel to swing ftw next turn, its happened to me before.

waSP
02-17-2009, 11:20 AM
Umm, if they're doing 8, you'll die anyways ;)
Also, reanimator is not weaker. It's stronger. This is because you have 1 main spell that you depend on to win. Counter + Extirpate is all it takes.

Bowvamp, what you're not realizing is how fast this deck is against aggro. Progenitus/Inkwell/Colossus comes down turn 2 in something like 70% of the games. If it's Progenitus, that means they have 2 turns to swing for lethal (with a big ol' blocker standing in the way for one of those turns). If it's Colossus or Inkwell, then they might be able to stall long enough to do that damage, but it's definitely going to be an uphill battle. The only way I could beat this with Survival Elves (a FAST aggro deck) was to get the Mirror Entity combo out on turn 3.

Against control you can take your time a lot more. Get down a Chalice for 1 if they're hinting at Swords or Extirpate. Not every deck is Storm combo, trying to go off ASAP.

I think the sideboard could use some work to improve the rough matchups. Maybe Trinket Mage would help to find more Chalices and Pithing Needles and Tormod's Crypts.

Runelore
02-17-2009, 12:08 PM
Bowvamp, what you're not realizing is how fast this deck is against aggro. Progenitus/Inkwell/Colossus comes down turn 2 in something like 70% of the games. If it's Progenitus, that means they have 2 turns to swing for lethal (with a big ol' blocker standing in the way for one of those turns). If it's Colossus or Inkwell, then they might be able to stall long enough to do that damage, but it's definitely going to be an uphill battle. The only way I could beat this with Survival Elves (a FAST aggro deck) was to get the Mirror Entity combo out on turn 3.

Against control you can take your time a lot more. Get down a Chalice for 1 if they're hinting at Swords or Extirpate. Not every deck is Storm combo, trying to go off ASAP.

I think the sideboard could use some work to improve the rough matchups. Maybe Trinket Mage would help to find more Chalices and Pithing Needles and Tormod's Crypts.

Havent considered trinket mage but maybe I will work it in since pulling those cards are very important if I dont have the combo in hand.

waSP, I think I played against you on MWS How's it going.