[Deck] Show and Standstill

[Jugglin]

It's more of a fun experiment in MWS to begin with.
It differs a bit from the conventional combo like approach of other Show and Tell decks.
As you can see, it relies on a few control elements to stop the early hordes.

It basically takes the control shell of Dreadnought and makes use of Living Wish for utility and fatties for my Show and Tell.
Why not just use Dreadnought instead? Well, because it's cool to play Show and Tell. :D
Had some moderate success with the deck, but it's just a rough version and needs some tinkering.

Here's the list I now run:

4 Mishra’s Factory
4 Island
3 Polluted Delta
3 Wasteland
3 Flooded Strand
2 Tropical Island
2 Tundra

2 Progenitus

4 Mystical Tutor
4 Stifle
4 Daze
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
4 Show and Tell
4 Living Wish
3 Counterbalance
3 Standstill
3 Sensei’s Divining Top


Well, this is just your basic countertop list mixed with some Show and Tell / Living Wish goodness.
Mystical Tutors are great in the normal Show and Tell version, but in this deck they're also just great.
Works fine with Counterbalance and fetches a Wish or Show and Tell whenever needed.

sideboard:

1 Maze of Ith
1 Wasteland
1 Progenitus
3 Gaddock Teeg
1 Jotun Grunt
1 Faerie Macabre
1 Empyrial Archangel
1 Tidespout Tyrant
1 Phyrexian Dreadnought
3 Trygon Predator
1 Gilded Drake


Not entirely sure on the sideboard, but seems pretty fine for now.
A lone Dreadnought in there to assure my Stifle doesn't go wasted and a have a big creature ready just in case a Show and Tell doesn't show.
Might get replaced tho..
Trygon Predator is just great against a lot of decks, but not sure on running 3. Maybe cutdown on 'em to play a few Krosan Grips?

[Rood]

// Lands
11 [5E] Island (3)
3 [MOR] Mutavault
4 [4E] Mishra's Factory
4 [ON] Polluted Delta

// Creatures
4 [CFX] Progenitus

// Spells
3 [TE] Intuition
3 [FD] Vedalken Shackles
4 [OD] Standstill
4 [NE] Accumulated Knowledge
4 [DIS] Spell Snare
4 [FNM] Counterspell
4 [AL] Force of Will
4 [5E] Brainstorm
4 [US] Show and Tell

That's the list I was working with as of 2 weeks ago. Shackles+7 manlands gives the deck an alternate router of winning should Prog fail (Lol)? Intuition is obviously broken for many reasons.

[bowvamp]

Show and Tell has absolutely no synergy with standstill. At least with DreadStill, you can play your nought and lay down the standstill. In this, there is living wish in a splash that is viable mainly for goyf. Also, it takes 5 mana and 2 cards to living wish into something + show and tell it. That would leave you open to a variety of hate:
- Counter the show and tell, leaving you with a dead wish card in your hand
- Kill the card that you played (it's really not that hard to imagine, because it'll take 3 mana to play the card in the first place)
- Take advantage of all the "combo" slots and use targeted discard.

Another flaw is that unlike DreadStill, show and tell is not a good card for control, unlike a Stifle. I know this is N&D, but I'm just saying...

[Rood]

On the flipside of that argument, Prog just ends games unlike a Dreadnought. Dreadnought can be answered by many cards in the format whereas the answers for Prog are very limited especially with manlands for Edict cards.

[Jugglin]

Yep, I'm aware that Dreadnought is probably just the better play, but as stated before Dreadnought dies pretty easily to Swords, Deed, Vindicate, Krosan Grip etc.
I'm also thinking about adding 3 Tarmogoyfs in the sideboard.
That way I can get more creatures postboard if I really need to or get one through Living Wish.
Living Wish is almost never a dead card btw, even without Show and Tell.
Adding a Goyf SB might even make it a bit better.

Standstill is just too cool not to play and did draw me a lot of cards, so I'm not seeing why this should be replaced. Even w/o a direct threat on the board (and I do play the 4 factories) ppl tend to break it anyway.

Shackles might be a good card to add though, so you're on to something.
Quick aggro decks tend to cause a bit of a prob from time to time, but normally a resolved Show and Tell just wins. Especially when I get an Angel down. But it IS sexy to steal a Confidant or something.

[Jugglin]

Updated the decklist! :)
The Standstill approach seemed to backfire a bit, so I dropped it and added a few Ponders + Spell Snares.
Also added an Echoing Truth for whatever nasty cards my opponent might drop after landing a Show and Tell. Works fine with 4 Tutors and so far it's working pretty well.
Also because I removed the Factories, the manabase is a bit better and even added 1 Underground Sea for more Wish targets. (Yixlid Jailer + Shriekmaw)

It now looks like this:

5 Island
3 Polluted Delta
3 Wasteland
3 Flooded Strand
3 Tropical Island
2 Tundra
1 Underground Sea

2 Progenitus

4 Mystical Tutor
4 Daze
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
4 Show and Tell
4 Living Wish
3 Counterbalance
3 Stifle
3 Sensei’s Divining Top
2 Ponder
2 Spell Snare
1 Echoing Truth (Or Rushing river / Wipe Away ?)

sideboard:

1 Maze of Ith
1 Wasteland
1 Progenitus
3 Gaddock Teeg
3 Tarmogoyf
1 Jotun Grunt
1 Faerie Macabre
1 Empyrial Archangel
1 Trygon Predator
1 Gilded Drake
1 Xantid Swarm
1 Yixlid Jailer
1 Shriekmaw

[adrieng]

Ok I have been trying to make a progenitus deck today but not (in elf survival which is already proven to me). I think a version control with show and tell is more viable than natural order for the following reasons :

- natural order needs a green creature : in a control deck you don't want to play creatures but kills
- show and tell costs only 3 and is blue.

The list I am testing for now is close to the last posted but
- you need tarmogoyf (no reason to play green for living wish but no goyf)
- you need a sweeper. It seems to me pernicious deed fills the role nicely.
- mystical tutor is not good in more than 2

Basicaly you have an ITF deck but with a better kill (2 turn clock !! )

4 tropical island
4 underground sea
4 polluted delta
4 flooded strand
6 islands

4 brainstorm
4 fow
3 pernicious deed
4 tarmogoyf
3 progenitus
4 show and tell
2 mystical tutotr
4 counterbalance
3 counterspell
3 sensei
4 living wish

wish targets

1 progenitus
1 witness
1 meloku
1 tabernacle
1 boseiju
1 island
1 maze of ith

[Jugglin]

Thanks for your decklist and ideas.
Pernicious Deed seems like the card this deck needs to survive the aggro game etc and for removing annoying enchantments/artifacts etc.
I'll give this new list a few tries to see how it works!
Boseiju also seems like a good wish option, didn't think about that.
Seems a bit better than playing Xantid Swarm i guess.