Vacrix
11-20-2009, 07:18 PM
This has been a random pet deck for about 2 years, starting with mad kobold tricks, and evolving slowly into this list. I recently got the idea to incorporate retract and then just run all artifacts from some dude who I saw playing a deck kinda like this.
Golem Glimpse:
Mana:
3 Misty Rainforest
3 Tropical Island
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Lotus Petal
2 Chrome Mox
Spells:
4 Glimpse of Nature
4 Mystical Tutor
4 Retract
4 Ponder
2 Serum Visions
Creatures:
4 Shield Sphere
4 Phyrexian Walker
4 Ornithopter
4 Phyrexian Marauder
4 Frogmite
4 Salvage Titan
Win/Con:
1 Brain Freeze
1 Concordant Crossroads
SB:
1 Cabal Therapy
1 Reanimate
1 Oxidize
1 Krosan Grip
1 Bayou
1 Underground Sea
2 Vexing Shusher
3 Beastmaster Ascension
4 Tarmogoyf
Card Choices:
MAINDECK:
Misty Rainforest:
Fetchland thins the deck a little, i dont really want to draw too many lands, especially while going off.
Tropical Island:
On color dual.
Elvish Spirit Guide:
Fast mana, allows me to keep going off Glimpse of Nature.
Lotus Petal:
Again, fast mana.
Chrome Mox:
Fast mana that stays. I can also use it as an artifact to pitch to Salvage Titan if I don't need any more mana.
Glimpse of Nature:
Core of the deck. Once it resolves, try to draw your entire deck. Its a pretty straight forward concept, but knowing when to go off can get tricky.
Mystical Tutor:
Allows you to search for glimpse and put it on top in response to discard. Pretty nifty. Sometimes I prefer this to Glimpse in my opening hand.
Retract
Once you have resolved a decent number of artifact creatures, play this, return them all to your hand, and continue going off. Its also randomly cool against EE @ 0 or if you want to protect your Titans in play from STP, path, etc..
Ponder:
Great sifter. Lets me find what i want, or observe the top few cards while going off to see if I can pull off a trick, or shuffle to get better stuff on top.
Serum Visions:
Replaces itself and allows me to do some sifting. This was brainstorm for a while, but i prefer scry 2 due to the way this deck plays.
Shield Sphere:
Tall man. Blocks aggro for quite some time while you wait to go off again if you fizz.
Phyrexian Walker:
Tall man. Smaller blocker, but he stays for longer.
Ornithopter:
Tall man, but not so tall. He can block flying dudes. Sometimes thats relevant.
Phyrexian Marauder:
Interesting tall man here. He is usually either just a street wraith and I cycle him under glimpse to draw, or I can play him out with spar mana (happens pretty often) so that I can sacrifice him to play Titans, or if I have 3 or so staying mana in play, he can play offense as a 3/3 or even sometimes a 5/5. He gets rid of Ichorid's bridges, which pretty legit considering I run 4 MD.
Frogmite:
This guy can play offense if I need him too, but usually he is just another tall man off Glimpse.
Salvage Titan
Makes the deck work. Provided that you dont have retract in hand, you should sacrifice your guys to play him. Sometimes you can pull off mad tricks with 2. If you have played 2 glimpses and you have 2 Titan in your hand with like 7-9 artifact guys on the field you can play 1 (sacing your tapped chrome moxen or extra lotus petals isnt a bad idea either if you are stuck) and then sac a Titan in play and 2 tall men to play the other Titan, then return your Titan to your hand, and cycle a few times. This usually gets you enough Tall men to keep drawing. Also, Salvage Titan is technically a win condition. Once you draw your entire deck (you dont always have to) you can play out 4, and then crossroads, and swing for the win.
Brain Freeze:
Win con. You can search for it with mystical tutor and then win, or draw your entire deck to find it. Most of the time you wont have enough mana to cast it until you draw a significant part of the deck.
Concordant Crossroads
The backup win con. I ran this as the only win con for a while but i found myself losing randomly when I would have won with Brain Freeze. My rational was that crossroads won't get countered as a win condition because the opponent will just counter glimpse. Of course this might be better served as maybe Pact of Negation if I actually fear stifle on Brain Freeze. I have to say though, its pretty badass coming in sideways with Golems and Frogs for the win.
SIDEBOARD:
Cabal Therapy:
Distrution that is tutorable under mystical tutor. I more often then not have a creature to pitch to its flashback too so its often a good bid since mystical tutor usually resolves and they counter what i play. Very few people expect to see therapy after not seeing any black in game 1.
Reanimate:
Turns Mystical tutor into an out to give you a creature from your grave, or maybe from your opponents (like if he dredges Iona without hitting a Dread Return, this actually happened once).
Oxidize:
Most decks resolve Chalice at 0 against me. Oxidize has been a great target for mystical tutor in these situations. Why dont I play naturalize? because if Chalice is at 1 then I can't play tutor for it anyway.
Krosan Grip:
Tutorable out against counterbalance, trinisphere, etc.
Bayou:
You bring this in to support your black. Otherwise you rely on lotus petal.
Underground Sea:
see above.
Vexing Shusher:
Wins games. He's a ridiculously good board choice against control and still counts as a creature when you resolve him under glimpse.
Beastmaster Ascension:
Has been pretty decent in play testing. Usually you have about 3 creatures in play that can attack. If this comes down, eventually you will pop it and every creature you draw is a 5/5 or bigger. It still pends testing, it isnt conclusively the best spot in the board. the thing I should mention is that the counters go on even if they just attack, once they attack and there are 7 counters, the creatures get bigger before damage.
Tarmogoyf
Helps you get there with the man plan.
THE PLAN:
The object of the deck is to glimpse off and draw enough cards to win. If you dont have the hand for that, you can play the built in man plan of playing out titans and frogmites, and smash face. Glimpse can draw most of the deck (undistrupted) about 50-60% of the time. The rest of the time, you play out your man plan, which is of course vulnerable to STP.
Game 1, You try to look like some variant of Bant Aggro via, some fetch lands into trops, maybe some cantrips, then you start going off and try to draw the whole deck. If you do, the game should be in the bag via 1 of 2 win conditions. You won't draw your entire deck every time, actually you will only about 50/60% of the time in my experience. Otherwise, the deck plays a do or die man plan strategy. The rest of the time you will either use glimpse of nature as bait, and then play out a frogmite and salvage titan and pass. Sometimes you can even play a Titan and 2 frogmites, putting them on a really fast clock. If they don't draw STP or Path to Exile, they should lose quickly. Other times you will draw a lot of cards, and just not have the right stuff to keep going. Sometimes you pass, then next turn, play glimpse, and retract, and keep going. Other times, you just draw really dead and just play out a titan and pass. If you are trading with Goyfs instead of getting your shit STP'd then you can sometimes power through via drawing more artifacts, return Titan to your hand and then recasting it.
Game 2/3, You should probably board out the win condition you dont need, or want. Against aggro, you dont really need crossroads, so board it out in favor of oxidize, just in case they play cannonist, thorn, etc. That is of course if you are playing against aggro. Against control, you will want Beastmaster Ascension, Vexing Shusher, Reanimate, Goyf, the extra land, and Cabal Therapy. The idea is to use glimpse of nature as bait (you can still draw the entire deck postboard) to play out your Goyf's and Titans. Your shushers should draw removal, but if they dont, then they or Cabal Therapy can allow Beastmaster Ascension to hit play. In theory, if they counter your glimpses you can still play the creatures to use with Beastmaster Ascension. If they counter Ascension, then use the artifact creatures to play Titan.
My overall analysis of the current list is that it is very inconsistent. It needs a lot of work. I can go off and win in one turn quite a bit of the time, but then there are times I get stuck and have to revert to the man plan.
The pros to the deck are you can win fast, turn 1's are not out of the ball park but its more often a turn 2 if you can draw the whole deck (this is because you only have 4 glimpse so mystical tutor allows for turn 2's only). The deck has 2 win conditions, and has a back up man plan built into the main deck.
The cons to this deck is it is very vulnerable to countermagic. Discard actually hasnt been as much of an issue but it does sometimes inhibit it from going off, especially if hippie comes down. Also, the back up plan is rather risky but it often gets there merely because its a surprise.
Ideally I would like to make it more consistent and cut out the board to beat control. I already have a pretty good aggro matchup.
Thoughts?
Golem Glimpse:
Mana:
3 Misty Rainforest
3 Tropical Island
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Lotus Petal
2 Chrome Mox
Spells:
4 Glimpse of Nature
4 Mystical Tutor
4 Retract
4 Ponder
2 Serum Visions
Creatures:
4 Shield Sphere
4 Phyrexian Walker
4 Ornithopter
4 Phyrexian Marauder
4 Frogmite
4 Salvage Titan
Win/Con:
1 Brain Freeze
1 Concordant Crossroads
SB:
1 Cabal Therapy
1 Reanimate
1 Oxidize
1 Krosan Grip
1 Bayou
1 Underground Sea
2 Vexing Shusher
3 Beastmaster Ascension
4 Tarmogoyf
Card Choices:
MAINDECK:
Misty Rainforest:
Fetchland thins the deck a little, i dont really want to draw too many lands, especially while going off.
Tropical Island:
On color dual.
Elvish Spirit Guide:
Fast mana, allows me to keep going off Glimpse of Nature.
Lotus Petal:
Again, fast mana.
Chrome Mox:
Fast mana that stays. I can also use it as an artifact to pitch to Salvage Titan if I don't need any more mana.
Glimpse of Nature:
Core of the deck. Once it resolves, try to draw your entire deck. Its a pretty straight forward concept, but knowing when to go off can get tricky.
Mystical Tutor:
Allows you to search for glimpse and put it on top in response to discard. Pretty nifty. Sometimes I prefer this to Glimpse in my opening hand.
Retract
Once you have resolved a decent number of artifact creatures, play this, return them all to your hand, and continue going off. Its also randomly cool against EE @ 0 or if you want to protect your Titans in play from STP, path, etc..
Ponder:
Great sifter. Lets me find what i want, or observe the top few cards while going off to see if I can pull off a trick, or shuffle to get better stuff on top.
Serum Visions:
Replaces itself and allows me to do some sifting. This was brainstorm for a while, but i prefer scry 2 due to the way this deck plays.
Shield Sphere:
Tall man. Blocks aggro for quite some time while you wait to go off again if you fizz.
Phyrexian Walker:
Tall man. Smaller blocker, but he stays for longer.
Ornithopter:
Tall man, but not so tall. He can block flying dudes. Sometimes thats relevant.
Phyrexian Marauder:
Interesting tall man here. He is usually either just a street wraith and I cycle him under glimpse to draw, or I can play him out with spar mana (happens pretty often) so that I can sacrifice him to play Titans, or if I have 3 or so staying mana in play, he can play offense as a 3/3 or even sometimes a 5/5. He gets rid of Ichorid's bridges, which pretty legit considering I run 4 MD.
Frogmite:
This guy can play offense if I need him too, but usually he is just another tall man off Glimpse.
Salvage Titan
Makes the deck work. Provided that you dont have retract in hand, you should sacrifice your guys to play him. Sometimes you can pull off mad tricks with 2. If you have played 2 glimpses and you have 2 Titan in your hand with like 7-9 artifact guys on the field you can play 1 (sacing your tapped chrome moxen or extra lotus petals isnt a bad idea either if you are stuck) and then sac a Titan in play and 2 tall men to play the other Titan, then return your Titan to your hand, and cycle a few times. This usually gets you enough Tall men to keep drawing. Also, Salvage Titan is technically a win condition. Once you draw your entire deck (you dont always have to) you can play out 4, and then crossroads, and swing for the win.
Brain Freeze:
Win con. You can search for it with mystical tutor and then win, or draw your entire deck to find it. Most of the time you wont have enough mana to cast it until you draw a significant part of the deck.
Concordant Crossroads
The backup win con. I ran this as the only win con for a while but i found myself losing randomly when I would have won with Brain Freeze. My rational was that crossroads won't get countered as a win condition because the opponent will just counter glimpse. Of course this might be better served as maybe Pact of Negation if I actually fear stifle on Brain Freeze. I have to say though, its pretty badass coming in sideways with Golems and Frogs for the win.
SIDEBOARD:
Cabal Therapy:
Distrution that is tutorable under mystical tutor. I more often then not have a creature to pitch to its flashback too so its often a good bid since mystical tutor usually resolves and they counter what i play. Very few people expect to see therapy after not seeing any black in game 1.
Reanimate:
Turns Mystical tutor into an out to give you a creature from your grave, or maybe from your opponents (like if he dredges Iona without hitting a Dread Return, this actually happened once).
Oxidize:
Most decks resolve Chalice at 0 against me. Oxidize has been a great target for mystical tutor in these situations. Why dont I play naturalize? because if Chalice is at 1 then I can't play tutor for it anyway.
Krosan Grip:
Tutorable out against counterbalance, trinisphere, etc.
Bayou:
You bring this in to support your black. Otherwise you rely on lotus petal.
Underground Sea:
see above.
Vexing Shusher:
Wins games. He's a ridiculously good board choice against control and still counts as a creature when you resolve him under glimpse.
Beastmaster Ascension:
Has been pretty decent in play testing. Usually you have about 3 creatures in play that can attack. If this comes down, eventually you will pop it and every creature you draw is a 5/5 or bigger. It still pends testing, it isnt conclusively the best spot in the board. the thing I should mention is that the counters go on even if they just attack, once they attack and there are 7 counters, the creatures get bigger before damage.
Tarmogoyf
Helps you get there with the man plan.
THE PLAN:
The object of the deck is to glimpse off and draw enough cards to win. If you dont have the hand for that, you can play the built in man plan of playing out titans and frogmites, and smash face. Glimpse can draw most of the deck (undistrupted) about 50-60% of the time. The rest of the time, you play out your man plan, which is of course vulnerable to STP.
Game 1, You try to look like some variant of Bant Aggro via, some fetch lands into trops, maybe some cantrips, then you start going off and try to draw the whole deck. If you do, the game should be in the bag via 1 of 2 win conditions. You won't draw your entire deck every time, actually you will only about 50/60% of the time in my experience. Otherwise, the deck plays a do or die man plan strategy. The rest of the time you will either use glimpse of nature as bait, and then play out a frogmite and salvage titan and pass. Sometimes you can even play a Titan and 2 frogmites, putting them on a really fast clock. If they don't draw STP or Path to Exile, they should lose quickly. Other times you will draw a lot of cards, and just not have the right stuff to keep going. Sometimes you pass, then next turn, play glimpse, and retract, and keep going. Other times, you just draw really dead and just play out a titan and pass. If you are trading with Goyfs instead of getting your shit STP'd then you can sometimes power through via drawing more artifacts, return Titan to your hand and then recasting it.
Game 2/3, You should probably board out the win condition you dont need, or want. Against aggro, you dont really need crossroads, so board it out in favor of oxidize, just in case they play cannonist, thorn, etc. That is of course if you are playing against aggro. Against control, you will want Beastmaster Ascension, Vexing Shusher, Reanimate, Goyf, the extra land, and Cabal Therapy. The idea is to use glimpse of nature as bait (you can still draw the entire deck postboard) to play out your Goyf's and Titans. Your shushers should draw removal, but if they dont, then they or Cabal Therapy can allow Beastmaster Ascension to hit play. In theory, if they counter your glimpses you can still play the creatures to use with Beastmaster Ascension. If they counter Ascension, then use the artifact creatures to play Titan.
My overall analysis of the current list is that it is very inconsistent. It needs a lot of work. I can go off and win in one turn quite a bit of the time, but then there are times I get stuck and have to revert to the man plan.
The pros to the deck are you can win fast, turn 1's are not out of the ball park but its more often a turn 2 if you can draw the whole deck (this is because you only have 4 glimpse so mystical tutor allows for turn 2's only). The deck has 2 win conditions, and has a back up man plan built into the main deck.
The cons to this deck is it is very vulnerable to countermagic. Discard actually hasnt been as much of an issue but it does sometimes inhibit it from going off, especially if hippie comes down. Also, the back up plan is rather risky but it often gets there merely because its a surprise.
Ideally I would like to make it more consistent and cut out the board to beat control. I already have a pretty good aggro matchup.
Thoughts?