Anti-Metherayo

[MDB]

Okay, I'm the first to admit that this deck looks like a joke, it started out as one. I was putting the Esperzoa/Sculptor engine from the Sensei-Retract thread in all kinds of stupid shells. But this particular list had very good game vs. and/or beaten the majority of netdecks I threw at it. So I guess it's worth a proper primer. Enjoy!

:smile: Anti-Meta Etherayo :smile:
Creatures 19
4x Erayo's Essence
4x Ethersworn Canonist
3x Etherium Sculptor
4x Esperzoa
4x Master of Etherium

Spells 24
4x Lotus Petal
4x AEther Spellbomb
3x Relic of Progenitus
3x Grim Monolith
3x Elsewhere Flask
3x Prophetic Prism
4x Thoughtcast

Lands 17
4x City of Traitors
6x Island
4x Seat of the Synod
3x Ancient Den


Sideboard
4x Force of Will
4x Annul
4x Pithing Needle
3x Cranial Plating

STRATEGY:
The gameplan is to get a turn 1-3 Erayo / Canonist lockdown, then to beat face with Master of Etherium & Esperzoa and use the Spellbombs to bounce any creatures played before lockdown. Surprisingly, the deck is highly consistent, and oddly resilient. :really:

CARD CHOICES:
Creatures - Lock enablers and beatsticks. :cool:
Erayo's Essence - MVP. The aim is to play Erayo, and the other 3 spells on turn 2. Ideally Canonist as 4th spell.
Ethersworn Canonist - Gamebreaker vs. anything w/o artifacts. Full lockdown with Erayo. To be swapped with FoW vs. artifact-light builds, and Annul vs. artifact-heavy builds.
Etherium Sculptor - Often essential for enabling Erayo lock. Makes almost everything a mana less, good stuff.
Esperzoa - Good body with evasion. Essential during midgame. Provides incredible card advantage if left unanswered.
Master of Etherium - Best beatstick / Lord this deck can wish for. Makes 5/4 Zoa's, great in multiples.

Artifacts - A cantripping anti-meta mix of artifacts that are synergetic with the creature package and gameplan in general. :wink:
AEther Spellbomb - Champion in the deck, feeding erayo-storm, protecting MoE's and bouncing troublesome creatures. Including most big-ass combo-monsters, except Progenitus obv.
Relic of Progenitus - No use for graveyards anyways. Chosen over Pithing Needle due to it's cantrip ability, and game 1 Needles are not so grand.
Grim Monolith - Esperzoa target. Powers Erayo lock, sick with Sculptor.
Elsewhere Flask - Esperzoa target. Synergetic with City, fixes mana.
Prophetic Prism - Esperzoa target. Synergetic with Monolith, fixes mana like a champ.

Thoughtcast - Refueling for cheap is always good.

Mana - The manabase is as greedy as they come. :frown:
City of Traitors - It's drawback hardly a problem due to Flask. Chosen over Ancient Tomb as this deck needs the time to draw/cantrip into MoE/Zoa after lockdown. Powers sick turn 1/2 plays.
Island - Lots of blue needed, obvious pick over Darksteel Citadel
Seat of the Synod - Always makes you a happy camper when you have 1-2 of these.
Ancient Den - The affinity/artifact count is to important, so chosen over Glimmervoid. I left one Den out for the 3rd Prophetic Prism as I want to have 6 card advantage targets for Esperzoa. But I probably won't be able to get away with it. To greedy... If you wanna test the list, test it with 18 lands -1 Prism.
Lotus Petal - Was Chrome Mox, but I forgot about the non-artifact clause. Dumb...Anyways, enormously important for fueling Erayo lock and nice for turn 1 plays. Mid/lategame it acts as free Esperzoa fodder, boosts MoE etc. Dubious synergy with thoughtcast though.

Sideboard - Well, it's inevitable that you run into opponents that run artifacts, so... :confused:
Force of Will - Swapped with the dissynergetic Canonist vs. control to get some quick Erayo soft-locks, and vs. anything with 6+ artifacts. Teamed up with turn 1 Canonist, Spellbomb, Relic, Needle and/or Erayo, the deck is quite the combo-wrecker.
Annul - Boarded in vs. artifact-heavy builds and controllish builds that use artifact/enchantments as hosers.
Pithing Needle - Usually boarded in for either Spellbomb or Relic, whichever is least relevant. Quite hilarious with Esperzoa.
Cranial plating - Severely missed. But Monolith/Flask/Prism are simply superior for setting up the lock. Boarded in whenever necessary for any of these 3. Basically, whenever you can't get Erayo through, then you're missing the Cranial Platings, as the Zoa's/MoE's ain't gonna survive. With a lock, sure you'd like to get cranial platings, but a singleton Zoa/MoE will enable you to race any locked down opponent. So, vs. blue both the FoW's, to get Erayo through, and the Platings, for if you don't, are boarded in.

Let the flaming begin!

[perm]

canonist/erayo is a pretty big nonbo

[whienot]

I am all for finding a way to play Erayo in legacy and will be doing some testing with here.

However, Chrome Mox sucks here. You have 8 cards you can imprint on it in the maindeck. Do not forget Chrome Mox says "nonartifact."

Perm: Canonist/Erayo works fine. Canonist only stops people from playing more than 1 nonartifact spell. Canonist only hinders 8 spells maindeck.

[MDB]

I am all for finding a way to play Erayo in legacy and will be doing some testing with here.

However, Chrome Mox sucks here. You have 8 cards you can imprint on it in the maindeck. Do not forget Chrome Mox says "nonartifact."

Perm: Canonist/Erayo works fine. Canonist only stops people from playing more than 1 nonartifact spell. Canonist only hinders 8 spells maindeck.

Shit man. Forgot bout the non-artifact clause from the chrome mox. There goes the deck....argh

Let's see if Lotus Petal can pull its weight, probably not though.. EDIT: No worries there!

[sunshine]

canonist/erayo is a pretty big nonbo

Actually, Canonist seems pretty hot in this deck if you can find the white mana. Looking at the list it seems like you'll most often be chaining cheap artifacts to flip Erayo.

[justjake54]

I'm confused, you seem disappointed by the news about chrome mox, but I don't see it anywhere in the deck list. How does this deck mull?

[sunshine]

I'm confused, you seem disappointed by the news about chrome mox, but I don't see it anywhere in the deck list.

It was taken out because:


...the news about chrome mox...

;)

[justjake54]

Ahh, I forgot you can edit posts. silly me.

[MDB]

Yup, Quickly got rid of Chrome Mox and replaced it with Lotus Petal and added 2 Islands + 1 Ancient Den.

It was at the expense of 1 Etherium Sculptor and 1 Relic of Progenitus, which were both a bit redundant, like monolith.
Also sacked 1 Prophetic Prism, though I'm looking for a spot to get it up to 3.

Anyways, the deck runs smoothly again, actually might be running a bit better. lol.

Pondering whether to include Darksteel Citadels and/or Glimmervoids now... 2/2 Den/Citadel split seems attractive, but I'm good on the land count again so might not be necessary. Maybe some glimmer..

[justjake54]

it does look like a fun deck. but how does it run when you don't resolve the Erayo?

[MDB]

it does look like a fun deck. but how does it run when you don't resolve the Erayo?

It's one of the trickiest decks I piloted thus far. If I find Erayo, working towards resolving/flipping is rather quickly arranged. Without it, the deck does put up a decent fight. Powering out an Esperzoa/MoE 3/4 turns in a row is pretty common, basically devoting the Erayo-resources on the beatsticks. Alll the while I keep looking for that Erayo, because the deck can easily to set up the Erayo-Lock the next turn if it draws into Erayo mid-/late-game. Esperzoa is king in facilitating this, and I usually try to leave 1 redundant card in hand and leave 1-2 relics/spellbombs open, to be sacked as soon as I see Erayo. However, although this deck can race, particularly under a canonist, without the lock the beatsticks are bound to come up short, getting shot down and the like.

[Oiolosse]

maybe brainstorm instead of thoughtcast? It always costs one, I think that is significant here.

[MDB]

maybe brainstorm instead of thoughtcast? It always costs one, I think that is significant here.

I'm thinking whether that should be Ponder. Depends on the percentage that I start game 2 with FoW's, I guess. Though it is an excellent EOT-play. Helping me to be sensible and leave an island open, for the Spellbomb and use it for Brainstorm if Spellbomb can stay. And facilitating next turn Erayo's quite nicely off course. Though generally speaking, no fetch = no brainstorm for me.

[whienot]

Though generally speaking, no fetch = no brainstorm for me.

Bingo. Brainstorm is nuts, without a doubt. But if you draw into junk and can't shuffle it away, you just gave your opponent 2 turns. You need to have fetches or some other shuffle effects to make Brainstorm work here.

MDB, are the artifact lands just for Thoughtcast and the random Esperzoa food?
Edit: Oh wait, Master of Etherium. Carry on.

[kiblast]

i was waiting for someone to break erayo as i'm in love with that card.
Also, i would run 4 etherium sculptor, so all your artifactc rapidly cost 1mana or even better 0 mana, then play 2 cunning wish maindeck with one brainfreeze in sb. You run 14 cantrip/draw effects, maybe raising the number of cantrips could provide enough storm combo...just random idea.
However this deck looks really sick. Nice one.

[GRIMACE]

What about Chalice of the Void maindeck?

Set on 1 doesn't really hinder the deck that much aside from the Spell bombs and is devastating against the majority of the Legacy field. Also, it can be reset by bouncing it with Esperzoa and you can play it for 0 to help flip Erayo.

It seems to be a powerful disruption piece that fits the deck perfectly.

[MDB]

What about Chalice of the Void maindeck?

Set on 1 doesn't really hinder the deck that much aside from the Spell bombs and is devastating against the majority of the Legacy field. Also, it can be reset by bouncing it with Esperzoa and you can play it for 0 to help flip Erayo.

It seems to be a powerful disruption piece that fits the deck perfectly.

Oh, I'm trying out all kinds of builds with Esperzoa. The glaring omission in this one is Sensei's Divining Top or Chalice. I actually build this deck on the proposition that Sensei is probably going to get banned soon. Not the power argument, but due to it's time consumption. It would be a big motivation for me to start playing live tournaments if brainstorm and top were gone. Then you can play more and quicker games. And in the end I think that control players would like it to, that is, if people would stop being an asshole and just concede as soon as inevitability is staring them in the face...anyways, here's an Esperzoa List with tha Chalice (and Sensei, yes I know), which tries to break the paradox of "you can't play 2-color Stompy!'. Just as a fun idea of course.

ESPERZOA-BURN (all 4-offs)
City of Traitors
Ancient Tomb
Seat of the Synod
Great Furnace
Volcanic Island
Etherium Sculptor
Grim Monolith
Elsewhere Flask
Prophetic Prism
Chalice of the Void
Fire // Ice
Shrapnel Blast
Master of Etherium
Esperzoa
Covetous Dragon
Sideboard:
4x Force of Will
4x Trinket Mage
3x Tormod's Crypt
2x Engineered Explosives
1x Pithing Needle
1x Aether Spellbomb

Needs some finetuning obviously.

EDIT: Testing this one is quite amusing. Over the top aggressive and pretty borderline with regards to deck design principles. Though the dragon costs are np at all, and it can afford to lose lands np there either. Fire/Ice is amazing. It's usually just short of racing combo, but it gives control a very hard time, no planeswalker survives this deck, and it rapes aggro. But Deed and such are quite the partypoopers obv. And It seems to get a Chalice @ 4 down quite consistently, if you would want to. Turn 2 Dragons are more to my liking.

Next mission: Teaming up the Esperzoa engine with Goblin Welder and Thirst for Knowledge... should be fun ;)

Oh and looking into an "oldschool" Mono blue-Aggro-affinity brew, with Broodstar and Qumulox joining MoE/Zoa. Now that's a dream team! Would open up the route to Chrome Mox again...

[Gocho]

It must be a funny deck to play. I like it :D

Why don't you play +4 Tundra / -4 Islands? You have a lot of non-basics and no fetch so you can't search for basic lands.

Finding Erayo and Canonnist at time would be a heavy work without good cantrips. Remember that Erayo effects only affects your opponents so with the hardlock in play you still can play a single non-artifact spell every turn (Ideally, Sorceries in your turn and Instants in your opponent turn). I'ld add Ponder, Brainstorm and perhaps Preordain in the Flask, Prism and Thoughtcast slots, you'll find it better and doesn't add costs to the deck if you need it to get 4x spells, except if you get 2x Sculptors in play. You loose Esperzoa cantrips but you would draw better cards.

Something like this:

Anti-Meta Etherayo
Creatures 19
4x Erayo's Essence
4x Ethersworn Canonist
3x Etherium Sculptor
4x Esperzoa
4x Master of Etherium

Spells 24
4x Lotus Petal
4x AEther Spellbomb
3x Relic of Progenitus
3x Grim Monolith
4x Brainstorm
4x Ponder
2x Preordain

Lands 17
4x City of Traitors
4x Tundra
2x Island
4x Seat of the Synod
3x Ancient Den


EDIT:
I don't know if an Affinity Uw engine would be better adding 4x Erayo

[MDB]

It sure is a hoot to play! lol.

Tundra. hmm might be good. The deck does lose big time to black anyways...But vs. purely wasteland builds, the islands are golden. So might be a bit too risky. Furthermore the islands are especially important to recuperate after Deed, which surprisingly, the deck is capable of. Not when it's backed by hymns/verdicts though.

But since this build is going for Canonist main, I'm not playing more than 8 non-artifact spells. I can see quite interesting builds when you put it in the side. Basically a metagame choice, hence the name. Must have FoW in the main then though.. With Canonist, Sensei seems the nr 1 candidate for cantripping purposes, way better than preordain, brainstorm or ponder. Otherwise I think that you'll find Erayo to often with a cantrip while Canonist is in play. Shame to have to wait another turn, and risk getting Erayo discarded. Already happens with thoughtcast, more than I like. If you include sensei, the Sculptors should be upped to 4. A singleton brain freeze/grapeshot seems fun then too.

But yeah, I do agree that this deck could improve with regards to finding Erayo, especially since it is so important to be able to race the opponent and protect the Beatsticks. The inclusion of Relic over Sensei, is mainly because I think it is silly not to shut down grave-based strategies, when you try to shut down basically every other strategy.

[MDB]

It took me 3 weeks to break the monolith, I came up with a nice engine for it, which defies the need for tutors, and tried a variety of Shells. The Esperzoa engine facilitates a nice variety of Affinity-Stompy-Combo-esk decks. And Aggro/Combo-decks are usually quite rare, so worth exploring.. I have now found the shell for the Esperzoa engine that, simply put, is tournament-worthy. Heralding the return of the Vintage champion, and this time he is here to stay! Who needs Eldrazi anyways?

See post below this one...

[MDB]

This, without a doubt, is the sickest deck I've ever conjured up:

WELDERZOA

Creatures 19
4x Goblin Welder
4x Etherium Sculptor
4x Esperzoa
4x Master of Etherium
3x Sundering Titan

Spells 23
4x Lotus Petal
4x Grim Monolith
4x Elsewhere Flask
4x Prophetic Prism
3x Shrapnel Blast
4x Thirst for Knowledge

Lands 18
4x Ancient Tomb
4x City of traitors
4x Seat of the Synod
4x Great Furnace
2x Volcanic Island

Sideboard:
1x Sphinx of the Steel Wind
4x Trinket Mage
2x Engineered Explosives
2x Chalice of the Void
2x AEther Spellbomb
2x Pithing Needle
2x Tormod's Crypt
Sideboard needs FoW, as combo seems to be the toughest matchup, and a variety of boardsweepers. So far, it has been beating Black/Blue and Aggro. Advice on what to take out of the 'Royal' Trinket Mage-package for FoW is very welcome!

Anyways, since I've already put two Esperzoa lists up. Figured I'd better not give it a primer and stash it here. Upon request np of course.
Technically, this list could be considered a Vintage port, as Welder has been teamed up with Zoa once before, in a Noble Fish-list piloted by Gael Bailly-Maitre to a 2nd place out of 119, this january. Though, besides MoE, that's where the similarity ends, due to cardpool. So no primer, just some highlights on the various synergies.

Goblin Welder - Sick with Titan. Over the top with Monolith/Flask/TfK. Really good synergy with Petal/Prism/MoE/Arti-lands.
Esperzoa - Incredible with MoE/Monolith/Prism, good with Flask/Sculptor/Petal.
Master of Etherium - Amazing synergy with itself/Zoa/Sculptor/Artifact lands, good with Titan/Sphinx/Prism/Flask/Monolith.
Sundering Titan - A house in Legacy. Off the charts with Welder/Shrapnel/Monolith, real good with Sculptor/Flask/City/Tomb.
Lotus Petal - Extraordinary with Welder, City/Tomb + All colored spells.
Grim Monolith - Abusively synergetic with Sculptor/Prism and Welder/Zoa, and hardcasting Titan turn 2/3.
Elsewhere Flask - Off the charts synergy with Welder/Zoa/City/Tomb, and extreme cuteness with Titan.
Prophetic Prism - Very synergetic with Grim/Zoa/Sculptor, and good with City/Tomb/Welder.
Etherium Sculptor - Sick with the 3 above, allows you to cantrip-chain into very cheap MoE/Zoa's and hardcast Titans.
Shrapnel Blast - Unfair with Monolith, maestro at establishing board position. Intended, and sick, when used on Titan. Also extremely cute when played in response to a kill spell.
Thirst for Knowledge - Combo with Welder/Titan, awesome filter.

The gameplan is simply to beat face with MoE/Zoa, and trigger the Titan as often as possible to establish a dominant board position and ensure that the opponent doesn't have the mana to clear the board. Even monocolored decks get absolutely raped by Titan-triggers. The deck is very aggressive, but has an even better mid-to lategame and functions incredibly well in top-deck mode. It has sick mana acceleration, various routes to card advantage, undercosted and aggressive beatsticks, powers out AND cheats disruptive fatties into play, it even has burn and a Lord in it. I mean, how often can you get all that in a single deck? *proud*
Give it a spin and enjoy!

EDIT: I guess it was a primer after all...

[Phoenix Ignition]

I find it very hard to believe that you don't play with Lodestone Golem. He definitely fixes your combo matchup while improving virtually every other matchup you have. I would take out Prophetic Prism as you really don't need that many do-nothing artifacts in the deck just to fuel esperzoa or welder, you will most likely have a land, grim monolith, or elsewhere flask to play with.

[whitescorpion]

As a semi-dumb `on the side` , cant you play etherum sculptor and then play top for 0, dig into another top and then u get your spells to flup erayo right there,. the old top for 0, draw into top and put other top on top repeat, flip erayo :P

hm....

[sillysam71]

Helm of Awakening also does the same thing to make infi-storm, but it may not be necessary if you already have Etherium Skultptor.

[nexus blue]

Sure, Helm of Awakening would work, but it works for everyone playing, not just you.

MDB - have you playtested that second build with Welders against anything else besides B/U and Aggro? What versions of Aggro, specifically?

[MDB]

Sensei belongs in the deck no doubt. But, as this is an anti-meta deck, Relic was chosen over it, bit for theme purposes also.
I put a thread with sense-infinite combo with a similar deckshell up already (senseisensei-retract). Has the helm and covers all the topics just raised. The Esperzoa Stompy version listed there, which I indeed play it with Lodestones main (Sea Drake/orb in side) was also quite good, leading to this hilarious anti-metherayo build. But skip all that, the WELDERZOA list outperforms all these by far, it's nucking futs!

[MDB]

I find it very hard to believe that you don't play with Lodestone Golem. He definitely fixes your combo matchup while improving virtually every other matchup you have. I would take out Prophetic Prism as you really don't need that many do-nothing artifacts in the deck just to fuel esperzoa or welder, you will most likely have a land, grim monolith, or elsewhere flask to play with.

Don't really have room for Lodestone Golem, and can't risk having to pay extra for TfK /Welder/Shrapnel. But I don't really need anything in the main against combo, and with regards to sideboard vs. combo, then mage trumps golem. Welderzoa's worst matchup, besides storm-combo is Sligh/PoP-Red, and the Golem is awful against red if you're not playing chalice. Don't want to weaken vs. red even more. You're right that Golem is good and a likely inclusion, but taking the Prism's out just leaves the mana base in shambles, bad idea.

The Prism and Flask provide real card advantage. I get way better card advantage out of Welders and Esperzoa's than i have ever gotten with Bob, but that is dependent upon getting at least one Flask/Prism. Only leaving 4 Flasks is not reliable enough, the deck really runs on card advantage. It is constsantly out-topdecking both black and blue decks. I daresay that with the inclusion of Welder, the Esperzoa engine outperforms the cantrip/fetch engine. And we all know that isn't a small statement. Prism/Flask are utterly integral for this.

[nexus blue]

MDB - since combo is this decks biggest weakness, is it viable to put some sort of counter in the main rather than having FoW in the SB? I know someone already suggested SDT, but if you could fit that with CB....
Or even just fitting the FoW in the main, or hard counters. Just curious, I'm just beginning to mess around with it and yeah, combo kicks my ass. Thoughts? anyone? Bueller?

[Zork]

I have been playing a similar deck to this and would absolutely never play without MD Chalice. I also play Lodestone and Tangle Wire main.

Really, I would like to fit Force in the main, but in my list the blue count is too low. I'll post something when I get happy with my configuration.

[Tilde]

Tsabo's Web seems like a better cantrip artifact than the Flask or the Prism.

[nexus blue]

I can see all three being useful - prism fixes mana + CA, flask can be sacrificed and then brought back with welder for recurring CA and Tsabo's Web can shut down manlands and other crud. maybe 3-3-2?