Walk Hard (UG Turboland)

[nayon]

So, I thought we should discuss this archetype. Ali Aintrazi brewed this and played it at SCG Baltimore.

Here's the list:

Accel:
4 Exploration
1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking

Protection:
4 Force of Will
3 Mental Misstep
2 Counterspell
2 Constant Mists

Recursion:
3 Crucible Of Worlds
1 Elixir of Immortality

Card Draw:
4 Brainstorm
4 Horn of Greed
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Meloku the Clouded Mirror

Walking:
3 Time Warp
1 Walk the Aeons

Lands:
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Scalding Tarn
4 Wasteland
1 Ghost Quarter
4 Tropical Island
6 Island
1 Forest
3 Mishra's Factory
1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds


Sideboard
2 Nix
3 Zuran Orb
2 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Constant Mists
2 Llawan, Cephalid Empress
2 Null Rod
3 Bojuka Bog

Basically the deck works by dropping a few exploration effects, a crucible, and then you keep buying back Walk the Aeons, and set up a win through those infinite turns via Jace or some other method. Elixir prevents decking and gives you life, you draw a lot of cards with Horn, and you prevent yourself from dying with Constant Mists. You can also lock opponents down with Crucible + Wasteland/Ghost Quarter, even better with Exploration.

My thoughts after some testing:
Weirdly, there doesn't seem to be enough lands, I keep getting mana screwed. Also, overall you get very awkward draws without enough action.

Zvi Mowshowitz said on twitter that there is no removal (you scoop to Gaddock Teeg), Not enough accel&digging (I agree), maybe the Meloku and 3rd Time Warp are overkill.
Meloku is really good when you have a Horn of Greed, but I don't know otherwise.

Thoughts?

[Dissolution]

I'm a big fan of the deck (I used to play bad turboland back in Extended). After reading the twitter conversations back and forth, I've gone:

-1 Meloku
-2 Time Warp
-1 Island
+1 Capsize
+1 Walk the Aeons
+1 Horizon Canopy
+1 Azusa

Going to be testing online with my friend in the next couple of days, I'll report back my findings.
-T

[nayon]

To be honest I'd like to play 27 lands. I'd cut a Meloku, but not sure about what else to cut. But 27 lands is a must imo.

I'm not too keen on cutting walks, they can really pull you out of tight spots.

[kiblast]

Could'nt Rites of Flourishing be straight up better than Azusa here? I know Azusa lets you play Walk the Aeons easier, but I heard that completely blanking opponent's spot removals is cool. Also Rites provides card advantage, this card advantage seems symmetrical, but when you start chaining Wastelands and/or Ghost Quarters the advantage is purely for you.

[thefreakaccident]

If you guys are going to be playing 27+ lands and 6-8 brainstorm effects you could probably put treasure hunt to pretty good use... pitching extra lands is pretty good with crucibles, and you can continue to draw even more cards off of horn afterward.

[Dark Ritual]

Yeah I second treasure hunt if you play 27 lands that seems like a shoe in; drawing 2 for 1U is solid enough but when you draw 3+ you just smile inside at filtering through all those lands. Also is the sickness with brainstorm when you don't have a shuffle effect you can probably go on your turn brainstorm -> treasure hunt drawing at least 3 cards since you put 2 lands back on top. Overall I love this deck though it looks really fun to play; wastelocking people or ghost quartering them out is great along with the infinite turns thing with a quarter rare in the form of walk the aeons.

[nayon]

Ali has posted a primer and an updated list on SCG: http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/legacy/22266_Rise_Of_Aintrazi_Lets_Do_The_Time_Warp_Again.html

The list:

1 Elixir of Immortality
6 Island
1 Forest
3 Mental Misstep
4 Force of Will
2 Mishra's Factory
1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking
1 Ghost Quarter
3 Crucible Of Worlds
1 Horizon Canopy
4 Ponder
4 Brainstorm
1 Capture of Jingzhou
4 Horn of Greed
1 Constant Mists
1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
4 Wasteland
1 Capsize
1 Walk the Aeons
4 Tropical Island
4 Exploration
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Scalding Tarn
4 Misty Rainforest

Sideboard
2 Nix
3 Zuran Orb
3 Thrun, the Last Troll
2 Submerge
1 Upheaval
2 Constant Mists
2 Bojuka Bog

[baghdadbob]

Not gunna lie this looks like alot of fun. I'll give it a try.

[Brushwagg]

Ok why hasn't Nightmare posted yet????

But my main question is does Jace really make this deck playable agin?

[Freggle]

For what it is worth I have found that running Green Sun's Zenith along with Exploration and Dryad Arbor can often net you 3+ lands turn 1. This seems like a good deck to abuse that acceleration, and parlay that into a turn 2 warp or walk.

I also finds Azusa, Lost but Seeking for you.

Edit: I may be missing something, but Horn of Greed is slow, and helps your opponent. If the goal is to combo as fast as you can to lock then I'd try...

-4 Horn of Greed
-1 Forest

+3 Green Sun's Zenith
+2 Dryad Arbor

[Michael Keller]

For what it is worth I have found that running Green Sun's Zenith along with Exploration and Dryad Arbor can often net you 3+ lands turn 1. This seems like a good deck to abuse that acceleration, and parlay that into a turn 2 warp or walk.

I also finds Azusa, Lost but Seeking for you.

Edit: I may be missing something, but Horn of Greed is slow, and helps your opponent. If the goal is to combo as fast as you can to lock then I'd try...

-4 Horn of Greed
-1 Forest

+3 Green Sun's Zenith
+2 Dryad Arbor

So, you're basically advocating extracting the deck's primary draw engine with three cards that can only search for two other relatively inane cards in the entire deck? That doesn't sound very appealing.

[Mr. Safety]

I am not very familiar with the deck, so I have a few questions:

1) Is Crucible better than Life from the Loam? Both are susceptable to grave hate, but I think Loam lends itself really well to opening up Intution. Intution can open up options in problematic matches.

2) Cycle lands...are they even worth considering? Exploration and Azusa/Rites of Flourishing can offset the etb-tapped effect...and the added draw power seems like it could work in lieu of Horn of Greed. I understand the power of Horn of Greed, it's insane. Loam + Cyclers is one-sided, which is the only reason I bring it up.

Sorry if I seem really noob-ish about this...it's a fascinating approach to Turbo Lands, an archetype I'm barely familiar with.

[ZimAshe]

so does gate crash give this deck any new toys make is semi viable in the current metagame?

Is Urban Evolution too slow?

[KazinMtg]

I used to play this deck back in the day when it was turboland oath. Zuran Orb feels like a natural fit for the deck. I'm also a fan of chain of vapor instead of capsize since I'll usually be capsizing my own horns to make sure I dont deck myself once I've drawn out. I also would consider testing words of wind, which can be a beating with all the cards you're drawing. It's basically a win condition all by itself. Also Tolaria West can fetch you a lot of cards you need, I'd prob consider that as well.

I have 4 exploration and 4 horn of greed sitting in my binder, so I'll throw together a list and start testing this out. Looks like a lot of fun!

[Darkenslight]

1) LEARN YOUR BANLISTS - MM is banned.

2) it's just this side of "too slow" - you need earlier ramp, such as Exploration.

3) Scouting Trek and Treasure Hunt[/card] seems like a really good combo here. Possibly alsao [cards]Amulet of Vigor, dependent on your meta.

4) there's a similar deck in the Established Forum, called Turbo Eldrazi, which can also go infinite turns.

[Purgatory]

1) LEARN YOUR BANLISTS - MM is banned.

Did you happen to check the dates on the lists including MM?

[ZimAshe]

I used to play this deck back in the day when it was turboland oath. Zuran Orb feels like a natural fit for the deck. I'm also a fan of chain of vapor instead of capsize since I'll usually be capsizing my own horns to make sure I dont deck myself once I've drawn out. I also would consider testing words of wind, which can be a beating with all the cards you're drawing. It's basically a win condition all by itself. Also Tolaria West can fetch you a lot of cards you need, I'd prob consider that as well.

I have 4 exploration and 4 horn of greed sitting in my binder, so I'll throw together a list and start testing this out. Looks like a lot of fun!

I played this deck back in the dey when it was an extended deck and the win condition was infinite turns and beats with a pumped battlefield scrounger.

Is just plain fog better than scavenging mists? i understand the synergy however in the early game against aggro decks i feel like you may be giving up resources to recurre mists.

has anyone ever given thought to the card Thwart as part of the counter suite?

Kazin i'd be interested in your findings.

[Darkenslight]

Did you happen to check the dates on the lists including MM?

Yea, my bad. Was posting whilst only half-awake.

[ZimAshe]

so if we were to update this list what would be the cards we would need?

Turbo Land has almost always been a UG combo-control based deck. I think that goes with out saying (even though I just said it :-/ )

Combo/Ramp elements:
4 Exploration
4 Horn of Greed
1 Azusa, Lost but seeking

Control elements:
4 Force of Will
2 Counterspell
2 Constant Mists

Card Draw (to find pieces):
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
2 Jace, The Mind Sculptor

Extra Turn Cards:
3 Time Warp
1 Walk the Aeons

I think we can all agree that this is the base of the deck.

Potential other cards (just a list, nothing set in stone):
Thwart
Crucible of Worlds
Elixir of Immortality
Meloku the Clouded Mirror
Urban Evolution
Exploration
Daze
Oracle of Mul Daya
Lotus Cobra

lets keep the dialogue going :smile: