[Deck] Single Wizard Searching

[Infinitium]

Saw this combo proposed in the Innistrad spoiler thread:



Laboratory Maniac 2U
Creature - Human Wizard
If you would draw a card while your library has no cards in it, you win the game instead.

+ Tainted Pact

And guess what? Challenge accepted. Now obviously this puts some unique strains on deck construction in order to accomodate pact - every single card in the deck will be required to be a singleton with the exception of Maniac and Pact themselves which are played as two-ofs (since one will ideally be in play and the other on the stack by the time you want to remove your library).

This isn't quite as stupid as it sounds since there are enough cards in Black/Blue with overlapping roles ("discard", "Removal" etc) as well as an acceptable power level in order to accomodate this (the shining exception being the free counter suite). The Wizard Tribal subtheme is mainly there since locking the game up with with Tutor -> Patron Wizard with a neutral to good board position is effectively a win, and most of the Wizards are plenty good enough in their own right.

This thread is serious. Let's do this.

Single Wizards 1.0

Lands (20)
1 Island
1 Snow-Covered Island
1 Underground Sea
1 Watery Grave
1 Polluted Delta
1 Flooded Strand
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Underground River
1 Darkslick Shores
1 Drowned Catacomb
1 Sunken Ruins
1 Seat of the Synod
1 Mutavault
1 Riptide Laboratory
1 Academy Ruins
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Tolaria West

Wizards (15)
1 Sage of Epityr
1 Viscera Seer
1 Cursecatcher
1 Cosi's Trickster
1 Dark Confidant
1 Voidmage Prodigy
1 Spellstutter Sprite
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Patron Wizard
1 Vedalken Aethermage
1 Trinket Mage
1 Sower of Temptation
2 Laboratory Maniac

other Cantrips/Search (10)
1 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
1 Preordain
1 Serum Visions
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Impulse
1 Lim-Duls Vault
1 Divining Witch
2 Tainted Pact

Protection (9)
1 Duress
1 Thoughtseize
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Cabal Therapy
1 Mental Misstep
1 Spell Snare
1 Spell Pierce
1 Daze
1 Force of Will

Other Goodstuff (6)
1 Executioner's Capsule
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Umezava's Jitte
1 Phantasmal Image
1 Tombstalker
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Sideboard:
Let's not just yet.

Other choices considered:
Puresight Merrow/Paradise Mantle - slow, and good luck finding both. Merrow is good enough by itself though.
Cunning Wish - very mana intensive compared to other tutors, albeit the sideboard disadvantage is neglible.

Card suggestions are welcome, just be sure you know what to omit instead.

[AngryTroll]

Don't forget (from good to less good) Ancestral Vision, Portent, Sleight of Hand, Opt, and Telling Time as blue cantrips.

Don't forget Spell Pierce, Dispel, Misdirection, Flusterstorm, Mesmeric Fiend, and possibly even Disrupt, Force Spike, Intervene, and Turn Aside to protect your combo.

If you want to splash white, you get Mother of Runes, Azorius Guildmage, Meddling Mage, Aven Mindcensor, Tidehollow Sculler, and for extra protection there's Orim's Chant and Silence.

That's around seven to fourteen more good cards to consider adding. Cosi's Trickster stands out as being unimpressive, and Relic of Progenitus and Executioner's Capsule seem underwhelming even with a single Trinket Mage, but I don't see 14 good cuts off of the top of my head.

[Kagehisa]

You could add Hapless Reseacher as a wizard and a cantrip

You could try Intuition for Tainted Pact, Snpacaster Mage and Volrath's Strongold to tutor Tainted Pact or for Laboratory Maniac, Volrath's Stronghold and any reanimator effect... but it is slow...



I am doing the Gifts Ungiven exercise for you if you're interested :

Gifts Ungiven (not in your list because it is too slow)

**When you don't have any combo piece :

Maniac Laboratory
Snapcaster Mage
Tainted Pact
Reanimate (not in your list)


Maniac Laboratory
Tainted Pact
2U+1B = 3UB (5)
(it means that the opponent chooses to put Reanimate and Snapcaster Mage in your graveyard)

Maniac Laboratory
Snapcaster Mage ---->Tainted Pact (gains flashback)
2U+1U+1B = 4UUB (7)

Maniac Laboratory
Reanimate---->Snapcaster Mage---->Tainted Pact
2U+B+1B = 3UBB (6) lifeloss 2

Snapcaster Mage---->Tainted Pact
Reanimate---->Maniac Laboratory
1U+B+1B = 2UBB (5) lifeloss 3

Snapcaster Mage---->Reanimate---->Laboratory Maniac
Tainted Pact
1U+B+1B = 2UBB (5) lifeloss3

Tainted Pact
Reanimate---->Laboratory Miniac
1B+B = 1BB (3) lifeloss 3

**When you have one of these 4 cards :
Sorry, I'm hungry now... I'll edit later if ever...

[Infinitium]

@AT: Spell Pierce was supposed to be in the list; I accidentally replaced it with a surplus Divining Witch in transcribing it. Good catch. Trickster is currently the worst card in the deck (tm), but I'm still uncertain what to replace it with (possibly Puresight/Mantle if removing another card, possibly Daze). Ancestral Visions looks bad as a 1-of since you can't reliably cast it early enough to matter, and the other blue cantrips just seem to far below the power curve to be usable. I used to have Red for Lavamancer and the blasts, but 3 colors with a singleton manabase was too hard to accomodate properly.

@Kageisha: Intuition/Gifts are too slow, especially since I lack the GY-shenanigans to abuse them properly.

[Infinitium]

@AT: Spell Pierce was supposed to be in the list; I accidentally replaced it with a surplus Divining Witch in transcribing it. Good catch. Trickster is currently the worst card in the deck (tm), but I'm still uncertain what to replace it with (possibly Puresight/Mantle if removing another card, possibly Daze). Ancestral Visions looks bad as a 1-of since you can't reliably cast it early enough to matter, and the other blue cantrips just seem to far below the power curve to be usable. I used to have Red for Lavamancer and the blasts, but 3 colors with a singleton manabase was too hard to accomodate properly.

@Kageisha: Intuition/Gifts are too slow, especially since I lack the GY-shenanigans to abuse them properly.

[Gocho]

Funniest deck of the year. xD
Perhaps, EDH lists could give you some ideas.