Illusion Deck

[orcanmail]

I was thinking that as blue houses the counter / draw shell for legacy, then like merfolk then illiusions could also maybe be competitive. The creatures are large for their casting costs and the lords power them up even more and give them hexproof. Of course counters and drawing ability are also key ingredients for this deck.

Anyway here goes my untested list

Force of Will x4
Brainstorm x4
Ponder x4
Spell Pierce x2

Veiled Sentry x4
Phantasmal Bear x4
Krovikan Mist x4
Lord of the Unreal x4
Illusionary Servant x4
Phantasmal Dragon x4

Island x22

Sideboard

Blue Elemental Blast x3
Hydroblast x2
Wipe Away x4
Relic of Progenitus x3
Pithing Needle x3

Any thoughts or comments welcome

[Mystical_Jackass]

Convince us to build this over Merfolk. What are the advantages of this over Merfolk? What are the disadvantages, and where can you make that better?

Phantasmal Image should be in there.

Btw, you need fetchlands to go with BS.

[orcanmail]

You're totally right about Phantasmal Image, although some of the illusions will die if targeted, you can still target some, plus the lords and opponents creatures, and of course it is an illusion.
I'd only probably include 2-3 due to the fact that some illusion creatures can't be targeted without dying.

Fetchlands do shuffle the deck and improve brainstorms, and of course could easily introduce a second colour splash if wanted. I d. on't like being stifled however. Maybe playing 22 lands is more than required and wastelands could also be included.

So why play over merfolk? well i've noticed that the lists on the last pages of the merfolk thread don't seem to use the ponder / brainstorm draw engine. whilst not an expert on merfolk, this draw engine seems an intregal part to this blue illusion deck. My question is why merfolk doesn't include this draw engine in it's own build. no doubt merfolk players have an answer.


Finally I think these illusion monsters are just good value for their casting costs, which coupled with counter protection, hexproofing lords, and card draw could make them formidable.
Daze could also be considered of course as part of the counter package.


So taking that all in mind here's a revised list, remember this is a deck i'm just developping, i am by no means claiming it is finalised. It is an idea I just think is worth pursuing with cooperation from other players on this site!

Main deck

Force of Willx4
Spell Pierce x2
Brainstorm x4
Ponder x4

Veiled Sentry x3
Phantasmal Bear x4
Krovikan Mist x4
Lord of the Unreal x4
Phantasmal Image x3
Illusionary Servant x4
Phantasmal Dragon x4

Flooded Strand x3
Polluted Delta x3
Wasteland x4
Island x10

Sideboard

Red Elemental Blast x3
Hydroblast x2
Wipe Away x4
Relic of Progenitus x3
Pithing Needle x3

The sideboard is also just a starting point!

So come on let's try and develop this idea to see if it can go somewhere.

[orcanmail]

You're totally right about Phantasmal Image, although some of the illusions will die if targeted, you can still target some, plus the lords and opponents creatures, and of course it is an illusion.
I'd only probably include 2-3 due to the fact that some illusion creatures can't be targeted without dying.

Fetchlands do shuffle the deck and improve brainstorms, and of course could easily introduce a second colour splash if wanted. I d. on't like being stifled however. Maybe playing 22 lands is more than required and wastelands could also be included.

So why play over merfolk? well i've noticed that the lists on the last pages of the merfolk thread don't seem to use the ponder / brainstorm draw engine. whilst not an expert on merfolk, this draw engine seems an intregal part to this blue illusion deck. My question is why merfolk doesn't include this draw engine in it's own build. no doubt merfolk players have an answer.


Finally I think these illusion monsters are just good value for their casting costs, which coupled with counter protection, hexproofing lords, and card draw could make them formidable.
Daze could also be considered of course as part of the counter package.


So taking that all in mind here's a revised list, remember this is a deck i'm just developping, i am by no means claiming it is finalised. It is an idea I just think is worth pursuing with cooperation from other players on this site!

Main deck

Force of Willx4
Spell Pierce x2
Brainstorm x4
Ponder x4

Veiled Sentry x3
Phantasmal Bear x4
Krovikan Mist x4
Lord of the Unreal x4
Phantasmal Image x3
Illusionary Servant x4
Phantasmal Dragon x4

Flooded Strand x3
Polluted Delta x3
Wasteland x4
Island x10

Sideboard

Red Elemental Blast x3
Hydroblast x2
Wipe Away x4
Relic of Progenitus x3
Pithing Needle x3

The sideboard is also just a starting point!

So come on let's try and develop this idea to see if it can go somewhere.

[Lemnear]

Meerfolk doesn't need bs or ponder because of their redundancy. Why brainstorm for Lords if you can run more of the same? Brainstorm and ponder are no draw-engines, they are fixing. You have nothing in the deck that creates advantage out of a brainstorm, because pondering in a still-too-expensive-Vanille-creature isn't Hot.

One of the biggest things about Lord of the unreal is that he's no an illusion himself, so even copy him with image doen't Save your army from spot removal but only (if you live the Dream) turns your turn 1 bear in a nacatl .... wow ... not impressed

A 5/5 Flying for 4 mana isn't that impressive in Legacy especially in a Deck that folds to grim lavamancer and shit; you can't even defend yourself against combo because your clock is that damn slow and your countersuit is laughable. I doubt this concept is playable in Legacy.

To summarize:



Finally I think these illusion monsters are just good value for their casting costs, which coupled with counter protection, hexproofing lords, and card draw could make them formidable.


Cost-Value-ratio is plain bad for Legacy, 6 Counter aren't barely enough (especially with THAT clock), It is no real lord being not an illusion, you have no carddraw, impossible with the illusion-cardpool.

[orcanmail]

That sounds pretty terminal!

and to think 5/5 Juzum Djinns for 4 mana in their day rocked, now a 5/5 flyer for 4 is too slow and expensive. also serendib efreets, 3/4 flyers for 3 mana were also solid, which was my thought behind the illusionary servants. Maybe evasion in the form of flying is also no longer as important as once upon a time.

All I can suggest then is to drop the 4 phantasmal dragons and replace them with 4 dazes, thus boosting the counter suite and reducing the clock. As for grim lavamancer, it is why the sideboard is packed with blue / hydro blasts to prevent l.bolts etc overwhelming the creatures.

Also as a question, if phantasmal image is used on a lord of the unreal, then does it mean it ends up as an illusion in addition to the lord, thus becoming a lord with hexproof?

Maybe at this stage I'm just trying to make the illusion deck the best it can be, rather than a legacy deck with potential. so my final offering is


brainstorm x4
ponder x4
force of will x4
daze x4
spell pierce x2

veiled sentry x3
phantasmal bear x4
phantasmal image x3
krovikan mist x4
lord of the unreal x4
illusionary servant x4

flooded strand x3
polluted delta x3
wasteland x4
island x10

sideboard

blue elemental blast x3
hydroblast x2
wipe away x4
relic of progenitus x3
pithing needle x3

[optml]

There's already a thread on this that I started a while ago. http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?21265-Illusions-THE-next-big-legacy-tribal-deck!-You-heard-it-here-first...&highlight=optml

[Lemnear]

The Point with image and lord is that the lord itself is attackable and you can't copy the image with another one. Killing the lord with image in the stack will nearly kill you too. You depend on drawing at least one of the lords while Meerfolk play those set-wise.

You have to understand that Decks like zoo play ~12 removal spells +lavamancer that kill dragon and Co. regardless of their seize. You can't dodge them all. So you will be trading 2+ mana against their 1cc spells and loose tempo while being hit with creatures that ARE bigger than yours for less mana. Test this deck.

[orcanmail]

Fair comment. I was mainly looking to play a force of will creature deck because my vial goblin deck struggles to race and stop combo from going off. Maybe i should just play merfolk. Illusions RIP.




The Point with image and lord is that the lord itself is attackable and you can't copy the image with another one. Killing the lord with image in the stack will nearly kill you too. You depend on drawing at least one of the lords while Meerfolk play those set-wise.

You have to understand that Decks like zoo play ~12 removal spells +lavamancer that kill dragon and Co. regardless of their seize. You can't dodge them all. So you will be trading 2+ mana against their 1cc spells and loose tempo while being hit with creatures that ARE bigger than yours for less mana. Test this deck.

[Nerrzull]

Just take the look at my deck!

http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?21265-Illusions-THE-next-big-legacy-tribal-deck!-You-heard-it-here-first...

and

http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/deck.asp?deck_id=867519

And don't ponder too much on it.
It is as good as it gets so far.