Scepter Chant

[mrblueduck]

Overview:

I've been playing legacy for a few months, and now attempting to build my own Legacy deck. The deck is based on the old extended scepter chant combo but also has the infinite life gain ability built in. Similar to Cephalid Breakfast you can get limitless triggers. Although in this deck you will use those to make your clerics have infinite toughness so you can sacrifice them to gain that toughness in life.

Decklist:

Creatures
4 Daru Spiritualist
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 Mother of Runes
4 Nomads en-Kor
2 Task Force
3 Shaman en-Kor

Artifacts
3 AEther Vial
3 Isochron Scepter

Instant/Sorcery
4 Brainstorm
3 Condemn
1 Eladamri's Call
4 Orim's Chant
4 Ponder
1 Twisted Image
1 Worthy Cause

Land:
4 Flooded Strand
1 Hallowed Fountain
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Plains
1 Savannah
4 Starlit Sanctum
1 Tropical Island
3 Tundra
1 Windswept Heath

Sideboard
2 Chill
2 Curfew
4 Force of Will
2 Krosan Grip
1 Purify the Grave
1 Spell Pierce
1 Stony Silence
2 Tormod's Crypt


Win condition :
I don't like the win condition. However I assume most people will simply scoop to a resolved infinite life combo. If they don't, I can do lethal combat damage, or discard Emrakul, effectively waiting them out. A question there is : Is it ethical to bluff/lie and them and tell them I have plenty of ways to win once I combo out to force a concession, or is that lie just another aspect of the game? I could add some 'win more' effects, but I don't like stuffing the deck with Test of Endurance. Feldiar Sovereign spells in order to officially win. I would rather just have one spot dedicated in case they don't concede, and move on.

Sideboard :
I bumped the FOWs to the side, and now am questioning even that. Maybe just 4x Spell Pierce. It seems like I am not running enough blue for Force to be that effective. Everything else seems standard, except Curfew. I am hoping it can be great against aggro, saving a creature I own to removal, while forcing a creature bounce of theirs. Dunno, seems like it could be a huge tempo swing and worth a shot. Other cards that I wouldn't mind trying out would be Arcane Laboratory, (more) Twisted Image, Daze, Crop Rotation, and Brave the Elements.

Please any comments, or suggestions. It needs work, but hopefully it can become a solid combo deck. (But it needs to be better than the Cephalid breakfast combo deck, or I should just play that.) Please be as truthful and or hurtful as you need to be. I feel like I can't get good information from MTGsalvation, so I come here to see what I can find out. Thanks

[Mr. Safety]

I'm a little lost here...I don't see the infinite life combo. I'm also trying to figure out how you would get Emrakul into play.

[snappingbowls | ಠ_ಠ]

Target Daru Spiritualist or Task Force with an en-Kor to give it infinite toughness, then sac it to Starlit Sanctum for infinite life.

He doesn't play Emrakul, he just uses it so he can recycle his deck and draw his opponents out. It's a Gaea's Blessing.

[hjalte]

(Use [/cards ] tags, without the spaces around your deck!)

Have [cards]Daru Spiritualist in play and target it with fx Nomads en-Kor to give it the toughness you want, and sac it with condemn or Worthy Cause to get an arbitrary amount of life.


About the deck. This seems like a really bad mix of a combo deck with a lock deck. You want to establish a Chant lock but can you do that before Zoo kills you? Then if you get your chant lock going, how do you handle permanents already on the table? How do you handle a counterspell (Force of Will or Spell Snare) on your Isochron scepter?

The problem is, that you play a combo deck, which wants to assemble a three card combo where two of the parts are creatures and where you also want to assemble a lock. You need to be more focused for this to get any better than a Breakfast deck!

[Grollub]

I'm a little lost here...I don't see the infinite life combo. I'm also trying to figure out how you would get Emrakul into play.

Daru Spiritualist/Task Force + Nomads en-Kor/Shaman en-Kor + Starlit Sanctum/Worthy Cause (alternatively Twisted Image to just go kill him).
edit: double ninjaed :-D

Casting Emrakul is a formality once you have an arbitary amount of life (edit: oh, the deck cannot actually generate 15 mana, even with all lands in play - vial at 15!), you can also use it to just deck your opponent if he's using Humility or something alike.

______________________

Definitely go up to 4 Aether Vial, they basically make your combo uncounterable. It's obviously a lie to say you have plenty of ways to win, and in my opinion lies is unethical - so yeah... If you're going pure life.dec, you don't really need a "real" win condition - hell, I've seen life.dec win with immortal clerics beats before. :-P

Living Wish, and 4 of them. They can find any piece of your combo, and solutions + win condition.

The problem is if you don't win game 1, a smart opponent will just play out game 2 even if you get off the combo and take the game 1-0, or heaven forbid he's playing either a faster combo deck or a deck designed to win regardless of life situation (Tide/Hive Mind springs to mind). This was the primary reason life.dec was dropped in Extended for the more direct Breakfast deck.
- To be honest I don't know how to bypass this drawback. It's a fun and cool deck, but not very tournament friendly.

The most succesful solution I've seen was the Academy Rector/Test of Endurance plan, or that black enchantment (which name eludes me) that allows you to pay life for +1/+1 counters.
_________________________

Maybe change thread title to reflect this is a life.dec/scepter-chant deck and not just a traditional Scepter-Chant? ;-)

[mrblueduck]

About the deck. This seems like a really bad mix of a combo deck with a lock deck. You want to establish a Chant lock but can you do that before Zoo kills you? Then if you get your chant lock going, how do you handle permanents already on the table? How do you handle a counterspell (Force of Will or Spell Snare) on your Isochron scepter?


The chant lock handles all permanents on the table. They can't attack or cast spells, which pre sideboard, almost always cause a zoo deck to scoop game 1. For offense I can also use A Orim's Chant to stop them from countering anything, or just vial in my combo pieces. But you are very right, my deck is weak to a lot of counters. Combo decks have a hard time beating control and this deck is more acceptable to it then most.



Living Wish, and 4 of them. They can find any piece of your combo, and solutions + win condition.

I am pretty sure Eladamri's Call is better than living wish, since I can still keep the combo pieces in deck, but could be convinced otherwise.



or heaven forbid he's playing either a faster combo deck or a deck designed to win regardless of life situation (Tide/Hive Mind springs to mind). This was the primary reason life.dec was dropped in Extended for the more direct Breakfast deck.
- To be honest I don't know how to bypass this drawback. It's a fun and cool deck, but not very tournament friendly.

Well not a lot I can do for them. I can bring in all my counter magic for game 2, which should buy me a lot of time. Also a well timed silence effect, can ruin high tides day, in response to spiral or meditate.

I am interested in the history of the deck though. Did this deck turn into Cephalid Breakfast? If that is true then, well maybe this deck is just obsolete in competitive play.

[Grollub]

I am pretty sure Eladamri's Call is better than living wish, since I can still keep the combo pieces in deck, but could be convinced otherwise.
Cannot say if it's better than Call in Legacy, back in Extended I ran Living Wish + Vampiric Tutor (played WGB Life.dec before jumping on the Cephalid bandwagon). It was very nice for both tutors being able to find any combo piece. Maybe try Living Wish/Worldy Tutor?


Well not a lot I can do for them. I can bring in all my counter magic for game 2, which should buy me a lot of time. Also a well timed silence effect, can ruin high tides day, in response to spiral or meditate.
To be brutally honest, I think it's just a waste of sideboard space - stalling with hate is only useful if you have a clock. I'd say just ignore the practical unwinable matches (Tide/Hive Mind) and focus on improving the others with your board.


I am interested in the history of the deck though. Did this deck turn into Cephalid Breakfast? If that is true then, well maybe this deck is just obsolete in competitive play.
Pretty much yes. The evolution went:

Life.dec -> Cephalid Life (hybrid of both) -> Cephalid Breakfast.

Life -> Cephalid Life, was pretty much to combat the issues Life.dec had with actually finishing games and combo match-ups.

Cephalid Life -> Cephalid Breakfast, general consensus was focusing on a single route was superior. It did however hurt the RDW match up slightly, but overall improved every other.

[Gollus]

I played Life.dec for a long time but dropped it because it`s too slow/fragile/easy interrupted...

3 card combo with 2 creatures and even if you manage to combo off turn 3 you haven`t won already.

But to help you:

Have you tried Black instead of Blue?
Doran is really happy to help you to win faster!
You also may consider Diamond Valley and Mox Diamond.
My first few years with this deck were also GWu but then i tried the GWb route and go Aggro with the benefit that the combo is just a second route to win!

here's my old GWu list:

Qty Name
// Lands
1 Tundra
1 Scrubland
1 Flagstones of Trokair
1 Forest
1 Tropical Island
2 Plains
3 Diamond Valley
4 Starlit Sanctum
4 Savannah
4 Windswept Heath
4 Flooded Strand
//\\
// Creatures
1 Mother of Runes
1 Doran, the Siege Tower
1 Harmonic Sliver
3 Meddling Mage
3 Daru Spiritualist
3 Nomads en-Kor
4 Shaman en-Kor
4 Task Force
//\\
// Spells
2 Mox Diamond
4 Eladamri's Call
4 Living Wish
4 AEther Vial
//\\
// Sideboard
1 Diamond Valley
1 Harmonic Sliver
1 Meddling Mage
1 Daru Spiritualist
1 Nomads en-Kor
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Darksteel Colossus
1 True Believer
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Warrior en-Kor
1 Faerie Macabre
3 Orim's Chant

As you see very old and not up to date.

Here my slightly newer GWB list:
Qty Name
// Lands
4 Scrubland
4 Savannah
1 Swamp
1 Starlit Sanctum
4 Windswept Heath
2 Diamond Valley
2 Plains
1 Forest
4 Marsh Flats
1 Volrath's Stronghold
//\\
// Creatures
3 Nomads en-Kor
2 Task Force
3 Shaman en-Kor
3 Daru Spiritualist
3 Qasali Pridemage
3 Stoneforge Mystic
3 Knight of the Reliquary
//\\
// Spells
4 Living Wish
1 Umezawa's Jitte
4 AEther Vial
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
2 Vindicate
//\\
// Sideboard
1 Diamond Valley
1 Nomads en-Kor
1 Daru Spiritualist
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Doran, the Siege Tower
1 Bone Shredder
2 Extirpate
3 Krosan Grip
3 Thoughtseize

This list is from the time around Worldwake was released.

So maybe these lists help you a little bit.