The Master Deck

[phazonmutant]

So I hear they reprinted Time Walk. After brainstorming what decks really want the hassle of setup for the reward of extra turns, only two really came to mind: an aggro-control deck like Delver or Loitering souls, and combo.

Pyromancer Ascension seems like a natural place to start copying time walk, so let's try to make a deck that abuses Temporal Mastery. As always, I want the deck to do something when it doesn't draw Ascension or Mastery.

Here's where I'm at after a couple of iterations playing against myself.
2 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
4 Pyromancer Ascension
4 Brainstorm
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Dark Ritual
3 Past in Flames
4 Ponder
4 Rite of Flame
4 Tendrils of Agony
4 Thoughtseize
4 Temporal Mastery

2 City of Brass
1 Island
2 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Polluted Delta

Some thoughts:
-Playing only 2 LEDs looks super janky. I just want to try to make the deck as fast as possible and I think Lotus Petal does a better job at that, but it's also absurdly powerful in a Past in Flames deck
-The manabase looks like Wasteland does a number on it. City of Brass maybe should be basics or more duals.
-Playing 4 Tendrils allows for interesting lines like playing Tendrils for 10 after they counter one of your important spells like Ascension or Mastery
-Don't try to go for the turn 2 Mastery. Save it for when you can try to go off through a counter.

I'm not sure if the deck needs more disruption or not. It seems like it has the power to slug through multiple counterspells based on a couple of games of testing just because of inherent 2-1s (Force of Will and Past in Flames) and must-answer threats.

What do you think?

[Teknique]

You realize you didn't put Temporal Mastery in the list right :laugh:

And seeing as it's only 56 cards, I assume there are 4 of them.

4 Thoughtseize, Cities, and Fetches. Seems very weak to delver and burn, as you've knocked 1/3 of your own life out setting up for turn 3/4; At which point you're dead. Your disruption needs to be something other than thoughtseize.

[phazonmutant]

^_^" nice catch. Updated.

That's a good point. Between pain and Wasteland, I could see delver racing. What would you recommend? I tried Force of Will, and needless to say it was awful. Duress doesn't get the things you need against Maverick - Thalia and Teeg. The deck can win through Thalia if it gets Ascension online, but I don't think there's going to be enough time most games.

[Vacrix]

Umm... you play 4 protection and Pyromancers Ascension. I have no idea what you are trying to do here. There's no point to taking extra conditional turns in Storm Combo because an optimized deck playing LED can win turns 1-3 consistently. Your build can't even do that and its practically protectionless (4 Thoughtseize?).