You're a Wizard Harry

[thefreakaccident]

So, basically what we are dealing with here is a coalition of humans, wizards, and they're slaves working together for domination over noncreature spells.

The list:

lands//22
4 flooded strand
3 polluted delta
1 marsh flats
4 tundra
2 underground sea
4 cavern of souls
2 island
1 plains
1 dust bowl

critters//32
4 sage of spityr
4 cursecatcher
4 stormscape apprentice
4 patron wizard
4 thalia, guardian of thraben
4 glowrider
4 grand arbiter Augustine IV
4 stoneforge mystic

spells//6
4 thorn of amethyst
1 umezawa's jitte
1 batterskull



I'm pretty happy with the decklist overall. The level of taxing is something the format has yet seen, enabling patron wizard's true potential as a lock piece. The deck's weakness is ramp agro, mainly elves and maverick/cascade, although it seems to have a decent matchup against other traditional forms of agro like goblins and merfolk. Where the deck truly shines is in its' matchup vs control and combo, where they're stripped of their cost efficiency. Often times casting just one spell is difficult, and casting two in a turn is unthinkable for opponents other than on the first/second turns of the game.

I want to try and keep the sideboard creature heavy, but im not strictly opposed to low mana noncreature alternatives.


There may still be some tweaks to the deck that are necessary, but I will leave that up for discussion, as well as any cool critter based sideboard tech you guys might have.

[HPB_Eggo]

If you're really looking to abuse Patron Wizard, consider running Stonybrook Schoolmaster. Way back when there was a deck with SotF and a bunch of other stuff called Winter Wizards that won off the back of that combo with Scryb Sprite and Winter Orb. It wasn't amazing - and neither is your deck, tbh, particularly now that Abrupt Decay permeates the format - but you might learn some bits and pieces to help you out by looking it up.

[HammafistRoob]

It looks like you could get tons of mileage out of Aether Vial, Wasteland, and Rishadan Port.

[civet five]

It looks like you could get tons of mileage out of Aether Vial, Wasteland, and Rishadan Port.

Aether Vial, yes.

Port or Wasteland? Maybe.

Port+Wasteland with that greedy manabase? Almost certainly not.

I'm not convinced that the Wizard package is necessary in a Thalia/Glowrider/GAA4 build. Separately, I think that Wizards deserves its own build. Also, I think both are severely underpowered to be competitive in Legacy. The best Fish deck is RUG Delver, so much so that Merfolk and Slivers aren't even close to good enough. I've tried the mono blue Wizards build and its fun for playing with friends at the kitchen table (and my Voidmage Prodigies are beautiful), but I think your best bet is to slim down the mana base, and tear apart DnT into a heavy tax build:

Thalia
Glowrider
GAA4
Winter Orb
Thorn of Amethyst?
Sphere of Resistance?
Lodestone Golem?

these form a core of cards to build around.

[HammafistRoob]

I obviously wasn't suggesting to just cram Vial, Waste, and Port into the deck. I think you're right that the Wizards are probably too weak/cute, and he should probably just focus on the Taxing effects. This is where the shell I mentioned would do work, and it would probably just be D&T with extra taxing and some blue stuff. Doesn't sound bad considering how well D&T has been doing.

[Barook]

No love for Meddling Mage? It's both a human and a wizard while blocking important key spells of your opponent.

[FTW]

I would play this more Wizard-heavy. I think 4 Thalia + 4 Glowrider + 4 Grand Arbiter + no way to interact with the board + 4 Thorn + no mana denial is overkill and too slow. Those Thorns are going to cost a fortune and Deathrite Shaman is just going to drain you to death while you sit there tapping Tarmogoyfs. The irony is you still lose to combo, especially on the draw, because the taxing comes down too slow to stop Belcher, All Spells, Elves, Tin Fins, Dredge, etc.

I think you'd get more bang out of a combined mana denial + taxing strategy instead of just turning into Scandinavia on crack. I think you also really need counterspells. Yeah, they suck with Thalias, but losing to turn 1 Belcher/Griselbrand sucks even worse.

Here's how I'd attempt to build Wizards to abuse Patron Wizard... and if this is too ineffective then D&T is the deck to play:



//Creatures: 26
4 Sage of Epityr
4 Cursecatcher
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Meddling Mage
4 Voidmage Prodigy
4 Patron Wizard
2 Vendilion Clique
2 Aven Mindcensor

//Spells: 13
4 Aether Vial
4 Force of Will
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Umezawa's Jitte
//maybe should be Brainstorm or Daze instead? but we already have those on 1cc bodies

//Lands: 21
4 Wasteland
4 Cavern of Souls
2 Rishadan Port
4 Flooded Strand
1 Misty Rainforest
2 Tundra
1 Plains
2 Island
1 Karakas

//Sideboard - pretty rough:
3 Spell Pierce
1 Flusterstorm
4 Rest in Peace
2 Aven Mimeomancer
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Pithing Needle
1 Umezawa's Jitte

[FTW]

Or, if you want to go the Taxes & Taxes approach in monowhite, for a more stable manabase, ...


//Creatures: 30
4 Mother of Runes
4 Judge's Familiar
4 Weathered Wayfarer
4 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Phyrexian Revoker
3 Glowrider
3 Mangara of Corondor
2 Flickerwisp

//Spells: 10
4 Aether Vial
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Batterskull
1 Umezawa's Jitte

//Lands: 21
3 Karakas
4 Wasteland
4 Rishadan Port
10 Plains

//Sideboard:
4 Rest in Peace
2 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
4 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Leonin Relic-Warder
1 Flickerwisp

[civet five]

we forgot about the 1/1 Flying U/W Daze. Also Mana Tithe, because that might actually be a viable sideboard card against combo

[HammafistRoob]

Or, if you want to go the Taxes & Taxes approach in monowhite, for a more stable manabase, ...


//Creatures: 30
4 Mother of Runes
4 Judge's Familiar
4 Weathered Wayfarer
4 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Phyrexian Revoker
3 Glowrider
3 Mangara of Corondor
2 Flickerwisp

//Spells: 10
4 Aether Vial
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Batterskull
1 Umezawa's Jitte

//Lands: 21
3 Karakas
4 Wasteland
4 Rishadan Port
10 Plains

//Sideboard:
4 Rest in Peace
2 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
4 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Leonin Relic-Warder
1 Flickerwisp


This list looks pretty hot. However, I'm not a fan of Weathered Wayfarer here, and without him you'd still have 12 one drops not counting StP. You want your curve to be as Vial friendly as possible. Flagstones of Trokair gets more enticing if your mono white. My overall suggestions for the main would be -4 Plains, -4 Wayfarer, +4 Flagstones, +2 Revoker, +1 Mindsensor, +1 Sword of Fire and Ice.

You really don't want your SFMs to become Squires, and it will happen if you run four with only two equipments in the deck. The pro red, extra reach and draw power should be quite relevant. Running Mom makes SoFI just that much better, helping you avoid Tempo blowouts that equipment can sometimes cause, or just sneaking guys through blockers. I also think Lodestone Golem could be a beating here. He's a four turn clock and an additional lock piece, my only gripe with him is the 3 toughness.

[FTW]

Good call, forgot about Flagstones.

I really want a mana denial deck that can abuse Weathered Wayfarer to dig up multiple Wastelands and blow the opponent out. With 4 Flagstones and 4 Wasteland you can "cheat" by activating him with the Flagstones trigger or Wasteland activation or fetchland activation on the stack. There was a UW deck a while ago that abused this really well, also running 4 Daze and Fathom Seer. The synergy with Daze was pretty incredible, allowing you to artificially lower your land count for profit while punishing their weakened manabase. Maybe there's another deck possible with 4 Stifle, 4 Daze, 4 Wasteland, 4 Weathered Wayfarer, UW fetches, and other tools. Problem is it would be spell-heavy and synergize poorly with Thalia.

Cutting Wayfarer does free up room for the other 2 MD Revokers which seem to be very strong in traditional Death and Taxes right now. I like it.

Lodestone works if you have an active vial, but otherwise it seems expensive for a vial aggro deck that wants to spend mana on Ports, and it makes all your dudes cost more if you don't have a Vial. IDK. I think it fits a lot better in a deck with Sol Lands, Chalices and a high artifact count. Otherwise it hurts you a lot and the body isn't that impressive, dying to Nimble Mongoose and Bolt and other things. With Sol Lands its easier to cast and with Chalice @ 1 and mana denial, Lodestone basically makes their whole deck uncastable (can't cast 1cc spells, 2cc spells cost 3 and good luck keeping 3 lands...). Here it seems like just a bad Glowrider with a bigger body. Extra equipment is probably better?

Any value in running Leonin Arbiter? It blows with SFM but without Wayfarer and fetches this is pretty assymetrically in our favour!