Dark Stage

[klaus]

So I recently picked up door's take on Maverick featuring the Dark Depths / Thespian Stage combo, which - even though both cards are just one ofs won me about a quarter of my games. That's a pretty powerful trick I realized - why not build a deck around it?
"Dark Stage" is actually quite solid at ignoring combo hate such as Gaddock, Thalia, Canonist and the likes. It might fold to a resolved Wasteland, STP, Terminus and sack effects, which seem to make the strategy quite vulnerable at first sight. However, 4 Needle and 3 Not from this World, 4 FoW MD is a solid start to come out on top.
What I like about the deck is that is super resilient in many other ways, as it does not rely on casting 10 spells for lethal storm, has more disruption than most combo decks, with 4 Needles virtually providing the most solid mana base. It goldfish-wins elegantly on turn 5 in average, but still has some room for improvement.
Atm I feel I have common opposing aka. Karakas, Wasteland, and creature removal in check with the counter hate added to the MD, but it seems pesky flyers such as Baleful Strix pose yet another hurdle, which is why I might up the E. Truth count back to 4.
Crits = very welcome!

EDIT: updated list

Tutors:
4 Living Wish - best card in the deck
4 Crop Rotation- sucks in multiples, considering going down to 3

Disruption Suite:
4 Pithing Needle
4 FoW
3 Not of this World
3 Echoing Truth
3 Flusterstorm

Cantrips:
4 Ponder
4 BS
4 Preordain - upped the cantrip count, since I found myself in topdeck mode too often

Other:
4 Lotus Petal

Land:
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Flooded Strand
1 Wooded Foothills
3 Thespian Stage
3 Dark Depths
4 Tropical Island
1 Island
1 Forest
1 Glacial Chasm

SB:
1 Thespian Stage
1 Dark Depths
1 Glacial Chasm
1 Fluster Storm
2 Spell Pierce
2 Misdirection
3 Ground Seal
2 Life from the Loam
2 meta slots

Cards I considered:
* Coiling Oracle (seems too slow)
* Stifle (Needle and NftWorld seem better at protecting stuff, but Stifle is more versatile)
* Tsabo's Web: just underpowered
* Grip (SB - not enough targets outside of Ensaring Bridge and Humility, both of which are rarely played, plus E. Truth already solves such issues)
* LftLoam + Intuition MD (seem to slow)
* Sylvan Library (too slow and 8 life for a "draw 2" looks bad, considering many games are won on low life already w/o SL)
* Fog effects in the board to buy extra turns
*

[adrieng]

There is already a thread for this deck,
you dind't even mention why you play these cards.
Why no vampire hexmage ?
Why only 2 pithing needle when wasteland is more than 50% of the decks.
Why fow ? To counter wasteland Oh sorry it is a land ...
Why no steely resolve/not of this world/sylvan safekeeper. Karakas = GG
Why predict ? Sylvan library/sylvan scrying/expedtion map/into the north is way better.
Why no maze of ith ?
Why only 3 thespian/dark depth ?
Why ponder/brainstorm when you can play 2 mana tutor.

[klaus]

.

Thanks for your feedback, some of it is actually quite helpful. I wasn't able to find the thread - would you care to share the link?
@ mods, feel free to move it to the other thread, if it makes sense to you. However I feel rather out of place in the other thread, since all builds incorporate alternative wincons aka. actual creatures.

Why no vampire hexmage? --> don't want to add another color just for one card, and BB is not easy to achieve sometimes
Why only 2 pithing needle when wasteland is more than 50% of the decks --> upped to 4 - cheers
Why fow ? To counter wasteland Oh sorry it is a land --> STP, Edict effects, Terminus, Jace, etc. // if you don't face any of these you can still counter their toughest threat
Why no steely resolve/not of this world/sylvan safekeeper. Karakas = GG - generally I find FoW more versatile, though the Karakas argument is vaild, but then again there are 4 Needles and 4 Stifles in the MD - still need to do a ton of testing though.
Why predict ? Sylvan library/sylvan scrying/expedtion map/into the north is way better. - I cut it, but the basic idea is that predict not only finds the combo, but also means to protect it, mana producing land if you need etc.
Why no maze of ith ? It just doesn't seem to belong. I don't go the 43 lands route but am more dedicated to the combo. 4 Stifle and 4 Echoing truth, 4 FoW can buy enough time and are more versatile.
Why only 3 thespian/dark depth? Living Wish + SB
Why ponder/brainstorm when you can play 2 mana tutor. See my answer to predict.

[adrieng]

Here is the link with more than 10 pages of discussion,

you can find some lists and some feedback there :

http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?26107-Deck-Dark-Depths (page 3)

No list is already clearly well define, but we have all our brew (I am actually on a GRb list which I'll test this friday).

Sorry for the rudness of my critique.

[klaus]

I gotta admit this deck isn't tons of fun to play, since there's not much interaction going on and games usually have just two paths:
1.) a 20/20 indestructable flyer eats their face on turn 4/5.
2.) I die

That being said the list feels very powerful overall, and I'd definitely give it a spin at a local tourney soon.

[KazinMtg]

I was messing around with the deck right after they made the legend change, and I found expedition map to be very useful for the straight combo version of the deck. I was also playing black for hexmage though, so it was a different style.

The other version I found to be quite interesting was the vial maverick version with weathered wayfarer, and knight of the reliquary making the combo happen with hatebears to slow the game until you get there, and sylvan safekeeper/mom for protection. Just something else to consider.