Angry Ooze

[FoolofaTook]

I've been working on this Necrotic Ooze list for awhile. It's kind of promising but I'm looking for feedback and ways to make it more consistent. Basically it's a meld of good stuff from Jund and about 12 cards that support the combo, many of which are pretty decent on their own.

Angry Ooze

Creatures

4 Deathrite Shaman
2 Putrid Imp
4 Fauna Shaman
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Necrotic Ooze
1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Anger
1 Phyrexian Devourer
1 Triskelion

Not Creatures

3 Thoughtseize
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Abrupt Decay
2 Living Wish

Lands Not Creatures

4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Bloodstained Mire
1 Wooded Foothills
4 Bayou
3 Badlands
1 Taiga
2 Swamp
1 Forest
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Volrath's Stronghold

Sideboard and Wishboard

1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
1 Putrid Imp
1 Necrotic Ooze
1 Phyrexian Devourer
1 Triskelion
2 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Krosan Grip
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Golgari Charm
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Sudden Spoiling
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Pyroblast

How it works: the point of the list is to either get an Ooze combo rolling or to aggro the opponent out with Goyfs, DRS, Fauna Shaman, etc.

The combos are Necrotic Ooze with Phyrexian Devourer and Triskelion in the GY for instant speed damage that is almost impossible to respond too once it gets going or Ooze + Devourer + Imp in the GY for a flying huge beater. The aggro is usually Anger + Goyfs for an alpha strike the opponent doesn't see coming with the Goyfs tending to be big because it's easy to get an artifact creature in the GY alongside the lands, sorcery's and instants likely to be there. Now and then just Goyf + Volrath's Stronghold is enough to exhaust the opponent's resources and beat them down.

Living Wish keeps the combo alive through almost anything and it can also go get The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale against D&T or a EtW token dump or the like. Tabernacle makes D&T a very sad puppy if they've already used a Wasteland against a Bayou and they do this reflexively early on in games. You'd think Tabernacle would work against Elves also but it doesn't, just dragging the game out because generally they have more than enough mana to pay upkeep and still do things. It does slow down Craterhoof Behemoth's arrival for awhile but that's not where you beat Elves, it's where you lose slowly and agonizingly instead of BOOM - OVER.

The problems at this point: the list is a 60/40 list at this point. It can either be absolutely dominant against a wide range of archetypes or it can fizzle miserably (again, against a wide range of archetypes.) It has a horrible matchup against Burn that is basically unwinnable unless they draw terribly. The Lightning Bolts and Abrupt Decays are in basically just to manage opposing Deathrite Shamans who hurt the list badly if they stick around. It's possible to play around them due to almost everything happening at instant speed but once the opponent knows what's going on they have ways to deal with that also.

Things I've already tried in the combo department: Sylvan Safekeeper was initially in to give the Fauna Shamans and Necrotic Oozes Shroud. The cost of activating it is too expensive to use early and once an Ooze is in play the game is pretty much over most of the time even if they have removal so the safekeepers came out. Lotleth Trolls were in the initial build for creature discard, regeneration and further aggro potential but they're too slow to really make that work. I'd never replace Goyf with them and I wound up putting in the Putrid Imps (4, then 3, and finally 2 with 1 in the SB which is the right number.) Griselband was used briefly as a 1-of for draw but he's not worth it without the Lifelink attack potential. Too often I am low enough on life that activating the ability with the Ooze was bad overall. Pack Rat to make multiple Oozes - just bleah, that's all I can say. This might work in Modern (maybe) but it has no place in Legacy that I can see. I've considered Spike Feeder against Burn but it is slow and probably wouldn't make a big difference.

Card advantage/tutors that I've tried: Oath of Ghouls works but it is conditional and much, much worse than just playing Squee, Goblin Nabob. The Fauna Shamans are great. Living Wish is good. When I'm going to get a Putrid Imp, Phyrexian Devourer or Triskelion it is really good. When I'm going to get a Necrotic Ooze it is so-so because I either have to wait a turn to use it or turn Daze back on again. It's sorcery speed so it's one of the few combo related effects in the list that the opponent can effectively respond too.

Things I would like to fit in but just no room at the Inn: I really want 3 Sensei's Divining Top in the list but just cannot find room. I'd love a Sylvan Library or two but it would cost me the wishes and suddenly the opponent's GY hate is a factor game two onwards whereas otherwise it really isn't. None of the too-hand tutors from the library work because they all have restrictions or are too expensive. I'd like Liliana of the Veil in the list and I very briefly tried her out but she cost me either the wishes or Hymns and neither of those is a good trade off. Garruk Wildspeaker is great but not in this list. Umezawa's Jitte was in the list and in the sideboard and while it is good there's just no room.

So I'm currently trying to get this from the edge of Cool Things into the realm of Solid Things. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

One note is that the cheap removal and discard have to stay in the list. DRS is the big killer that has to be handled and the discard is good early against the opponent and good late on myself to setup the combo with cards for which I had no discard outlet available.

[thefreakaccident]

I don't really have anything useful to say at the moment, but I can definitely say that you've gotten my attention. I really like the deck, the concept is solid, and frankly, I've missed good old fashioned survival decks, even if it's a combo. I will probably join alongside you in testing this bad boy soon. Comments/Suggestions/Concerns to come.

[Megadeus]

Maybe toss in a griselderp just because that being in the yard with an ooze out is pretty dope

[apple713]

I'm pretty sure you go aggro loam with this strategy and hope to dredge the few pieces you need t grave. fauna is nice but probably unreliable cause she has a big target on her head. if you are going to use her as a strategy the deck is too slow for legacy. also, ooze works with devoted druid, morsel hoarder, and a number of cards that allow you to funnel mana through, shiv an hell kite / and my favorite Scholar of Athreos (doesn't target)

buried alive works, and possibly intuition. loam strategy would allow for punishing fire and grove of burnwillows.

jund is a pretty bad shell imo unless you do something great with it. adding the cards you did only weakens jund instead of offsetting its weaknesses with a strength.

Edit * entomb! <--- used to be banned for a reason. use it.

[thefreakaccident]

Adding entomb would make the loam route more reliable.

[FoolofaTook]

The Entomb route is done much better in Griselband Reanimator than it would be here. I don't think the list can use Entomb or Buried Alive or any of the other preferred methods to put creatures in the GY. I did consider both methods but they require other supporting cards to function well and they do nothing to disrupt the opponent, which is the key to the list working as well as it does already. You have to have the bolts, decays and discard or the list is just suboptimal combo that goes off slower than Griselband. I considered Grisly Salvage as well, since it is not card disadvantage, however it's still not quite good enough to do what I want.

Fauna Shaman is a bit slow however it also feeds multiple paths to victory in the list. It doesn't draw removal as often as you'd think it would because DRS is an auto-dead most of the time. Then you put out a Fauna Shaman and it lives long enough to do something useful half the time. If the hand has a Goyf and Fauna Shaman then I put out the Goyf after the DRS and the Fauna Shaman then gets the 2 or 3 turns necessary to end the game somehow. If we're not talking StP, Council's Judgement or Terminus I don't really care if the Fauna Shaman gets killed because I have 8 more in the list between the 3 other Fauna Shamans, 3 Necrotic Oozes and 2 Living Wish. If it's exiled or put on the bottom of the library, well then that's a bit of a problem.

The thing about the list that works right now is that it is mid-range combo, which is a very hard thing for a lot of lists to deal with, particularly if you can get to the inflection point where both players are low on cards and nearing top deck mode. That's why the discard and removal is so important. It's not Jund quality card advantage with every other spell being a 2-for-1 but it meets the necessary disruption to get to the mid-game. The disruption in the sideboard furthers the goal against specific lists, with sweepers, counters and GY hate that doesn't hit the list itself.

The problem is finding the combo in the mid-game after I've gotten there. A hand that is heavy on disruption is also light on combo pieces and creatures in general and it's easy to get bogged down after stabilizing the game state on turn 4. That's where the fizzle in the combo comes in.

If I could find a way to get the tops in I would seriously consider Life from the Loam as well. It has the draw back that then I'd need 3 Wastelands and 4 mana is hard to come by in a Wasteland build, however it would also give another path to victory via Wasteland lock so it is an interesting concept. I'd need a way to generate dredge outside the draw phase though and the cycle lands are iffy for that unless I'm just going straight loam. SDT would provide that option as well as giving me good selection when I choose to keep it on the board instead of putting it back on top repeatedly.