Vise-icles: BWg prison fun

[GrimoirePath]

Black Vise is back, and I have the nostalgia bug. Vise and winter orb are just too much fun. Here's the list:

4 Black vise
4 Wasteland
4 Mox diamond
4 Rishadan port
4 Winter orb
4 Deathrite shaman
4 Dark Ritual
3 Enlightened tutor
3 Swords to Plowshares
3 Crop rotation
2 Aether Vial
2 Crucible of worlds
2 Ensnaring bridge
2 Braids, cabal minion
1 Karakas
1 Tabernacle at the Pendrell Vale

2 Swamp
2 plains
2 forest
1 bayou
2 scrubland
4 fetchland

Its pretty simple. Try to slam down a Black Vise and Winter Orb as quickly as possible. Wastes and Ports keep them off mana, and Wastes can be recurred through Crucible. Mox Diamond and Deathrite Shaman keep you in mana through the orb. Braids kills their permanents, and you bounce her back to your hand with Karakas so she doesnt hit you. Aether Vial puts her right back into play. Eat instants and sorceries with Deathrite to keep hitting them for damage while hiding behind your ensnaring bridge and Tabernacle if you must.

Its big time fun police.

Sideboard options would include Abrupt Decays, possible Trinisphere or Speheres of Resistance, Choke, maybe even The Rack.

[jrsthethird]

Tons of artifact lock pieces, but no Sol lands/Mox Opals? Dark Ritual is nice but a single City/Tomb can untap under the Orb and already breaks the synergy. Plus City works great with Crucible too.

Aether Vial seems bad in a deck with 6 creatures.

[GrimoirePath]

Mox Opals might be the way to go. Recurring lands sacrificed to mox diamond through crucible was why I chose them. The aether vial is primarily for Braids, to cast her through your own winter orbs, over and over again, as you bounce her with Karakas.

Sol lands may absolutely be the way to go here, too. A city of traitors and a mox diamond turn one could knock out a Vise and a Winter Orb, which would be ideal. Dark ritual can do the same, and provide food for the Deathrite shaman.

[mistercakes]

can we get a nether void or two in there!? trinisphere or chalice could be great (after you resolve a vise), or blood moon....just thinking of ways to lock opponent out the game for long enough for vise to have an impact.

[GrimoirePath]

can we get a nether void or two in there!? trinisphere or chalice could be great (after you resolve a vise), or blood moon....just thinking of ways to lock opponent out the game for long enough for vise to have an impact.

I played a variant of this deck with maindecked trinispheres, and the return punishment can be rough. They are excellent board cards for storm and omni, however. Chalice might have a home, but there are so many one drop spells, that they seem too self limiting. Chalice in the board could be good against LED decks.

I was trying to use utility lands like ports, wastes, tabernacle, and karakas, so blood moon seems out of place. It also only has usage against decks that arent heavy on basics.

Nether void could be awesome. It can be grabbed with enlightened tutor, too, when the time is right and the board is good to lock.

[jrsthethird]

Chalice and Vise don't go very well together, but combined with Winter Orb it's not terrible. When they're casting 1cc spells and getting them countered to keep hand size under 4, they have to spend their 1 untapped land to do so. It's an interesting "punisher" synergy, but traditionally those punisher tactics don't really work out.

Not to mention a resolved Chalice on 0 kills your Moxes and Chalice on 1 hits a third of your own deck.

[GrimoirePath]

I have been playing around with the vise prison deck, and have made a few changes with the build. With various lands doing the heavy lifting as mana denial pieces, it was too tempting to use Dark Confidants to speed up play. Using Crucible of Worlds, Exploration, and a Zuran Orb is a great way to keep destroying opponent lands. When Winter Orb is in play, you can sacrifice your tapped out lands to Zuran Orb, and bring them right back into play untapped. The extra life relieves some of the presssure brought on by Dark Cinfidant.

One Green Suns Zenith helps find Confidant and Deathrite Shaman, Crop Rotation grabs utility lands, and Enlightened Tutor finds Exploration, and any Artifacts. I have one Mikokoro, Center of the Sea which can draw an expensive card before Dark Confidant draws it, or even it can start filling the opponents hand when they are locked out.

Balancing between Swords and Abrupt Decay is tricky, Karakas is in the sideboard, and I have been toying a few alternate win conditions. Right now the deck is starting to feel pretty good.

List:

4 Mox Diamond
4 Black Vise
4 Enlightened Tutor
4 Exploration
3 crop rotation
3 Dark Ritual
2 Crucible of Worlds
2 Winter Orb
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Swords to Plowshares
1 Zuran Orb
1 Green Suns Zenith
1 Ensnaring Bridge


4 Deathrite Shaman
3 Dark Confidant

4 Wasteland
4 Rishadan Port
4 Fetchland
2 Scrubland
2 Bayou
1 Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
1 Glacial Chasm
1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
1 Tomb of Urami

[square_two]

One Green Suns Zenith helps find Confidant and Deathrite Shaman, Crop Rotation grabs utility lands, and Enlightened Tutor finds Exploration, and any Artifacts.

Just quickly wanted to say that GSZ won't be able to grab Confidant, it is only for green creatures.

[GrimoirePath]

Just quickly wanted to say that GSZ won't be able to grab Confidant, it is only for green creatures.

Ah, bugger! Dont know how I glossed over that.

[GrimoirePath]

Playtested a bunch against RUG Delver. Did no sideboarding. Once my friend figured out what I was up to, the best way to lock me out was killing my green sources, by countering diamonds and wasting bayous. Switching a basic forest for that.

My wins were when i could heavily deny mana, usually through wasteland and crucible. Playing around so many counters was extremely difficult. Sideboard against decks without basics might include more ghost quarters.

I really wanted the nostalgia here, but winter orb just isnt good in this build. No biggie. That allowed me to pull some Swords, add some Maze of Ith, and one more abrupt decay. Delver is so huge in the metagame that tweaking towards its speed and strategy seems to make sense. Mazes are better with Dark Confidant, crucible, exploration, and diamond, etc. The ability of the deck to hit large for damage isnt there, so handing the opponent life with swords was not fun. Turn one delver kills were its best play, but even that could be countered.

White only exists in the deck now for enlightened tutor which I may even only run three of.