Deck: UR Thing Control

[malfie13]

UR Thing in the Ice Tempo

I have been thinking really hard about what the best shell is for a Thing in the Ice based shell for a long time. I tried a nic fit Punishing Fire and Life from the Loam shell, and I have tried a hard walker type of deck. I finally realized that, in my opinion, the best shell is tempo. I liken this to UR Spells or UR Delver, but with different threats. Here is what I am currently working with. Love to hear what everyone thinks! I will be taking this to a local event to test as soon as possible.

In theory, this has a lot of cheap interaction, mixed with deck manipulation, spell recursion and hard draw from Bedlam Reveler. I think there are a bunch of slots available for flex, and this deck is really in its earliest stages. I have included an Underground Sea for sideboard cards, but I'm unclear if its better of worse to try heavy interaction for what on paper should be harder matchups.

I am currently including zero Wastelands, ala UR Delver. I am not sure if this is correct or not. I suppose I will find out soon.

Deck: Legacy UR Thing Tempo.dec

Counts : 60 main / 15 sideboard

Creatures:10
3 Snapcaster Mage
4 Thing in the Ice
1 Vendilion Clique
2 Bedlam Reveler

Sorceries:4
4 Ponder

Instants:28
4 Brainstorm
4 Lightning Bolt
1 Spell Pierce
3 Stifle
4 Thought Scour
4 Daze
2 Fire // Ice
2 Price of Progress
4 Force of Will

Lands:18
2 Flooded Strand
3 Island
1 Misty Rainforest
2 Mountain
2 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island

Sideboard:15
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Rough // Tumble
2 Flusterstorm
1 Spell Pierce
1 Echoing Truth
3 Surgical Extraction
2 Diabolic Edict
2 Kolaghan's Command
1 Submerge

[Fox]

http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?30486-TITI-Twister-Breaking-quot-Thing-In-The-Ice-quot&highlight=thing+in+the+ice has most of the discussion on Thing in the Ice. One of the larger issues with the UR graveyard shenanigans versions is that they die to Leyline/RiP. Your list lacks Dack/P-Fire CA engine so it doesn't fold quite as hard to hard yard hate, but given how slow of a clock it's putting up, I think it's hard to justify TITI over 4x TNN (turn into blue Moon).

As a side note, the sideboard needs 2-3 REB effects. Your list right now already going to struggle vs ~20% of the meta (miracles and Grixis jammy jams) simply b/c it's playing TITI. The whole idea of boarding into Grixis value schemes (K-Comm) kinda means your SB strategy is to turn into a different [and worse] version of Grixis. This is one of the more frustrating things in legacy right now is that any pile of independently good cards, without a central & warping strategy (like 'I'm gonna play Blood Moons main' or 'I'm gonna do the Dack P-Fire thing'), is just a worse version of Grixis.

[FTW]

Looks fun. I always wanted to see Thing in Legacy.

Why no Delvers? Even Modern Thing decks run it. With such a high spell count and so many cantrips, it fits well.

Also, why Stifle? Is it as good without Wasteland?

Is 2 Underground Sea too many just for sideboard cards? The rest of the time it's a basic Island vulnerable to Wasteland and Blood Moon.

[thefreakaccident]

I love Thing in the Ice, but i'm not too sure if its consistent enough to be a primary threat in legacy.

-It dies to removal. Granted, most critters don't have hexproof/shroud so dying to removal is irrelevant, but the fact that it usually dies before flipping is a major problem. Turn 1 plays like Delver open you up to dazing a turn 1 play/removal spell, or getting in free swings while they cantrip or try to add to the board themselves.

-It requires an investment of spells before becoming a threat. This means you are burning your spells early and can sometimes run out of gas just to bring your threat online. Other threats do not need as much investment. This is the same issue with arclight phoenix. It can pay in dividends, or be answered and leave you with nothing.

My hunch is that this deck will be explosive and powerful, but will suffer from some issues with consistency in regards to closing out a game when compared to other tempo based strategies. I'm not too sure how to fix this, i've been wanting Thing to be a strong finisher in legacy for a while.

[FTW]

I'm not too sure how to fix this, i've been wanting Thing to be a strong finisher in legacy for a while.

If Gitaxian Probe and Treasure Cruise were still legal (or even DTT), I bet Thing would be a lot more consistent.

Without cards like that, you just can't afford to be as aggressive burning cantrips to enable creatures. You don't want to cast Brainstorm haphazardly just to enable a threat. The card needs to be saved and used strategically to sculpt your hand. Creatures like this can threaten to make all your cantrips worse by encouraging you to use them at the wrong time. Phoenix is even worse, just to enable a 3/2 flyer you could have cast for 1 mana (Delver). For Phoenix the payoff isn't worth the investment. At least for Thing, there's a large payoff for flipping it and you don't have to cast all the spells in one turn.

For Thing to work, I think you just need to drop it and then play normal Legacy. If it happens to flip a few turns later after you cast some spells you needed to cast, great. If not, oh well. Don't blow your load trying to enable it, because that's how you fall into major tempo blowouts from a well-time StP or Fatal Push.