[Deck] TEP (The Epic Pit)

[Mackan]

https://i.ibb.co/pnF4RZN/TEPbanner.jpg (https://ibb.co/qxQmW9h)

Table of contents
1) Overview - about the deck
2) Card choices
3) Sideboard
4) How to play the deck
5) Decklist
6) Resources

Overview - The Epic Pit

The Epic Pit (or TEP for short) is named after the card “Empty the Pits” which is one of the wincons in the deck. Not to be confused by TES which is another (clearly worse) Empty-deck.

This deck is inspired by the modern version played by the MTGO user “Ftzz”. You can find out more about that deck here (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF6z1boML9F9bYrt2PVrWBw).

In Legacy, unlike Modern, we get access to a lot more interaction, power and a deeper card pool. My version is still mostly a control deck with a combo finish (similar to my favorite deck, Spiral Tide) but at the same time also a Nic-Fit variant. I figured the only reasonable way to put more lands into play in legacy is the Veteran Explorer/Cabal Therapy combo. I chose to leave the similarities with the archetype Nic-Fit to this duo only, so none of the hyped 5+ drop creatures from the last couple of years are in my deck.

The deck looks to control the game long enough and stick a Wilderness Reclamation to effectively double up on mana for the rest of the game. With all this mana we use Cunning Wish which will give us access to answers for most troublesome boardstates or a way to (eventually) win the game.

Winning can be done in a few different ways the most common is the Blue Sun’s Zenith kill. Recast Nexus of Fate until you have played out your whole deck, stack mana from 3-4 Wilderness Reclamation triggers and Blue Sun’s Zenith your opponent for their library+1 card. Another way is to beat down with Veteran Explorers, Snapcaster Mage, Creeping Tar Pit or what have you until they die, with or without taking all the turns. The third way is Empty the Pits, preferably paired with a Nexus of Fate for that one-shot zombie-goodness.

2) Card choices

Since the deck is pulling in pretty much every direction I chose to divide “Card choices” in a sub-set of categories. Balancing each part is both fun and challenging. In short we want enough control elements to stay alive, and pull ahead or resources without diluting our deck with situationally very bad cards or a combo engine that is full of gravel. I include a brief explanation and some card choices below each part. One thing to consider that might not be obvious at first glance is how relevant “deck-thinning” actually is. Once we cast that first Nexus of Fate we need a way to find it every turn, so putting cards we don´t want into our graveyard is a lot better than shuffling them back in.

Legacy
4 Brainstorm, 4 Ponder

This is Legacy and we want a consistent deck. I chose Ponder over Preordain because the deck is more A+B than sequencing a stream of similar cards. I always want more cantrips but I don’t know what to cut.

The Set-up
4 Veteran Explorer, 4 Wilderness Reclamation

This package is what allows us to have a reasonable goldfish and do something “unfair”.

The Pay-off
4 Cunning Wish, 2 Search For Azcanta

One “elegant” thing about this deck is how our wincons have a very high floor. Instead of diluting our deck with multiple copies of Griselbrand we instead have Cunning Wish that could be “anything” and Search for Azcanta that is both a means to get to comboing and also a part of the combo (activating it multiple times with Wilderness Reclamation in play!).

Removal
2 Assassin’s Trophy, 4 Fatal Push

Unlike other combo decks we don’t rush to the end-game. Instead we position ourselves during the setup phase biding time with legacy staples such as Fatal Push and Assassin’s Trophy. Having access to these cards also means that the game is not over because our opponent played a Gaddock Teeg, Containment Priest or Chalice of the Void. Assassin’s Trophy has a downside we don’t care all that much about since we also play Veteran Explorer.

Interaction
4 Cabal Therapy 4 Force of Will

Similarly to how we deal with a board of creatures or other troublesome permanents we also have the tools to interact with our opponent’s hand and on the stack. Having access to all these angles of attack while also caring very little about what our opponent is doing lets us dictate the pace of the game in our favor. If our opponent overextends to the board we can wish for a board wipe and if they don’t we have plenty of time to set up and pull ahead on resources using Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin, for example. Keeping our opponent in the dark while we, presumably, have enough information is worth a lot and let us use our mana in a more efficient way.

Manabase
3 Misty Rainforest
2 Polluted Delta
3 Verdant Catacombs
2 Tropical Island
1 Underground Sea
1 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Bayou
3 Island
1 Forest
1 Swamp
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 more Basic Land

There are a few things to pay attention to when building a manbase for this deck.
First of all we have cards from three different colors and we want to be able cast them on curve. We also have the tension of playing a lot of basic lands to trigger Veteran Explorer (and play around cards like Blood moon, back to basics and Wasteland). There are no cards requiring double-mana of any color so curving out with basics only should be no problem in most cases, for this reason I chose to leave the number of duals at a minimum. I still want my fetchlands to be able to find any combination of dual-land but there is no real point of having more than one dual of each combination (Underground Sea, Tropical Island, Bayou) except for the fact that I can’t play an infinite number of fetchlands. This is no exact science by any means, but in my experience playing a control deck the damage taken from fetchlands do add up and we also don’t want to get Stifled. The last reason why to keep the number of fetchlands at a “reasonable” level is to not run out of cards to fetch for. This might not be an issue for most decks in Legacy but in this deck in particular it becomes a problem, especially if we get to trigger Veteran Explorer. One way to solve this issue is to include a copy of Urborg, tomb of Yawgmoth which will let our Fetchlands tap for mana when we go off. It also helps casting Empty the Pits if our black duals gets Wastelanded or if we don’t have access to Wilderness Reclamation. Finally there are some utility lands which we can play like Nephalia Drownyard, Creeping Tar Pit, Ghost Quarter, Thawing Glaciers, Field of Ruins, Mikokoro, Center of the Sea. Of all the options I found I think Creeping Tar Pit is the best since it taps for two colors while also being “free” damage every turn with a Wilderness Reclamation in play. Some decks simply don’t have any removal for this and threatening a Planeswalker for free is neat. The second Tropical Island could be anything, it's a work in progress.

Flex
4 ?

For now Accumulated Knowledge.

We can tinker with the numbers in each of the above category but no matter how we slice it there will be a lot of excellent Legacy staples left out. One idea I really like is to “blank” creature removal. The only target right now for Fatal Push and Lightning Bolt in the whole deck is Veteran Explorer. A trade we are more than happy to offer. Swords to Plowshares is more difficult since it will exile the creature and not trigger its effect, but we can play around that by flashbacking Cabal Therapy and not give priority to our opponent. Another limitation is that we want to maximize the mana from Wilderness Reclamation meaning we want to minimize the number of permanents (unless they have Flash!). These two factor are competing for the sheer power level of cards like Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Leovold, Emissary of Trest, Tireless Tracker, Baleful Strix and Pernicious deed. Just to name a few.

Honestly I don’t know in which matchups we struggle or which kind of cards that we need to fight. This is why I chose a slightly more proactive approach with my card choices, instead of defensive cards like Thoughtseize and Counterspell I chose Accumulated knowledge or Preordain/Predict that will let me power through whatever my opponent is trying to set up and also let me hit those very important land drops. Having access to a card-advantage engine outside of Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin is crucial in some matchups. Especially to keep up on cards with the low to the ground Xerox-decks of the format like Grixis Delver. It’s just not feasible to think that a deck requiring 4 lands and a Wilderness in play has enough resources to keep up with a flurry of Delver, Wasteland (for the Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin or any dual land) and taxing countermagic like Flusterstorm/Spell Pierce/Daze. Unless we have Veteran Explorer of course.

3) Sideboard

1 Flusterstorm - Powerful anti-combo card, can be brought in vs most blue fair decks.

1 Pulse of Murasa - A lifegain spell acting like a Kolaghan's command versus burn decks.

1 Empty the pits - A wincon.

1 Nexus of Fate - Partly a wincon. In combination with drawing a lot of cards this will spiral into a win.

1 Blue Sun's Zenith - A value spell, a combo enabler and a win-con. Extremly slow.

1 Surgical Extraction - Having access to this in pre-boarded games is very good. Mostly for Reanimator strategies.

1 Consume the Meek - A fantastic sweeper for go-wide creature decks and most midrange decks.

1 Diabolic Edict - Unique card to deal with Marit Lage and Emrakul, the Aeons Torn.

1 Hurkyll´s Recall - Get-out-of-jail versus MUD decks.

1 Cryptic Command - A “fog” that cantrips versus the fair decks and a generally good blue card to sideboard in for the grindy matchups.

1 Mission Briefing - Double-up on the most important cards in the matchup, including Cunning wish targets. Especially strong in lists not running Snapcaster Mage.

Building a sideboard with a Cunning Wish package is stressful. You need a lot of cards to bring for each matchup not to have any blanks left but at the same time you want as many flexible wish-targets as possible. This version has a whooping 11 wish-targets but that doesn’t mean we can’t side them in for the post-board games.

A card like Consume the Meek is very strong but very situational so in a matchup like DnT we want to maximize our chance of finding it, thus leaving it in the board for Cunning Wish. On the other hand a card like Diabolic Edict has a more similar effect to Fatal Push/Assassin’s Trophy and can be sided in to just increase the density of 1-for-1 removal spells. In another matchup where Dark Depths is a concern we instead leave Diabolic Edict in the sideboard to maximize the our chances of finding it. In this case it is NOT the same card as Fatal Push anymore. In short, you want Cunning Wish to be able to answer your opponent’s primary game plan and also be able to advance yours. The wishboard is highly customizable. Depending on the expected meta-game it can be adjusted with more cards to beat a certain archetype but it can also be adjusted with regards to flexibility/mana. As an example we can deal with Marit Lage in several ways. Diabolic Edict could be both a From the Slaughter or a Repeal.

4 Leyline of the Void

The final slots are devoted to 4 Leyline of the Void. Traditionally a do-nothing deck is weak to the very fast decks of the format. Most of them are fueled by the graveyard (Reanimator, ANT) and some of them don’t even care about anything else (like manaless dredge and Reanimator). A card like Leyline of the Void completely turn some of these matchups upside down and I think it’s a worthy inclusion. It can also be brought in versus the very slow and grindy Life from the Loam-based strategies like Lands where the end-game is not so obviously in our favor.

I think 2-3 maybe 4 of the sideboard slots could be something totally different. I just need to figure out what the deck wants.

Here is a list of cards I want to play that I currently don’t (in either maindeck or sideboard).

(this will be edited in the future, adding comments for each card).
Counterspell
Thoughtseize
Green Sun's Zenith
Leovold, Emissary of Trest
Fact or Fiction
Snapcaster Mage
Notion Thief
Vendilion Clique
Growth Spiral
Abrupt Decay
Jace, The Mind Sculptor
Baleful Strix
Pernicious Deed
Tireless Tracker
Preordain
Predict
Accumulated Knowledge

4) How to play the deck - TBD

5) Decklist
https://i.ibb.co/gtvMpBf/teplista.jpg (https://ibb.co/GCsvLb8)

6) Resources - TBD

Thanks to Whitefaces for helping out building the deck. Your input and love for suboptimal card choices (like myself) is always a great inspiration.

Thanks Elfkid for the banner.

Any suggestions or questions highly appreciated! This is the most fun deck I have been tinkering with the last couple of years.

[pettdan]

I've played a Nic Fit version 3-4 years ago maybe that used Cunning Wish and Empty the Pits or Hatred for win cons. It was designed by Ralf, I'll see if I can find it later and provide a link. It was super sweet and can be developed a lot probably, and may help you with some inspiration.

Here it is, searching for Consume the Meek in the old Nic Fit thread found it quickly:

http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?28548-Primer-Deck-Nic-Fit&p=882576&viewfull=1#post882576

Lots of comments here: http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?28548-Primer-Deck-Nic-Fit&p=951619&viewfull=1#post951619

I think the list I played had 4 basic Swamps, so there is a more evolutioned list too, will update this weekend. Edit: that was actually an early list.

[tescrin]

How does this kill the opponent? I'd have to see it in action but it seems like it's too slow for things like even TNN or mom-protected BSK; and it seems *way* too slow for combo? Maybe I'm misreading the deck here. It also seems like you need some number of snap caster because you seem to have a single way to win the game and if it gets countered you lose?
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________________
Also, if you're running nic fit, why aren't you:
* Running at least one Phyrexian tower
* at least 2 Crop Rotation
* at least 1 Bojuka Bog, Ghost Quarter^, and Karakas
* running some number of GSZ (more virtual copies of Explorer)

^I get that Ghost Quarter seems counter intuitive; but you want to be able to blow up problem lands. An example may be Glacial Chasm

I if you add Crop Rotation you have an argument to make it a "real" deck potentially, by giving yourself instant-speed grave hate (giving better Gurmag/Combo/Lands game) while giving yourself outs to Turbo depths (Karakas, Wasteland)

[Whitefaces]

How does this kill the opponent? I'd have to see it in action but it seems like it's too slow for things like even TNN or mom-protected BSK; and it seems *way* too slow for combo? Maybe I'm misreading the deck here. It also seems like you need some number of snap caster because you seem to have a single way to win the game and if it gets countered you lose?

The win cons are Nexus of Fate, Blue Sun's Zenith or Empty the Pits.

The deck is control, you play a long game and with BSZ you essentially can draw your deck which then lets you use Nexus to take infinite turns and attack with a Veteran Explorer if you'd like. It doesn't really matter how you win, but the key thing to understand is the deck transitions from a control deck into combo.

On something getting countered, you don't let yourself get into that position. You have Search for Azcanta to dig for all the interaction you need, Cabal therapy and your own Forces should be enough to protect your kill.

You make obscene amounts of mana with multiple Reclamations out, the game goes long enough to generate ~40+ mana and make the opponent draw their deck.

Empty the pits is mostly for time concerns since those first two kills take a while, sometimes a swarm of zombies just kill them.


Secondly, I feel like Army of the Damned is just better.

Army of the Damned is a sorcery so you can't get it with Cunning Wish.


T1 Bayou Explorer
T2 Phyrexian Tower; munch explorer => BB floating, 3 lands open; Tinder wall, Dark ritual => create 13 zombies

Additionally, it has flashback so you can do something like

T2 Tower; munch explorer => BB + 3 floating, LED LED => creature 13 zombies

Certainly it is still weak to counters; but being able to cast it from the grave means you get a second shot. I just feel like you're way more likely to get an insta-gib out of AotD while also being more resiliant. It's true that it's not "four" mana; but it's also true that it's potential to win T3 is way-way higher.

Apologies for essentially derailing this; but it just seems that you could build a more powerful *and* more resilient deck with this same idea. Finally, this plan could easily take up less deck space and thus support a second combo (say, ramp into Griselbrand, Grave Titan, or spam Primeval Titans.)

I don't think trying to play 8+ drops makes this more resilient at all, I'm really confused what you mean. You're giving a 'nut draw' as an example? But also playing stuff like Dark Ritual and LED? You hardly get another shot at casting it from the graveyard if you've just spunked your load with a ritual and 2 LEDs on the first half.

I think you're really misunderstanding this deck and how it plays.


________________
Also, if you're running nic fit, why aren't you:
* Running at least one Phyrexian tower
* at least 2 Crop Rotation
* at least 1 Bojuka Bog, Ghost Quarter^, and Karakas
* running some number of GSZ (more virtual copies of Explorer)

^I get that Ghost Quarter seems counter intuitive; but you want to be able to blow up problem lands. An example may be Glacial Chasm

I if you add Crop Rotation you have an argument to make it a "real" deck potentially, by giving yourself instant-speed grave hate (giving better Gurmag/Combo/Lands game) while giving yourself outs to Turbo depths (Karakas, Wasteland)

1) Tower is probably OK, but there's not really any other payoff than Vets, and to help assemble Vet + Therapy consistently we're playing cantrips. Tower isn't an auto shoe in for every Nic Fit deck, and this one plays quite differently to most.

2) What would Crop Rotation do?
Seems like an unecessary package. And what would you cut from the deck to find this space. If you need maindeck gy hate you have Cunning Wish for Surgical Extraction, for Gurmag you have removal spells, for Marit Lage you have Cunning Wish for Diabolic Edict or Trophy on the Depths/Stage.

For problem lands you have the Blue Sun's Zenith kill or Assassin's Trophy.

[JackaBo]

These kind of decks are hard to evaluate from just a deck-list. Given enough time multiple azcanta activations would make it imposible to lose, i theory. Question is how much time the deck actually needs. Hope to see this deck in action soon!

[tescrin]

Starts to make more sense now I guess. Seems to be missing the "control" aspect of control though. 4 Therapy, 4 Force, 4 Push, 2 Trophy seems lacking IMO against both sides of the field. It looks like the earliest you can combo someone out is T5ish? (t3 untap enchant, untap + cunning wish, T4 untap enchant, empty for bunch of dudes)

If going the control route it's hard to grasp why you wouldn't have Lily/Jace. Jace T2 (which is possible with Tower) is hard for just about anything to beat.

__________________

2) What would Crop Rotation do?
First, it's additional sac-outlets for Veteran if you're running your Tower. T1 Bayou, Explorer, T2 Rotate into tower-> sac => 4 mana available T2 on a 1-land hand. You can't beat that kind of reliability.

Second, if you're running that already for a virtual 3+ copies of Tower, you can probably squeeze 3 slots for additional assistance against combo (Bog+Karakas+GQ.)

Third; by playing Tower + CR you're increasing you're possible "fundamental turn" by 1; so you can actually "combo your opp out" by T3; attack on T4.

Also, GSZ guarantees your Explorer while opening up deck-building opportunties; but I won't harp on it too much.

_____________
This is all arm-chair, but the opener doesn't mention any successes online or locals or a 5-0 or something; so that's also why I'm somewhat skeptical. Grixis Pheonix, for example, you have essentially proven that it *could* be a thing so I'm not babbling about card choices since it seems to be successful. This, as a nic-fit list, is missing a lot of core pieces that fundamentally fit not only the theme of the deck but the purpose of running Explorer in the first place. As someone who played a lot of nic fit and knew several who played varieties of nic fit semi-successfully I feel I should point out how the cards fit together



Side note:
I'm happy to admit that AotD isn't amazing; but for a list that advertised itself as an "Empty the Pits deck" I figured I'd point out that Wish->Pits seems just worse than AotD; but I get it now (as in I don't want to argue/discuss AotD or defend it)

EDIT: It's now strikethrough so hopefully no one chats about it haha

[pow22]

The deck is control, you play a long game...


Does the deck actually need the Nic Fit ramp package or could you just play more control elements to drag the game out to naturally hit Reclamation mana? Maybe play out more as a UB control deck with a light green splash for Wilderness Reclamation and Assassin's Trophy?

Discard can drop in utility pretty fast as games go long and there are only five basics to fetch with Dora... In a lot of match-ups I imagine you'll try to fetch out basics to actually play out the Veteran Explorer and dig for Therapy so the second or third Explorer probably isn't going to do a huge amount.

That being said, the deck certainly looks like it can use all the mana it can get. Crucible of Worlds to recur fetches and rebuy the Tar Pit?

[Whitefaces]

Does the deck actually need the Nic Fit ramp package or could you just play more control elements to drag the game out to naturally hit Reclamation mana? Maybe play out more as a UB control deck with a light green splash for Wilderness Reclamation and Assassin's Trophy?

Discard can drop in utility pretty fast as games go long and there are only five basics to fetch with Dora... In a lot of match-ups I imagine you'll try to fetch out basics to actually play out the Veteran Explorer and dig for Therapy so the second or third Explorer probably isn't going to do a huge amount.

That being said, the deck certainly looks like it can use all the mana it can get. Crucible of Worlds to recur fetches and rebuy the Tar Pit?

Probably not honestly, it seems like a natural synergy of Reclamation wanting ramp but land based ramp rather than fast mana, but if the deck was able to play with natural land drops it could be fine.

[tescrin]

Probably not honestly, it seems like a natural synergy of Reclamation wanting ramp but land based ramp rather than fast mana, but if the deck was able to play with natural land drops it could be fine.

Believe it or not (I don't know if I typed it) but this is sort of what I was driving at. The need for Veteran (just a sac opportunity?) seems low unless you're being explosive. If you're being explosive you want all the fiddly bits that make nic-fit tic to say GG early; because he needs to go *pop* by about T2 or your "mana advantage" stops meaning much without 6+ drops.

But if this is *actually* going the long game; nic-fit just potentially increases your opponent's mana while not netting you the game in a timely fashion. Swapping Vets for Libraries, Jaces, and maybe Acc-Knowledge for Lilys and (something) instead put you firmly in "control" with a series of possible combo wins.

I don't mind the nic-fit package; but I think if you run it you want to expand it (and still run Jace + Lily for early lock outs.)

[oOOoOphidian]

I think if you are planning to add crucible you'd want exploration

[Fox]

Saw this deck getting streamed, was pretty funny. One of the issues with concept enchantments (e.g. Stasis, Opposition, Wilderness Rec, etc...) is that sometimes you draw them, and they don't do anything by themselves. In the case of Wilderness Reclamation, it's not really a new card - this effect has existed since Visions (Sands of Time) with slightly different timing (upkeep vs end step). I think Wilderness Rec is falling somewhere between not exploiting no untap step or just playing Teferi + Azcanta (two cards that find each other, combo together, and are independently strong), without significant gain of function. While Wilderness Rec does something different, the text box is too linear/simply-worded to change how a game of magic is played; I don't think it has the ability to be read differently to unlock an effect that is powerful enough to compete in legacy.

An example to highlight the simplicity problem with Wilderness Rec:
1: Show and Tell -> Omniscience. You put in Sands of Time
2: Emrakul cast off Omni and trigger.
3: They take their next turn -> start by tapping down Emrakul, turn done.
4: you get a turn with your untapping shenanigans.
5: who knows, maybe you'll have Minamo, School at Water's Edge in your 75 since it's kind of a free roll [hides effect in mana base, taps for blue] and can control an onboard Emmy indefinitely. By the way, this one combos with Azcanta.
6: multiple Sands of Time in play pretty much keeps any creatures (except haste or having tap clauses) from ever getting into an attack step untapped reliably. This one gets weird as you stack these untap clauses.

[kombatkiwi]

An example to highlight the simplicity problem with Wilderness Rec:
1: Show and Tell -> Omniscience. You put in Sands of Time
jesus christ lmao

I was watching the replays of the modern version on the youtube of the guy who created it. I think that modern build of the deck has a lot of inherent strengths that the Legacy Explorer version loses:

- The card advantage double-search aspect of Teachings (compared to Wish) seems relevant
- Once you have wished for Nexus once all your other Wishes can't find it anymore (compared to each Teachings being able to find Nexus always)
- Growth Spirals always cycle while you are going off, Vets don't
- Density of Snapcaster/Cryptic means that you are safe in the modern version to just untap with reclamation and pass the turn in many situations without needing to 'go off' immediately

I don't know that a deck with Cryptic and Mystical Teachings is legacy playable but I don't know that Veteran Explorer adds enough to the deck to convince me either

[UnOrthodox Bird]

With the printing of Village Rites, is there a chance this deck gets some more legs to stand on? I honestly love the idea and really want to give it a whirl sometime soon.