Super Synergy Spirit Slide

[Alfred]

This idea popped into my head when I was driving home from Detroit, and I wanted to get it on MWS before I forgot. It's basically using Tallowisp like in Ghost Dad, with free effects to take advantage of the card drawing, but using Tallowisp as a draw engine by fetching cycling creature enchantments. Then I added Green for Elder Pine of Jukai, which not only finds you cycling lands for Astral Slide, it also retrieves Tallowisp when it dies, and activates Tallowisp's ability.

4 Windswept Heath
1 Forest
1 Scrubland
4 Plains
4 Tranquil Thicket
4 Secluded Steppe
4 Savannah

4 Elder Pine of Jukai
3 Kataki, War's Wage
3 Eternal Witness
4 Tallowisp
3 Jotun Grunt
3 Eternal Dragon

2 Sicken
4 Astral Slide
4 Sunscour
4 Shining Shoal
4 Improvised Armor

Tallowisp fetches Sickens and Improvised Armors to fuel the Sunscours, Shining Shoals and Astral Slide, along with just being a draw engine. I put Eternal Witness in there because it's slightly more agressive than Carven Caryatid against Control and Combo, and because it allows you to abuse Astral Slide more. It's actually a better spiritcraft enabler than CC when you're sliding it in and out because it recovers stuff like Shining Shoal again and again.

Astral Slide lets you reset Jotun Grunt's upkeep if you need to, and Grunt allows you to use Tallowisp over and over and over again. Just to let you know, like the original Slide and Ghost Dad, this absolutely rapes aggro decks. Shining Shoal, creatures and Sunscour makes them look retarded, then when it goes late, you have Astral Slide to outlast them.

I'm basically planning on adding a Rabid Wombat-type sideboard for Combo, with Glowriders and Spheres of Resistance. Thankfully, this isn't nearly as slow as that deck.

EDIT: Currently playing:
-4 Improvised Armor
+1 Sicken
+1 Armadillo Cloak
+2 Cage of Hands

SB:
1x Crown of Suspicion
4x True Believer
4x Glowrider
4x Chalice of the Void
2x Armadillo Cloak

[Cavius The Great]

Cool deck, I like it. Do you have any way of recurring the creature enchantments? It seems like you would come to a dead stall after cycling all of them.

[Jak]

^Eternal Witness

[Cavius The Great]

^Eternal Witness

That's not a constantly recurring engine. I guess I should of been more specific.

[Alfred]

That's not a constantly recurring engine. I guess I should of been more specific.


Jotun Grunt puts them back in your library to be searched out again, and Eternal Witness is a way of recurring them infinitely because Astral Slide lets you re-activate its CITP ability every time you cycle them.

[Aggro_zombies]

Have you considered an aura toolbox? Something like, iono, Armadillo Cloak, Temporal Isolation, Cage of Hands (sucks but I could see it)/Pillory of the Sleepless, etc. It just seems that you want to minimize the number of potentially dead auras you run since they'll be mostly useless in, say, the Solidarity matchup.

[Alfred]

Have you considered an aura toolbox? Something like, iono, Armadillo Cloak, Temporal Isolation, Cage of Hands (sucks but I could see it)/Pillory of the Sleepless, etc. It just seems that you want to minimize the number of potentially dead auras you run since they'll be mostly useless in, say, the Solidarity matchup.

I've been considering this myself. I've had Situations where Improvised Armor is just a 4 mana white spell for Shoal or Sunscour, and I've been wondering if 4 in the deck is just way too much for the effect that it grants. It's the only white cycling creature enchantment, but it costs 3 to cycle, which blows, and if you need Cycling Sicken is the cheaper way to do it. I'm cosidering taking them out completely for a spell that actually does something most of the time.

Griffin Guide looks pretty interesting, as do Temporal Isolation and Armadillo Cloak.

I'm thinking I might go:

-4 Imporvised Armor
+1 Sicken
+1 Armadillo Cloak
+2 Temporal Isolation/Cage of Hands

I don't know whether I should use Isolation or Cage of Hands, because some of the time, it's useful to be able to Shoal something for more than 2 damage.

[Zilla]

I'm basically planning on adding a Rabid Wombat-type sideboard for Combo, with Glowriders and Spheres of Resistance. Thankfully, this isn't nearly as slow as that deck.
Although you're not as slow as Wombat, your combo matchup should be nearly as bad, considering how many dead cards you have against them. I'd want to run at least 12 cards in the board for them.

On that note, Chalice of the Void seems like a pretty solid option, since you have no cards in the 0cc slot, only 2 (dead) cards in the 1cc slot, and 3 cards in the 2cc slot. Hell, with a curve like that I'd almost want Chalice in the maindeck, except that you don't really have the other control elements to support it for matchups outside combo.

Chalice and Glowrider are also rock solid in the Thresh matchup, and they're the tools that I use in Angel Stompy for both Thresh and combo. I'm wondering if you could find a way to make Ancient Tomb fit in here; it allows for turn 1 Chalice at 1, which is very strong in the combo and Thresh matchups. It would also smooth out your curve some, since the majority of your spells are 3cc or higher. Can the manabase support them?


Cool deck, I like it. Do you have any way of recurring the creature enchantments? It seems like you would come to a dead stall after cycling all of them.
There's Witness. Rethether (http://sales.starcitygames.com/carddisplay.php?product=44395) seems like an option as well.

[Aggro_zombies]

I'm thinking I might go:

-4 Imporvised Armor
+1 Sicken
+1 Armadillo Cloak
+2 Temporal Isolation/Cage of Hands

I don't know whether I should use Isolation or Cage of Hands, because some of the time, it's useful to be able to Shoal something for more than 2 damage.
If you're going to up the number of maindeck Sickens, I'd have three auras in the sideboard to replace them with in the combo matchup, as they're completely dead. You could probably do more Armadillo Cloak there as a way to pile on damage faster, and if you add Chalice, Cloak costs three and therefore will circumvent Chalice at one and two.

As for the Isolation/Cage issue, I'm partial to Cage just because you can move it around if something more threatening comes down, and it doesn't get nuked by your other targeted removal (if you remove the enchanted creature). With mana open, you can respond to them attempting to kill their Caged creature by moving Cage, which can get annoying for them...not that I think anyone would try that except for a Seige-Gang Commander enabled Goblins player, but still.

[No_Life_No_Future]

I know this doest fit your deck colors and I'm not sure if this works or not but mabey you could run a combo win with Apathy and Quicksilver Dagger.

[Alfred]

Although you're not as slow as Wombat, your combo matchup should be nearly as bad, considering how many dead cards you have against them. I'd want to run at least 12 cards in the board for them.

Yeah, I'm currently running Glowrider and True Believer as my combo insurance in the board. It basically makes the deck a WW deck with disruption, so I'd imagine that the matchup would be better than the Wombat matchup currently is, especially seeing as Jotun Grunt is mainboarded.


On that note, Chalice of the Void seems like a pretty solid option, since you have no cards in the 0cc slot, only 2 (dead) cards in the 1cc slot, and 3 cards in the 2cc slot. Hell, with a curve like that I'd almost want Chalice in the maindeck, except that you don't really have the other control elements to support it for matchups outside combo.

I love Chalice of the Void, and it does seem like a great option post board to deal with both Thresh and Combo. I've been running it in my Lock Fish for a while now, though I don't know where it would fit in the maindeck, as you would have to take out either the synergistic spirit stuff, or the things that enable Slide to be good. I'm putting it in my SB as we speak.


Chalice and Glowrider are also rock solid in the Thresh matchup, and they're the tools that I use in Angel Stompy for both Thresh and combo. I'm wondering if you could find a way to make Ancient Tomb fit in here; it allows for turn 1 Chalice at 1, which is very strong in the combo and Thresh matchups. It would also smooth out your curve some, since the majority of your spells are 3cc or higher. Can the manabase support them?

I don't think I can squeeze any Ancient Tombs into the maindeck, because with the cycling lands, the manabase becomes a little problematic. Also, Tomb isn't that great when you're running so many single-colorless creatures like Tallow, Kataki, Grunt and Witness. You also can't respond to the damage with Shoal due to rules reasons (which sucks).



There's Witness. Rethether (http://sales.starcitygames.com/carddisplay.php?product=44395) seems like an option as well.

Basically, I was thinking the same thing in the car. Retether would be a great option if there were a lot of cycling creature enchantments so you could pop them back into play after cycling a bunch into the 'yard. I'm sort of upset that there are only 3 cycling creature enchantments, and two of them suck (Improvised Armor and Dragon Wings). I had figured that there might be some sort of green creature pump one, but that isn't the case.

I suppose that you could put Mongrel in there to discard the ones you tutor up, or just let them go to the grave independantly, but that seems a little convoluted.


If you're going to up the number of maindeck Sickens, I'd have three auras in the sideboard to replace them with in the combo matchup, as they're completely dead. You could probably do more Armadillo Cloak there as a way to pile on damage faster, and if you add Chalice, Cloak costs three and therefore will circumvent Chalice at one and two.

I'm currently testing with a single mainboarded Armadillo Cloak, and I'm liking it so far. It's great when you get to cast it on a Tallowisp, because it becomes a Trampling Descendant of Kiyomaro, and it still pitches to Sunscour and Shoals for 3. The Sickens aren't that dead in the combo matchup, because if you manage to stall them for a bit with your Glowrider/Chalice/Believer you can still cycle it. As far as Armadillo Cloak goes, it obviously rocks against Tendrils-based combo decks when you strap it on a Jotun Grunt. I would probably want something like Elephant Guide against Solidarity.

Too bad Pariah doesn't stop the life loss from Tendrils of Agony, because that would definately be in the SB for the non-Solidarity combo matchup.


As for the Isolation/Cage issue, I'm partial to Cage just because you can move it around if something more threatening comes down, and it doesn't get nuked by your other targeted removal (if you remove the enchanted creature). With mana open, you can respond to them attempting to kill their Caged creature by moving Cage, which can get annoying for them...not that I think anyone would try that except for a Seige-Gang Commander enabled Goblins player, but still.

I'm thinking Cage too. What I like about Cage is the fact that after you cast it, you can still pop it back to your hand to pay for a Shoal or a Sunscour. For example, you cage their Goblin Piledriver, and when they overcommit to the board you bring it back and Wrath the board with Sunscour for free. It's also better when you need to pitch to Shining Shoal, which it does for 3 instead of two.

It's also basically exactly the same as Temporal Isolation except costing 1 more, and not having Flash, which aren't that high on my list of concerns when you factor in the other bonuses.

EDIT: What do you guys think of a SB'd Crown of Suspicion against Goblins? It's a fetchable Nausea for only their creatures.

[Anusien]

You only have a few relevant cards to cast to trigger Spiritcraft, and most of them seem worse than just running relevant disruption (Stp, Wrath, Orim's Chant).

Why don't you have 4 Witness and Grunt?

Why did you exclude Life from the Loam?

Personally, I'm skeptical. This is too slow and kludgy for Extended, much less Legacy. Personally, I'd rather not have to cast a crappy 1/3 or 3 mana 2/1 before getting my engine online. Any reason why this is better than running a Loam engine and setting it up like Osyp's 1.x build?

[Alfred]

You only have a few relevant cards to cast to trigger Spiritcraft, and most of them seem worse than just running relevant disruption (Stp, Wrath, Orim's Chant).

Shining Shoal, Kataki, Eternal Dragon, Elder Pine and Tallowisp all trigger Spiritcraft. That's 18 cards that trigger Spiritcraft, not to mention the cycling cards that help find them. I haven't been having trouble getting cards to trigger spiritcraft. I'm running the equivilant of Wrath in this deck in Sunscour, and have you noticed that Rabid Wombat has taken Swords out of the maindeck?

I can't add Wrath, Swords and Chant as well as add more spiritcraft cards either.


Why don't you have 4 Witness and Grunt?

Why did you exclude Life from the Loam?

Life from the Loam is a good card, no doubt, and I thought of it myself. It draws cards, but I felt it was unneccissary with the other cards in the deck. I could add a few, but I would need to take something out.

Witness is there for it's interaction with Slide, and though it's generally useful, I find it gets better as the game goes on. I also had to cut some things that I wanted in there. As for Grunt, a lot of decks don't run four because of their badness in multiples.


Personally, I'm skeptical. This is too slow and kludgy for Extended, much less Legacy. Personally, I'd rather not have to cast a crappy 1/3 or 3 mana 2/1 before getting my engine online. Any reason why this is better than running a Loam engine and setting it up like Osyp's 1.x build?

Tallowisp is a great blocker against aggro decks, and the 3 mana 2/1 isn't so high above the curve that it negates it's ability. And why run this over a Loam engine? As you might imagine, graveyard hate is a beating, and it cripples that deck far more than this one.

[No_Life_No_Future]

Have you considered Screams from Within, instead of sicken. It would be awesome against goblins in multiples, although the 3 cc is kind of a drag and it doesnt cycle....

[Cavius The Great]

@Alfred - Why are they're no Swords To Plowshares in your current build? And have you considered Pacifism? It's fairly cheap as a two drop and can be fetched with Tallowisp. It might be something to consider.

[Alfred]

@Alfred - Why are they're no Swords To Plowshares in your current build? And have you considered Pacifism? It's fairly cheap as a two drop and can be fetched with Tallowisp. It might be something to consider.

I would asume that Temporal Isolation would be better than Pacifism because it has Flash.

Screams from Within isn't a Possibility unfortunately, because it has double black in its cost.

[Cavius The Great]

I would asume that Temporal Isolation would be better than Pacifism because it has Flash.

Screams from Within isn't a Possibility unfortunately, because it has double black in its cost.

Wouldn't Tallowisp reveal the enchantment? The surprise element is no longer implemented making Flash pretty much irrelevent.

[Alfred]

Wouldn't Tallowisp reveal the enchantment? The surprise element is no longer implemented making Flash pretty much irrelevent.

Let's say you use Shining Shoal when Goblins is attacking you, fetching Temporal Isolation which you can then use at the end of their turn. While that is a small upside, it has almost no other downside that could possibly make it worse than Pacifism in this deck.

[Lego]

The reason StP doesn't fit in the deck is that it's simply one-for-one removal. This is a board control deck, and one-for-one with no other purpose will eventually lose you the game.

@ Quicksilver Dagger/Apathy: This combo does nothing. Apathy's untap ability only triggers once per turn, so you can only untap the creature once.

[Cavius The Great]

I would asume that Temporal Isolation would be better than Pacifism because it has Flash.

Screams from Within isn't a Possibility unfortunately, because it has double black in its cost.

The only downside I see with Temporal Isolation is that it can chump block a Soltari Priest and other shadow creatures. Not a major downside but a downside nevertheless.