Xandercoon
06-06-2007, 08:30 AM
Thoughtless Sensei
Primer by Xandercoon
This has had a couple of threads on MTGS.
Thoughtless Sensei is a mono-blue combo deck which uses a very strong internal synergy to create a card selection/storm engine. If played well, (and that's a big if) it goldfishes a turn 4 win at least 50% of the time. It is capable of winning on turn 1 and 2. It is easily capable of winning on turn 3 (about 20% of the time.) It goldfishes turn 5 about 20% of games, and fizzles the other 10% or so. It is not a one-trick pony, but has several ways to go off, some of them highly unexpected.
Artifacts
4 Lion’s Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
4 Sensei’s Divining Top
Enchantments
4 Thought Lash
4 Future Sight
Instants
4 Brainstorm
2 Brainfreeze
3 Cunning Wish
4 Force of Will
3 Long-Term Plans
Sorceries
4 Drafna’s Restoration
Lands
8 Island
2 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Saprazzan Skerry
Wishboard
1 Daze
1 Brain Freeze
1 Stifle
1 Meditate
1 Vision Skeins
1 Echoing Truth
1 Spoils of the Vault
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Wing Shards
1 Argivian Find
1 Reclaim
1 Razor Barrier
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Abeyance
1 Hunting Pack
*Combo A (the "auto-win") relies on the interaction between Thought Lash and Future Sight. It is a two-card combo which auto-wins the game, and barring certain hate cards, nothing much can stop you after you get the two into play. Essentially, you use Thought Lash to burn the dross from the top of your library, playing out all your 0-cost mana artifacts, generating mana. Gain storm and card advantage with Sensei's Divining Top, and then play Drafna's Restoration to put all the mana on top of your library and play it again. Once Storm is lethal, Brain Freeze for the win. If your opponent messes with you, you can Lash your library until you topdeck a Force of Will, and draw a blue card with Top: all for free and at instant speed. The combo essentially puts your deck in your hand. You can win on the turn you go off, if you need to, by wishing for Vision Skeins.
*Combo B (the "manual win") is Future Sight + Sensei's Divining Top + mana. The deck does not require Thought Lash to win. With Future Sight and Top, it is possible to pay mana to draw cards at a one-to-one ratio. Thus, with enough of an initial investment (say, an Ancient Tomb, an Island and an LED,) it is possible to keep drawing into more and more artifact mana and Restorations, and generate a lethal storm count without ever casting Thought Lash.
*Combo C (the "left-field beatdown win") is simply Cunning Wish + lots of mana. Here's an example of this hilarious play (something of a god-hand, but it serves to illustrate.)
T1: "Ok, Ancient Tomb, LED, LED, Lotus Petal, Lotus Petal, Cunning Wish for Hunting Pack, in response break the LEDs for green, play Hunting Pack. That'll be six 4/4s then."
If you see 10 mana and Cunning WIsh, you may want to consider making this play: just watch out for Force of Will. Note: This play works just as well on turns 2 and 3.
Playing the deck.
In most games, you should be focussed on resolving Future Sight as your no. 1 priority. Keep your eyes on the prize, and don't worry about playing Thought Lash or Cunning Wish just for the hell of it; only drop them if it plays into your strategy. You may be called upon to do complicated things, or make risky calls with Top. Practice makes perfect.
WARNING: Never (well, almost never) drop a Thought Lash unless you have a Top in play. Its a recipe for disaster: you will sit there drawing crap and milling away your Sights and win conditions. Only do it if you need the damage prevention to stay alive. Mostly you should keep your artifact mana in hand until its time to drop Future Sight. But not if you are facing discard or Stax pieces.
Playing through hate.
*Anything that doesn't actively prevent you from going off can be bounced with Echoing Truth from the wishboard as you are going off.
*Gaea's Blessing: You need combo A. Build a large storm count and win with Hunting Pack.
*Pithing Needle: Not gamebreaking. If naming Top, just tutor up Combo A and win. If naming Thought Lash, win with Combo B.
*Sphere of Resistance/Trinisphere: Wish for bounce at the opportune time. Bad news unless you have already played out an LED or two.
*Chalice @ 0 or 1: Chalice at 0 needs to be Forced or bounced. You can go off through Chalice at 1, but without Drafna's, Top or Brainstorm, you may need to use Hunting Pack for the kill.
*Pyrostatic Pillar: Laugh maniacally.
*Disenchant: Force of Will or Reclaim from the board.
*Krosan Grip: Reclaim.
Leyline of the Void: You can win without the graveyard using the Hunting Pack kill.
*Null Rod: Bad, bad news. You can win through it...good luck though. Counter that ****.
Internal Synergies
I thought I'd demonstrate some of the synergies inherent in the strategy. TS is the zen of decks, as nearly every card makes a combo with every other card in the deck.
*Top + Future Sight is the Shovel. "1: Draw a card. +1 storm." That was good, last I heard.
*Top + Thought Lash is the Steam Shovel. "1: Look at the top 3 cards of your library. If they're not Future Sight, RFG them and try again. Also, cast Healing Salve." nb: doing this during your opponent's turn is a good way to piss off an aggro player.
*Thought Lash + Ancient Tomb = no pain
*Top + Long-Term Plans: "Long-Term Plans is now Demonic Tutor."
*Top + Brain Freeze on you: For when you hate the top 3.
*Top + LED = Black Lotus.
*LED + Brainstorm = Black Lotus.
*LED + Future Sight = Black Lotus (are you starting to see a trend here?)
*Future Sight + Drafna's Restoration: Get all your mana back.
*Drafna's Restoration + Brainstorm: Get all your mana back.
*Top-deck knowledge + Fetchlands: tech.
*Top-deck knowledge vs. discard: tech.
Matchups
This is mostly theoretical, I admit. * indicates that I've actually tested the matchup.
*Goblins: Definitely favourable. You are combo, and you prevent damage. Ancient Tomb, basics and artifacts largely offset Wasteland and Port.
*Survival: A walkover. They pretty much can't win.
*Stax: Believe it or not, a favourable matchup due to the silver bullet Hurkyl's Recall in the board. Depends on the build though.
*Landstill: I managed to post 50% numbers against Landstill due to speed and luck, as far as I can tell. It helps to be holding multiple Sights and FoWs.
Thresh: Better than Landstill.
Faerie Stompie etc: Not great. Chalice is bad.
*Solidarity: 50%. The thing about a Brain Freeze mirror match is that both players sit there waiting for the other to go off. I just responded to their Nth card draw spell with a double Brain Freeze and a counterspell open. The correct strategy for this matchup is a complete mystery for me though...it does my head in.
*Aluren: Very good matchup. You are both 1 card combos. Difference is, you have Force of Will.
Other combo: Not too good, as they are usually faster. If you win these it is through good hands with Force of Will and 3rd-turn wins. If Iggy gets Leyline its all over. UPDATE: Apparently it went 7-3 against CRET Belcher.
Other aggro: Very good. If they run Chalice, Disenchant, Null Rod etc., 1 piece of hate is not usually enough to stop you.
Other control: Board control and 43-land are byes. Discard is generally favourable, believe it or not.
What Thoughtless Sensei isn't:
1. A Johnny deck built to abuse a "bad" card. Word up: when I designed the deck I had no idea that Thought Lash had a rep of being the worst card in Alliances. It was a card that did the job I required of it, that's all. Illusions of Grandeur, Food Chain and Necropotence were all crap until a deck came along that broke them.
2. Sensei Sensei. The deck is so close to the Helm of Awakening/Top combo that it has been very tempting to stick Helms in for the hell of it. This is not that deck. In fact, Thoughtless Sensei is almost quantifiably better than that deck (its a good turn faster, runs just as much disruption, and needs less pieces). The deck is plenty combo enough: adding more combos simply makes the deck lose focus.
3. Something I just threw together. Its been in development since mid-2005, has a modest tournament history (mainly due to an almost complete lack of tournaments here), and one of my major testing partners is a former NZ national champion.
FAQ
a. Why would I ever play this over Solidarity?
That's probably one of the most important questions you could ask, so I'll tackle it first.
1. The metagame is prepared for Solidarity. A lot of the Solidarity hate which is found in sideboards is next to useless against TS. For example, Pyrostatic Pillar/Ichneumon Druid will be lucky to deal a single point of damage to you during the combo, due to the damage cushion provided by Thought Lash. Stifle and Trickbind do not phase TS, as you can easily play multiple copies of Brain Freeze after going off. Mana Maze usually accomplishes very little due to the fact that it is easy to alternate between playing an artifact and playing a blue spell, or chaining multiple artifact spells in a row followed by a blue spell. True Believer and Solitary Confinement (and Platinum Angel and Ivory Mask etc.) are non-issues as they can be bounced from the wishboard. Remember, once Future Sight and Thought Lash are online, mana and cards flow freely.
2. Thoughtless Sensei beats Goblins.
But Solidarity beats Goblins too!
Thoughtless Sensei does it better. Put it this way: one of the combo pieces costs 2UU and gives you a 40 point life cushion. That's a bit like Solidarity's trick of using Turnabout as a Fog. Except that Thought Lash can prevent damage from a Goblin Horde for several turns, and you know the really great thing? The same card that is saving your butt is simultaneously (with the help of Top) digging ever closer to the Future Sight you need to seal the deal.
3. Its potentially faster. Thoughtless Sensei can win on turn one; Solidarity can't.
4. The rogue element. A counterspell player, unfamiliar with the deck, will often waste their counters on dross like Thought Lash, LTP and Cunning Wish. You can use this to your advantage. Also, you lead out with Island, and watch the Threshold player drop a Meddling Mage naming High Tide. Rogue is good.
b. Isn't a deck based around resolving a 5cmc enchantment a losing proposition?
That's where the mana-base comes in. The deck's mana is designed to cast a turn 2 or 3 Future Sight, into a 4th-turn win. And it works, period. There are multiple ways to get there: from the simple (T1 Skerry, T2 Ancient Tomb, Petal, Future Sight), to the complex (ok...T1 Tomb, Top, LED, activate top, topdeck Long Term Plans; T2 Island; EOT Long-Term Plans for Future Sight; T3 look at top three and topdeck Future SIght, float two, break LED, draw Future Sight with Top and play it.) Other ways involve digging with Thought Lash and Top, etc.
c. But Iggy/TES/Belcher/SI is faster!
Maybe. When I made the deck, turn 4 was a very competitive speed. But the format is speeding up. This is the area where development comes in handy. In the end, it may be the case that the deck simply cannot compete for speed, in which event I would nominate it as a prime candidate to be the format's defining combo-control archetype. With so many ways to adjust the top cards of the library, Counterbalance could be incorporated with the greatest of ease. With so many 0 and 1-drops, Erayo, Soratami Ascendant could also be played. As a mono-blue deck, TS is in an ideal position to maindeck more counterspells. Also, Magus of the Future is an obvious candidate for increasing the redundancy of the combo (since in a deck where Future Sight is all you really need to win, surely 5 to 8 is better than 4..?)
d. Wouldn't it be better with a colour splash? Lim-Dul's Vault and Enlightened Tutor > Long-Term Plans!
I've tried them. Every colour splash I've tried has damaged the consistency of the deck, and slowed the clock by a turn. Its got to do with the rhythm of the deck. One of this deck's best turn 1 punches is Ancient Tomb - Top - Activate. If you're playing LDV you can't do that on turn 1 and then play the tutor on turn 2; at least not without using valuable artifact mana. You are forced into making an inefficient play. Plans lets you Top turn one, Tutor turn 2, and play Future Sight turn 3, most likely. I swear to you, this is THE DECK to break Long-Term Plans in. However, I am still open to the idea of a colour splash, as long as it demonstrably improves the clock or consistency of the deck.
e. I tried playing your stupid deck and it did nothing til turn 7 and then I decked myself! What gives?
You did it wrong, that's what. Trust me, the deck is consistent. It's also an extremely complex deck to play (i.e. at least as difficult as Solidarity). Its nothing to be ashamed of.
But all you have to do is resolve one enchantment, right?
Try doing that consistently on turn three, following a Duress on turn 1 and a Hymn to Tourach on turn two. Or past a deck with two counterspells open. And guess what: you won't roll to that like some combo decks do. But it will take a bit of luck, and a heck of a lot of thinking. But you dig a challenge, right? Playing TS in a tournament takes nerves of steel: its probably the ultimate test of Spikeness. It's some combination of juggling your hand, top three cards, mana pool, storm count, life total, Thought Lash upkeep, figuring out the most efficient play, etc. My playgroup dubbed it "Headache.deq".
Tournament History
Ahem. A little background: I live in New Zealand. We're lucky if we get one Legacy tournament, of any size, in a year. So don't expect too much from downunder: this deck needs a champion or a team in the States or Europe if it's going to get anywhere. Also, I build decks, but I can't play; so my own results (midrange finishes mostly) are probably non-representative. HOWEVER:
I gave the deck to Glen Patel (who at the time was the NZ National Champion, and had just come back from taking on Worlds with Heartbeat of Spring); He took it to a local tournament with 15 people or so, and the deck basically went through them like a knife through butter, pulling regular 2nd and 3rd turn wins and making the Survival and aggro players look a bit silly. It came second to Goblins, and straight after the match results were given Glen realised that he had miscounted his storm count and should have actually won the final game, and the tournament. Note that this was after he removed all the Goblin hate from the sideboard because we thought they weren't going to show up...Ahh well.
I want to hear all suggestions regarding this deck; Magus of the Future seems like a good place to begin a meaningful discussion. I would love to get this deck into Proven Competitive. However, big tournament results are an impossibility as I live 10,000 miles away from any major Legacy events. Therefore, anyone who builds the deck and brings it to a large tournament will earn my endless thanks and admiration.
I'm willing to test via MWS, pm me. Although I am a post-graduate student, so my time is somewhat limited. As always, if anyone tests with the deck on MWS against randoms I am always keen to hear about the results.
MAD TECH UPDATE: The card Replenish actually crossed my mind just after I posted the primer. I've been testing a W/U list and HOLY CANOLI!!!
Its not just redundancy, its completely busted! By using LED and Brain Freeze to get the enchantments :eek: into the graveyard quickly, the chances of 1st, 2nd and 3rd turn wins go up dramatically.
There's a thread on the Source about breaking Replenish. How's this...?
T1: Tomb, Top, activate. Ohh, look, a Replenish on top! Drop Led and Lotus Petal. Break them discarding combo pieces. Draw Replenish with Top and play it for a first turn win!
I upped Brain Freeze to 4 since its a combo piece now (really: First turn Boseiju, second turn mill yourself for 6, third turn uncounterable game-winning Replenish.) I'm also running Boseiju for inevitability. Replenish is fantastic tech, you gotta try it!
Very Rough Replenish Testbed:
Lands
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Saprazzan Skerry
2 Flooded Strand
2 Polluted Delta
4 Tundra
3 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Island
Spells
4 Drafna's Restoration
4 Future Sight
4 Brainstorm
4 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Thought Lash
4 Lotus Petal
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Brain Freeze
4 Replenish
1 Echoing Truth
3 Mystical Tutor
Needs work, but...Power.:eek:
Primer by Xandercoon
This has had a couple of threads on MTGS.
Thoughtless Sensei is a mono-blue combo deck which uses a very strong internal synergy to create a card selection/storm engine. If played well, (and that's a big if) it goldfishes a turn 4 win at least 50% of the time. It is capable of winning on turn 1 and 2. It is easily capable of winning on turn 3 (about 20% of the time.) It goldfishes turn 5 about 20% of games, and fizzles the other 10% or so. It is not a one-trick pony, but has several ways to go off, some of them highly unexpected.
Artifacts
4 Lion’s Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
4 Sensei’s Divining Top
Enchantments
4 Thought Lash
4 Future Sight
Instants
4 Brainstorm
2 Brainfreeze
3 Cunning Wish
4 Force of Will
3 Long-Term Plans
Sorceries
4 Drafna’s Restoration
Lands
8 Island
2 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Saprazzan Skerry
Wishboard
1 Daze
1 Brain Freeze
1 Stifle
1 Meditate
1 Vision Skeins
1 Echoing Truth
1 Spoils of the Vault
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Wing Shards
1 Argivian Find
1 Reclaim
1 Razor Barrier
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Abeyance
1 Hunting Pack
*Combo A (the "auto-win") relies on the interaction between Thought Lash and Future Sight. It is a two-card combo which auto-wins the game, and barring certain hate cards, nothing much can stop you after you get the two into play. Essentially, you use Thought Lash to burn the dross from the top of your library, playing out all your 0-cost mana artifacts, generating mana. Gain storm and card advantage with Sensei's Divining Top, and then play Drafna's Restoration to put all the mana on top of your library and play it again. Once Storm is lethal, Brain Freeze for the win. If your opponent messes with you, you can Lash your library until you topdeck a Force of Will, and draw a blue card with Top: all for free and at instant speed. The combo essentially puts your deck in your hand. You can win on the turn you go off, if you need to, by wishing for Vision Skeins.
*Combo B (the "manual win") is Future Sight + Sensei's Divining Top + mana. The deck does not require Thought Lash to win. With Future Sight and Top, it is possible to pay mana to draw cards at a one-to-one ratio. Thus, with enough of an initial investment (say, an Ancient Tomb, an Island and an LED,) it is possible to keep drawing into more and more artifact mana and Restorations, and generate a lethal storm count without ever casting Thought Lash.
*Combo C (the "left-field beatdown win") is simply Cunning Wish + lots of mana. Here's an example of this hilarious play (something of a god-hand, but it serves to illustrate.)
T1: "Ok, Ancient Tomb, LED, LED, Lotus Petal, Lotus Petal, Cunning Wish for Hunting Pack, in response break the LEDs for green, play Hunting Pack. That'll be six 4/4s then."
If you see 10 mana and Cunning WIsh, you may want to consider making this play: just watch out for Force of Will. Note: This play works just as well on turns 2 and 3.
Playing the deck.
In most games, you should be focussed on resolving Future Sight as your no. 1 priority. Keep your eyes on the prize, and don't worry about playing Thought Lash or Cunning Wish just for the hell of it; only drop them if it plays into your strategy. You may be called upon to do complicated things, or make risky calls with Top. Practice makes perfect.
WARNING: Never (well, almost never) drop a Thought Lash unless you have a Top in play. Its a recipe for disaster: you will sit there drawing crap and milling away your Sights and win conditions. Only do it if you need the damage prevention to stay alive. Mostly you should keep your artifact mana in hand until its time to drop Future Sight. But not if you are facing discard or Stax pieces.
Playing through hate.
*Anything that doesn't actively prevent you from going off can be bounced with Echoing Truth from the wishboard as you are going off.
*Gaea's Blessing: You need combo A. Build a large storm count and win with Hunting Pack.
*Pithing Needle: Not gamebreaking. If naming Top, just tutor up Combo A and win. If naming Thought Lash, win with Combo B.
*Sphere of Resistance/Trinisphere: Wish for bounce at the opportune time. Bad news unless you have already played out an LED or two.
*Chalice @ 0 or 1: Chalice at 0 needs to be Forced or bounced. You can go off through Chalice at 1, but without Drafna's, Top or Brainstorm, you may need to use Hunting Pack for the kill.
*Pyrostatic Pillar: Laugh maniacally.
*Disenchant: Force of Will or Reclaim from the board.
*Krosan Grip: Reclaim.
Leyline of the Void: You can win without the graveyard using the Hunting Pack kill.
*Null Rod: Bad, bad news. You can win through it...good luck though. Counter that ****.
Internal Synergies
I thought I'd demonstrate some of the synergies inherent in the strategy. TS is the zen of decks, as nearly every card makes a combo with every other card in the deck.
*Top + Future Sight is the Shovel. "1: Draw a card. +1 storm." That was good, last I heard.
*Top + Thought Lash is the Steam Shovel. "1: Look at the top 3 cards of your library. If they're not Future Sight, RFG them and try again. Also, cast Healing Salve." nb: doing this during your opponent's turn is a good way to piss off an aggro player.
*Thought Lash + Ancient Tomb = no pain
*Top + Long-Term Plans: "Long-Term Plans is now Demonic Tutor."
*Top + Brain Freeze on you: For when you hate the top 3.
*Top + LED = Black Lotus.
*LED + Brainstorm = Black Lotus.
*LED + Future Sight = Black Lotus (are you starting to see a trend here?)
*Future Sight + Drafna's Restoration: Get all your mana back.
*Drafna's Restoration + Brainstorm: Get all your mana back.
*Top-deck knowledge + Fetchlands: tech.
*Top-deck knowledge vs. discard: tech.
Matchups
This is mostly theoretical, I admit. * indicates that I've actually tested the matchup.
*Goblins: Definitely favourable. You are combo, and you prevent damage. Ancient Tomb, basics and artifacts largely offset Wasteland and Port.
*Survival: A walkover. They pretty much can't win.
*Stax: Believe it or not, a favourable matchup due to the silver bullet Hurkyl's Recall in the board. Depends on the build though.
*Landstill: I managed to post 50% numbers against Landstill due to speed and luck, as far as I can tell. It helps to be holding multiple Sights and FoWs.
Thresh: Better than Landstill.
Faerie Stompie etc: Not great. Chalice is bad.
*Solidarity: 50%. The thing about a Brain Freeze mirror match is that both players sit there waiting for the other to go off. I just responded to their Nth card draw spell with a double Brain Freeze and a counterspell open. The correct strategy for this matchup is a complete mystery for me though...it does my head in.
*Aluren: Very good matchup. You are both 1 card combos. Difference is, you have Force of Will.
Other combo: Not too good, as they are usually faster. If you win these it is through good hands with Force of Will and 3rd-turn wins. If Iggy gets Leyline its all over. UPDATE: Apparently it went 7-3 against CRET Belcher.
Other aggro: Very good. If they run Chalice, Disenchant, Null Rod etc., 1 piece of hate is not usually enough to stop you.
Other control: Board control and 43-land are byes. Discard is generally favourable, believe it or not.
What Thoughtless Sensei isn't:
1. A Johnny deck built to abuse a "bad" card. Word up: when I designed the deck I had no idea that Thought Lash had a rep of being the worst card in Alliances. It was a card that did the job I required of it, that's all. Illusions of Grandeur, Food Chain and Necropotence were all crap until a deck came along that broke them.
2. Sensei Sensei. The deck is so close to the Helm of Awakening/Top combo that it has been very tempting to stick Helms in for the hell of it. This is not that deck. In fact, Thoughtless Sensei is almost quantifiably better than that deck (its a good turn faster, runs just as much disruption, and needs less pieces). The deck is plenty combo enough: adding more combos simply makes the deck lose focus.
3. Something I just threw together. Its been in development since mid-2005, has a modest tournament history (mainly due to an almost complete lack of tournaments here), and one of my major testing partners is a former NZ national champion.
FAQ
a. Why would I ever play this over Solidarity?
That's probably one of the most important questions you could ask, so I'll tackle it first.
1. The metagame is prepared for Solidarity. A lot of the Solidarity hate which is found in sideboards is next to useless against TS. For example, Pyrostatic Pillar/Ichneumon Druid will be lucky to deal a single point of damage to you during the combo, due to the damage cushion provided by Thought Lash. Stifle and Trickbind do not phase TS, as you can easily play multiple copies of Brain Freeze after going off. Mana Maze usually accomplishes very little due to the fact that it is easy to alternate between playing an artifact and playing a blue spell, or chaining multiple artifact spells in a row followed by a blue spell. True Believer and Solitary Confinement (and Platinum Angel and Ivory Mask etc.) are non-issues as they can be bounced from the wishboard. Remember, once Future Sight and Thought Lash are online, mana and cards flow freely.
2. Thoughtless Sensei beats Goblins.
But Solidarity beats Goblins too!
Thoughtless Sensei does it better. Put it this way: one of the combo pieces costs 2UU and gives you a 40 point life cushion. That's a bit like Solidarity's trick of using Turnabout as a Fog. Except that Thought Lash can prevent damage from a Goblin Horde for several turns, and you know the really great thing? The same card that is saving your butt is simultaneously (with the help of Top) digging ever closer to the Future Sight you need to seal the deal.
3. Its potentially faster. Thoughtless Sensei can win on turn one; Solidarity can't.
4. The rogue element. A counterspell player, unfamiliar with the deck, will often waste their counters on dross like Thought Lash, LTP and Cunning Wish. You can use this to your advantage. Also, you lead out with Island, and watch the Threshold player drop a Meddling Mage naming High Tide. Rogue is good.
b. Isn't a deck based around resolving a 5cmc enchantment a losing proposition?
That's where the mana-base comes in. The deck's mana is designed to cast a turn 2 or 3 Future Sight, into a 4th-turn win. And it works, period. There are multiple ways to get there: from the simple (T1 Skerry, T2 Ancient Tomb, Petal, Future Sight), to the complex (ok...T1 Tomb, Top, LED, activate top, topdeck Long Term Plans; T2 Island; EOT Long-Term Plans for Future Sight; T3 look at top three and topdeck Future SIght, float two, break LED, draw Future Sight with Top and play it.) Other ways involve digging with Thought Lash and Top, etc.
c. But Iggy/TES/Belcher/SI is faster!
Maybe. When I made the deck, turn 4 was a very competitive speed. But the format is speeding up. This is the area where development comes in handy. In the end, it may be the case that the deck simply cannot compete for speed, in which event I would nominate it as a prime candidate to be the format's defining combo-control archetype. With so many ways to adjust the top cards of the library, Counterbalance could be incorporated with the greatest of ease. With so many 0 and 1-drops, Erayo, Soratami Ascendant could also be played. As a mono-blue deck, TS is in an ideal position to maindeck more counterspells. Also, Magus of the Future is an obvious candidate for increasing the redundancy of the combo (since in a deck where Future Sight is all you really need to win, surely 5 to 8 is better than 4..?)
d. Wouldn't it be better with a colour splash? Lim-Dul's Vault and Enlightened Tutor > Long-Term Plans!
I've tried them. Every colour splash I've tried has damaged the consistency of the deck, and slowed the clock by a turn. Its got to do with the rhythm of the deck. One of this deck's best turn 1 punches is Ancient Tomb - Top - Activate. If you're playing LDV you can't do that on turn 1 and then play the tutor on turn 2; at least not without using valuable artifact mana. You are forced into making an inefficient play. Plans lets you Top turn one, Tutor turn 2, and play Future Sight turn 3, most likely. I swear to you, this is THE DECK to break Long-Term Plans in. However, I am still open to the idea of a colour splash, as long as it demonstrably improves the clock or consistency of the deck.
e. I tried playing your stupid deck and it did nothing til turn 7 and then I decked myself! What gives?
You did it wrong, that's what. Trust me, the deck is consistent. It's also an extremely complex deck to play (i.e. at least as difficult as Solidarity). Its nothing to be ashamed of.
But all you have to do is resolve one enchantment, right?
Try doing that consistently on turn three, following a Duress on turn 1 and a Hymn to Tourach on turn two. Or past a deck with two counterspells open. And guess what: you won't roll to that like some combo decks do. But it will take a bit of luck, and a heck of a lot of thinking. But you dig a challenge, right? Playing TS in a tournament takes nerves of steel: its probably the ultimate test of Spikeness. It's some combination of juggling your hand, top three cards, mana pool, storm count, life total, Thought Lash upkeep, figuring out the most efficient play, etc. My playgroup dubbed it "Headache.deq".
Tournament History
Ahem. A little background: I live in New Zealand. We're lucky if we get one Legacy tournament, of any size, in a year. So don't expect too much from downunder: this deck needs a champion or a team in the States or Europe if it's going to get anywhere. Also, I build decks, but I can't play; so my own results (midrange finishes mostly) are probably non-representative. HOWEVER:
I gave the deck to Glen Patel (who at the time was the NZ National Champion, and had just come back from taking on Worlds with Heartbeat of Spring); He took it to a local tournament with 15 people or so, and the deck basically went through them like a knife through butter, pulling regular 2nd and 3rd turn wins and making the Survival and aggro players look a bit silly. It came second to Goblins, and straight after the match results were given Glen realised that he had miscounted his storm count and should have actually won the final game, and the tournament. Note that this was after he removed all the Goblin hate from the sideboard because we thought they weren't going to show up...Ahh well.
I want to hear all suggestions regarding this deck; Magus of the Future seems like a good place to begin a meaningful discussion. I would love to get this deck into Proven Competitive. However, big tournament results are an impossibility as I live 10,000 miles away from any major Legacy events. Therefore, anyone who builds the deck and brings it to a large tournament will earn my endless thanks and admiration.
I'm willing to test via MWS, pm me. Although I am a post-graduate student, so my time is somewhat limited. As always, if anyone tests with the deck on MWS against randoms I am always keen to hear about the results.
MAD TECH UPDATE: The card Replenish actually crossed my mind just after I posted the primer. I've been testing a W/U list and HOLY CANOLI!!!
Its not just redundancy, its completely busted! By using LED and Brain Freeze to get the enchantments :eek: into the graveyard quickly, the chances of 1st, 2nd and 3rd turn wins go up dramatically.
There's a thread on the Source about breaking Replenish. How's this...?
T1: Tomb, Top, activate. Ohh, look, a Replenish on top! Drop Led and Lotus Petal. Break them discarding combo pieces. Draw Replenish with Top and play it for a first turn win!
I upped Brain Freeze to 4 since its a combo piece now (really: First turn Boseiju, second turn mill yourself for 6, third turn uncounterable game-winning Replenish.) I'm also running Boseiju for inevitability. Replenish is fantastic tech, you gotta try it!
Very Rough Replenish Testbed:
Lands
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Saprazzan Skerry
2 Flooded Strand
2 Polluted Delta
4 Tundra
3 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Island
Spells
4 Drafna's Restoration
4 Future Sight
4 Brainstorm
4 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Thought Lash
4 Lotus Petal
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Brain Freeze
4 Replenish
1 Echoing Truth
3 Mystical Tutor
Needs work, but...Power.:eek: