Legacy Tyrant Blue

[Pizzatog]

First of all, here is a link to a cool and original t1 deck on themanadrain.com.

http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=35244.0

The original deck is quite raw and doesn't work some well, but as it is developed, somewhere in the second page we end up with a deck that is one of the few real control decks in vintage right now.

Looking at the deck, I think this would make a fantastic port to legacy because:

- The draw engine of the deck is completely legacy legal. Mystic Remora and Meditate. Provided Remora, is not as good in legacy as it is in vintage. It is still quite good. Also Jace/brainstorm

- The kill, with show and tell and tyrant is legacy legal as well.

- The disruption package consists almost completely of pitch counters as well. Add some dazes for legacy.

- Back to Basics. In vintage right now, it is not so good, with gush running rampant. In legacy it is very good.

- The deck is not as dependant on cheap artifact mana as other vintage decks. It can run perfectly well on just islands, due to the big number of pitch counters. The strategy when playing that deck is just waiting it out.

Two bad points to playing this deck in legacy are the lack of Oath of Druids in the sideboard vs creature heavy decks (I think this can be offset by just playing things like propaganda) and the lack of a combo finish with moxen and brain freeze.

So, a starting point might be:

Academy ruins? (with crypt and explosives and whatnot. maybe even adding top and counterbalance)
Tidespout Tyrant
Jace Beleren
Ponder
Meditate
Brainstorm
Misdirection
Force of Will
Daze
Mystic Remora
Show and Tell
Repeal
Back to basics

The top-counterbalance would fit in well with the deck. Or maybe a more toolbox aproach with tinker mages and cheap artifacts.

[Arsenal]

^

Mana Drain is not Legacy legal. Also, what advantages is there to this deck over Legacy MUC (where Fact or Fiction is unrestricted)?

[Jaynel]

Tyrant Blue is a Drain based control deck. I'm not sure how we could really port it to Legacy, besides Scattering Stroke + Top to manipulate the clashes (which seems terrible). Moxen also help some, both with the bouncing with Tyrant and ramping up to 5 colorless mana.

[Pizzatog]

Sorry, forgot to delete that mana drain from the original post. Done.

I think this deck might not be so very different from legacy MUC. The difference is in Show and tell-Tyrant, which ends games very quickly, while undoing whatever your opponent plays and the mystic remora engine, which in my experience is amazing. And I think it could easily incorporate Fact or Fiction as a stronger alternative to Jace.

With countertop down, you can just sit back and counter stuff.
Its the same remora, with remora down, you can just sit back and draw cards.

[Pizzatog]

Mana drain is one of the ways to get tyrant down. The other one, is show and tell. Vintage tyrant blue doesn't run the full compliment of either. In a legacy version it could run 4 show and tells and go that way. In any case, the way you play this deck is always looking for a long game. You will build up to 8 mana if you dont have the show and tell before that. And you could use things like ancient tomb, or chrome mox to give the deck a boost as well.

[Nightmare]

EPIC worked on this deck for like, a month and a half. It ended up sucking. To combo out with Tyrant, you need 3 mana for S&T, a Chrome Mox or Lotus Petal to bounce stuff (can be in play) another one to cycle with (can also be in play), and a win condition IN HAND. So it's at the least, a three card, 5 mana combo, which is disruptable by a multitude of stuff. It doesn't generate infinite mana like in Vintage, and it doesn't draw cards like Salvagers does. It just makes infinite storm. Not the most threatening combo. You can skip the combo part, and just swing a few times with a 5/5, and it's still not as good as going Goyf, go. You're honestly better running Morphling, who at least can protect himself.

[Pizzatog]

I was just reading the legacy MUC thread over in the DTB forum.

Perhaps the tyrant part of the deck isn't as strong, but I feel that the draw engine with remora and meditate has a lot of potential. Maybe a MUC variation with mystic remora, meditate and repeal might be worth it?

[Isamaru]

I think people are forgetting that Legacy has tons of card draw. Why run unsupported Meditates, or slap down a Mystic Remora, only to lose to an aggro deck, all the while being worse than Enchantress at what it does?

I can build a UB deck that draws A TON of cards... but it will still lose to aggro. In Vintage, that deck works because (1) Drain is legal (2) The format revolves around noncreature spells.

For this exact reason, Countertop is worthless in a lot of decks (especially noncombo, control decks like you're building), and at protecting you against Goblins, and tons of other aggro. The reason it is used in the best deck is because the best deck can already handle aggro because it cheats using a little card called Tarmogoyf, backed up by other creatures. There are like 10 articles about why traditional control doesn't exist in Legacy (which is nice), but rather, control decks take important considerations like including efficient sweepers, etc.

Mystic Remora is not reliable MB in this format for this reason, and it won't be until Flash is unbanned. (The last time our format looked like Vintage, it was when I traveled to Columbus to waste time playing at the Grand Prix.)