Current build 6/29/2011:
8 Island
2 Academy Ruins
4 Rishadan Port
4 Petrified Field
4 Seat of the Synod
1 Darksteel Citadel
3 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
4 Propaganda
3 Tangle Wire
4 Static Orb
3 Relic Barrier
3 Ratchet Bomb
4 Force of Will
4 Mental Misstep
2 Force Spike
4 Preordain
4 Master of Etherium
SideBoard
4 Washout
3 Submerge
3 Arcane Laboratory
3 Pithing Needle
1 Ratchet Bomb
1 Hibernation
I feel weird putting this in new and developmental since Ive been playing this deck forever. A long, long time ago when I first found out that winter orb shuts off when its tapped I made a deck around it. It actually did quite well since it was real good against goblins. Later Goyf/kgrip/tombstalker got printed and I had to shelve my deck. In the last few years there have been quite a few cards printed that helped my cause. Also people have been playing stone forger a whole lot. Decks that play forger really like to untap lands every turn. I love the deck because my opponents usually want to jump out of a tall building by the end of the game. I think the deck could be good with just a little help. Heres my current list:
12 Island
4 Petrified Field
4 Rishadan Port
2 Academy Ruins
3 The Tabernacle at the Pendrell Vale
12 Islands sometimes feels like it's too few but I don't have anything with UU other than force so its probably fine. My nonbasics are important so petrified field helps me against wasteland. Ive actually had people try to mana screw me by wasting my field which is fine by me. I have more nonbasics than they have wastes. Port tightens down the lock after I play winter orb and relic barrier. Academy ruins is real good. Most decks only run one but I like running two. In addition to getting back artifacts after they get countered/destroyed it can recur tangle wire. This is absolutely brutal under a winter orb. Academy ruins is usually instantly wasted so running two is pretty good. Tabernacle is obviously real good with orb in play. Its legendary and doesnt produce mana so I think running four would be overkill.
4 Lodestone Golem
Lodestone Golem is my primary wincondition. Ive tried a bunch of different things but I like him the best. He's sort of a lockpiece on his own which gives him some protection against removal. He recurs with academy ruins. He costs four which is actually pretty cheap. 5 power gets there pretty quickly. In fact lodestone is good enough on his own I find myself just playing him without a lock in place and just beatdown for the win. I once won a game where my winter orbs got extirpated by playing golem with tangle wires and counter backup.
4 Relic Barrier
4 Winter Orb
3 Relic of Progenitus
3 Tangle Wire
Well winter orb is pretty much the whole point of the deck. Relic barrier shuts off winter orb. I know its narrow but Ive yet to find a better solution. Icy manipulator costs 4 which is too much under a winter orb. Sometimes it randomly taps a dreadnought which is hilarious. It can also do more than nothing against affinity and those trendy MUD decks. Relic of progenitus is there mostly to keep goyf small. It's actually pretty good at that. It can also make tombstalker real hard to cast. And of course its real good against dredge/loam/reanimator. Since it cycles its never quite dead so I don't mind running it maindeck at all. So many decks run goyf anyways. Tangle wire is pretty weak in other decks but its a house here. By itself its pretty unimpressive although sometimes it can timewalk. It has massive synergy with winter orb, propaganda and tabernacle. It recurs with academy ruins which is pretty sick and a nifty alternate win condition.
4 Propaganda
I don't know what to say about propaganda without sounding like I'm just stating the obvious. Against decks that attack in teams its a house. Against decks that run just a couple big creatures, not so much. With winter orb in play its pretty much going to be a moat. Also you're not allowed to pay for it in their upkeep. Alot of people think your allowed to do this for some reason. Alot of people are fucking dumb.
2 Echoing Truth
4 Force of Will
4 Impulse
4 Mental Misstep
Echoing truth is a catch all against random crap. Its my favorite bounce. I'd consider wipe away but the UU is kind of ugly. Mental misstep use to be mana leak. I like Misstep since it counters vial on the draw. Misstep is quality because under orb your opponent is probably just going to try to play 1 mana spells. I think I'm basically at the lower bound of blue cards needed for force to work but I usually don't have a problem finding things to pitch. I like impulse as my source of card quality. I dont run any shuffle effects so something like brainstorm is unplayable here. Digging four deep is just real good. Ive never been disappointed with impulse.
SB:
4 Chalice of the void
4 Trinisphere
4 Pithing Needle
3 Hydroblast/Rebuild/Hibernation
Well chalice is pretty good because I dont run alot of one drops. I use to play 3sphere main but lodestone made it so it was unnecessary. Its still real good out of the board especially against decks that are unaffected by winter orb. Pithing needle stops all sorts of crap that hurts this deck, ee/planeswalkers/wasteland/aether vial etc etc. Hydroblast because moon effects are kind of painful. Its not the best answer because decks that pack moon effects also tend to pack chalice of the void. Rebuild is obviously real good against affinity but its main use is to clear away any chalce@2. It can also randomly save you against board sweepers. It also gets rid of artifact mana which can be a total pain Hibernation because elves tend to kick my teeth in with their plan of making 1000's of mana without even needing help from their lands.
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As far as matchups are concerned I'm not quite sure, even though Ive played the deck alot during my lifetime. Tribal aggro is going to be good as long as that tribe isn't elves. I don't think Ive lost a match to a stone forger deck yet, although Ive lost a game here and there because jitte just gets there sometimes. Ive played against landstill type decks and just shut them down with orb. Other times Ive gotten completely blown out by recurring EE and planeswalkers. Zoo is probably about even, sometimes I shut them down and win, sometimes they just race to the finish and kill me. When I win my life total is very often less than seven. I want to say countertop is favorable, but I think it could be due to the fact that counter top is tough to play (alot of people fuck it up) and countertop players are not use to facing this deck. I have had quite a bit of success against countertop type decks. In reality its probably unfavorable since my curve is easily stopped by countertop. Ive had alot of success against storm combo, especially game two/three when I bring in additional hate.........
So Id like to hear your ideas about the deck. If you take it for a spin on mws that would be real cool. I understand the deck is expensive but its actually on the cheap side if you run alternatives to Force and Tabernacle.
And before "why play this over stax/mud/hulkflash"? Because I love this deck. I'm probably playing it at gp (If I can get to gp).
Thanks
clavio
