[Deck] Turbo Depths

not necessarily strategy related, but it is Turbo Depths related!!! Today I finally completed a project I started a little over a year ago... to get my ENTIRE deck signed and its finally done! heres some notes regarding the deck as well as the pics! hope you enjoy!

"Fun" Facts:

This project was started 1 year and 8 days ago

This deck contains the signature of 27 Artists + 1 Hall of Fame Pro

The Hall of Fame player being Olle Rade, who won the first Magic Invitation and designed the card, Sylvan Safekeeper. I couldnt pass up a set of Safekeepers signed by both the artist AND card designer

I had cards shipped from as far as Japan and Italy and as close as California.

The Rarest of signatures being Chris Rush, Beta Forest. Vance Kovaks, Verdant Catacombs and Doug Chaffee, Sphere of Resistance.

Aside from the FBB Bayous, the Spheres are the most expensive cards in the deck, Due to Dougs passing 7 years ago and the fact that he rarely signed, the two Spheres set me back $470.

I completed this deck by working with artists directly, artist brokers who manage the signings of a large group of artists as well as picking up cards as they became available,

In addition to the decks are some cool sketches, notes and artist proofs that the artists sent me as well as some cards that have been retired from the deck.


Tried to upload pics, but they're too big so here's a link!

https://imgur.com/a/g6pEi

beautiful.

Hey guys yesterday I made third place of 104 at local tournament with the following list:

4 Dark Depths
4 Thespian's Stage
4 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Blooming Marsh
2 Llanowar Wastes
1 Snow-covered Forest
1 Snow-covered Swamp
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Karakas
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Sejiri Steppe

4 Vampire Hexmage
4 Elvish Spirit Guide

4 Lotus Petal
3 Pithing Needle
3 Thoughtseize
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Collective Brutality
4 Crop Rotation
4 Sylvan Scrying
2 Expedition Map
2 Sylvan Library

Sideboard:
3 Abrupt Decay
2 Krosan Grip
1 Mishra's Factory
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Toxic Deluge
2 Ground Seal
3 Not of this World
1 Pithing Needle

Matchups were:

2:1 vs Grixis Tezzerator
1:2 vs Czech Pile
2:0 vs RUG Lands
2:0 vs 4c Control (with Punishing Fire and Wasteland)
2:0 vs Elves
2:0 vs Elves
2:1 vs Elves
Quarterfinal 2:1 vs Grixis Delver
Semifinal 1:2 vs Czech Pile

Misplayed at the semifinal otherwise I guess I'd win. He plays Surgical to Hexmage, Snap Surgical to Decay and played Needle for Thespian's Stage and I forgot to use Stage in response to copy any other land. Next turn I drew the Depths I was looking for. My boarding against Czech Pile was: -4 Petal, -3 Needle, +2 Ground Seal, +1 Surgical, +3 Decay, +1 Factory. Any other tips for the matchup?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by epicthings

not necessarily strategy related, but it is Turbo Depths related!!! Today I finally completed a project I started a little over a year ago... to get my ENTIRE deck signed and its finally done! heres some notes regarding the deck as well as the pics! hope you enjoy!

"Fun" Facts:

This project was started 1 year and 8 days ago

This deck contains the signature of 27 Artists + 1 Hall of Fame Pro

The Hall of Fame player being Olle Rade, who won the first Magic Invitation and designed the card, Sylvan Safekeeper. I couldnt pass up a set of Safekeepers signed by both the artist AND card designer

I had cards shipped from as far as Japan and Italy and as close as California.

The Rarest of signatures being Chris Rush, Beta Forest. Vance Kovaks, Verdant Catacombs and Doug Chaffee, Sphere of Resistance.

Aside from the FBB Bayous, the Spheres are the most expensive cards in the deck, Due to Dougs passing 7 years ago and the fact that he rarely signed, the two Spheres set me back $470.

I completed this deck by working with artists directly, artist brokers who manage the signings of a large group of artists as well as picking up cards as they became available,

In addition to the decks are some cool sketches, notes and artist proofs that the artists sent me as well as some cards that have been retired from the deck.


Tried to upload pics, but they're too big so here's a link!

https://imgur.com/a/g6pEi

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wow, thats dedication! Congrats dude!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Quentin Coldman

Hey guys yesterday I made third place of 104 at local tournament with the following list:

4 Dark Depths
4 Thespian's Stage
4 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Blooming Marsh
2 Llanowar Wastes
1 Snow-covered Forest
1 Snow-covered Swamp
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Karakas
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Sejiri Steppe

4 Vampire Hexmage
4 Elvish Spirit Guide

4 Lotus Petal
3 Pithing Needle
3 Thoughtseize
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Collective Brutality
4 Crop Rotation
4 Sylvan Scrying
2 Expedition Map
2 Sylvan Library

Sideboard:
3 Abrupt Decay
2 Krosan Grip
1 Mishra's Factory
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Toxic Deluge
2 Ground Seal
3 Not of this World
1 Pithing Needle

Matchups were:

2:1 vs Grixis Tezzerator
1:2 vs Czech Pile
2:0 vs RUG Lands
2:0 vs 4c Control (with Punishing Fire and Wasteland)
2:0 vs Elves
2:0 vs Elves
2:1 vs Elves
Quarterfinal 2:1 vs Grixis Delver
Semifinal 1:2 vs Czech Pile

Misplayed at the semifinal otherwise I guess I'd win. He plays Surgical to Hexmage, Snap Surgical to Decay and played Needle for Thespian's Stage and I forgot to use Stage in response to copy any other land. Next turn I drew the Depths I was looking for. My boarding against Czech Pile was: -4 Petal, -3 Needle, +2 Ground Seal, +1 Surgical, +3 Decay, +1 Factory. Any other tips for the matchup?

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Congrats! Sounds like a good run. I would try to keep in some of those petals. We don't really want a long game against Pile because they eventually shred our hand and have us pinned between Strix and Jace and access to snap Edict or something. Ground Seals are great against Pile, you may not need the full 3 Decay because Brutality deals nicely with their Strix. Why Surgical? Leaving in 1-2 Needles might be good because of Jace or sometimes the 2-3 of Wasteland, depending on the build. I have been playing with Dryad arbor and I've found it much more effective than Factory, and you can play it maindeck without too much trouble. It sounds like you may be overboarding against Pile and slowing down the combo plan a bit too much, that's my two cents.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Quentin Coldman

Hey guys yesterday I made third place of 104 at local tournament with the following list:

4 Dark Depths
4 Thespian's Stage
4 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Blooming Marsh
2 Llanowar Wastes
1 Snow-covered Forest
1 Snow-covered Swamp
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Karakas
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Sejiri Steppe

4 Vampire Hexmage
4 Elvish Spirit Guide

4 Lotus Petal
3 Pithing Needle
3 Thoughtseize
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Collective Brutality
4 Crop Rotation
4 Sylvan Scrying
2 Expedition Map
2 Sylvan Library

Sideboard:
3 Abrupt Decay
2 Krosan Grip
1 Mishra's Factory
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Toxic Deluge
2 Ground Seal
3 Not of this World
1 Pithing Needle

Matchups were:

2:1 vs Grixis Tezzerator
1:2 vs Czech Pile
2:0 vs RUG Lands
2:0 vs 4c Control (with Punishing Fire and Wasteland)
2:0 vs Elves
2:0 vs Elves
2:1 vs Elves
Quarterfinal 2:1 vs Grixis Delver
Semifinal 1:2 vs Czech Pile

Misplayed at the semifinal otherwise I guess I'd win. He plays Surgical to Hexmage, Snap Surgical to Decay and played Needle for Thespian's Stage and I forgot to use Stage in response to copy any other land. Next turn I drew the Depths I was looking for. My boarding against Czech Pile was: -4 Petal, -3 Needle, +2 Ground Seal, +1 Surgical, +3 Decay, +1 Factory. Any other tips for the matchup?

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How is the manabase running for you without fetches? Seems suboptimal. Or does it work really well?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by caseyc

Congrats! Sounds like a good run. I would try to keep in some of those petals. We don't really want a long game against Pile because they eventually shred our hand and have us pinned between Strix and Jace and access to snap Edict or something. Ground Seals are great against Pile, you may not need the full 3 Decay because Brutality deals nicely with their Strix. Why Surgical? Leaving in 1-2 Needles might be good because of Jace or sometimes the 2-3 of Wasteland, depending on the build. I have been playing with Dryad arbor and I've found it much more effective than Factory, and you can play it maindeck without too much trouble. It sounds like you may be overboarding against Pile and slowing down the combo plan a bit too much, that's my two cents.

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I think ur right, next time I'll try to stay as fast as I can. But Needle looks really bad in my eye because with Kolaghan's Command it will not stay long on the battlefield. Although Jace is the only good target, I never saw a list running more than a 1off Wasteland. Thanks 4 ur tips.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ccab

How is the manabase running for you without fetches? Seems suboptimal. Or does it work really well?

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The manabase worked really great for me. No fear of Submerge, lands in grave for Deathrite, no manascrew against Stifle. I have some Bayous, but I like the manabase like it is and never had any problems. I only wanted the 24th land, so I decided to play Karakas in the maindeck.

I got first place in another event in my area. As I mentioned before, I decided to test out more discard in my sideboard over Spheres; I played a sideboard with Inquisition of Kozilek (over Collective Brutality). As expected I never wanted Spheres, and the only time I felt bad about having Inquisition over Brutality was in my finals match against Dredge--I lost Game 1 to blocking Narcomebas, then won Game 2 with Abrupt Decay and Sejiri Steppe to get past them (this is the only combo deck where discard does literally nothing and Brutality as extra removal would have helped). I didn't actually play against Show and Tell so it remains to be seen how embarrassing Inquisition of Kozilek truly is against them.

Sylvan Safekeeper was MVP. I played a round against what was essentially a Jeff Hoogland meme deck (Land Ad Nauseam) and had to kill with my crappy creatures. My opponent plays Ballista; I Hexmage the Ballista and give my creatures shroud when he tries to shoot them. Then he plays multiple Maze of Ith but I just give my ESG Shroud before combat every turn until he's dead.

This might be a weird question, but...how often do you feel like you're running into people who just don't know how this deck works? I'm beating up people left and right in my area, but I think it is in some part because my opponents are making mistakes and I am punishing them hard for the things they don't know. Stuff like opponents using Wastelands against Stage when there are basics in play, not playing Wasteland ASAP because they don't realize that this deck can make tokens ahead of schedule due to fast mana, etc. If not for telling everyone I have played against in the last month, none of my opponents would have realized that making Marit Lage is a triggered ability they can respond to so I've been playing around getting blown up but my opponents are often unaware that they can blow me up. I don't anticipate that my opponents at the GP will be unaware of the interactions, but many of the interactions do feel like they are unique to this deck and may be things that a player would be unaware of if they didn't have a strong understanding of the rules or a ton of experience against the card Dark Depths so I am curious how often these things are occuring in your matches.

Sideboard XLS coming in next 48 hours


I'm starting to think that Solnox's Rite of Consumption Package or the old ugin/emrakul package might be warranted in the new miracles heavy meta.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Namida

This might be a weird question, but...how often do you feel like you're running into people who just don't know how this deck works? I'm beating up people left and right in my area, but I think it is in some part because my opponents are making mistakes and I am punishing them hard for the things they don't know. Stuff like opponents using Wastelands against Stage when there are basics in play, not playing Wasteland ASAP because they don't realize that this deck can make tokens ahead of schedule due to fast mana, etc. If not for telling everyone I have played against in the last month, none of my opponents would have realized that making Marit Lage is a triggered ability they can respond to so I've been playing around getting blown up but my opponents are often unaware that they can blow me up. I don't anticipate that my opponents at the GP will be unaware of the interactions, but many of the interactions do feel like they are unique to this deck and may be things that a player would be unaware of if they didn't have a strong understanding of the rules or a ton of experience against the card Dark Depths so I am curious how often these things are occuring in your matches.

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I think you are correct, it comes down to opponents knowing this deck or not. I've been winning a lot when I first played this deck, now that my meta knows how to play against it, my win rate dropped significantly. With opponents making no mistakes anymore against DD its a lot harder to play.

@jdmdave

The Ugin / Emrakul package might be worth the slots if you are finding Safekeeper + Library insufficient. I have found them sufficient so far. I would probably play Emrakul, the Promised End so that you don't have to play Cabal Coffers.

That said, Casey has had success with Rite of Consumption, so you could try that.

I'm monkeying around with Dark Depths, trying to find a mid-range list I like. What's the opinion of seasoned Turbo-Depths players on Dark Confidant and Deathrite Shaman? It gives a grind plan, but obviously the fast mana suffers.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DNSolver

@jdmdave

The Ugin / Emrakul package might be worth the slots if you are finding Safekeeper + Library insufficient. I have found them sufficient so far. I would probably play Emrakul, the Promised End so that you don't have to play Cabal Coffers.

That said, Casey has had success with Rite of Consumption, so you could try that.

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Yeah, I've been very happy with 3x Rite, 1x Boseiju. It changes the whole paradigm of the Miracles matchup because you are the deck with inevitability. They need to establish a fast clock or they are going to lose and there really isn't anything they can do to interrupt it, save for Clique-ing you while you combo. I wrote a little strategy guide a few pages back about using the Rite plan against Miracles. It's pretty important to adjust your lines of play when you play Rite, otherwise it will likely seem underwhelming. That being said, I've never tried the Emrakul Cabal Coffers SB plan--so I don't have a point of comparison.

@Namida I don't see too many people making silly mistakes against me. Once in a while, at smaller events. But rarely in large events or now that the local folks I play with have experience against the deck. Somewhere there was actually a really good article basically explaining some of the trickier interactions/rules related to Dark Depths. Another one that a lot of players miss is understanding the triggers of Depths and interaction with Hexmage. For example, last night I was playing against a Delver player who had a Wasteland out, and I had a Depths and two Hexmages and some other stuff. I activated one hexmage targeting Depths and he immediately activated Wasteland targeting Depths. So that allowed me to activate my second Hexmage and target Depths to allow it's ability to trigger before the Wasteland activation resolved. However, if the Delver player had let the first Hexmage activation resolve, and Wastelanded my Depths with the sacrifice trigger on the stack, my second Hexmage becomes useless because the Depths already has 0 ice counters. Many people miss that one, as it is a little confusing. In that situation I had another work-around :-) But wanted to see if this guy would make life easy by not seeing the line.

The other simple one people miss sometimes is being able to 2-for-1 with a Wasteland if I go to combo using Thespian's Stage and Dark Depths. They will immediately Wasteland one of them, rather than let the copy ability resolve, Legend rule sacrifice happen, then Wasteland the Stage that is coping Depths with the sacrifice trigger on the stack. But usually, as the Depths player, you don't want to put yourself in that situation unless you have a backup combo ready to go.

I just don't like how slot intensive the consumption plan is. I will test it online and report back.

I still haven't found a particularly great SnT plan aside from race-and-pray.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mr. Safety

I'm monkeying around with Dark Depths, trying to find a mid-range list I like. What's the opinion of seasoned Turbo-Depths players on Dark Confidant and Deathrite Shaman? It gives a grind plan, but obviously the fast mana suffers.

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I've tried lists using Deathrite Shaman, Dark Confidant, and both together. In theory the idea of making the deck grindier is nice against tougher matchups like Miracles, but most other matchups suffer in practice. There are other means of winning the grindy matchups more consistenty imo.

On Deathrite:

I've had mixed results with this, but found it underwhelming overall. It does have the benefit of being a body on the field which helps shield against Diabolic Edict, and against unsuspecting UW opponents it can draw out a Swords to Plowshares early if they aren't aware what you're on. However, you don't have the means to enable it for mana regularly compared to other Deathrite decks, and any matchups that run Deathrites themselves put you in a bind for mana when you have Deathrite wars jostling for position. That's an unnecessary place to find yourself in against matchups like that where we are already favored. It is a great secondary win condition, but given its primary focus is as a mana source it just isn't consistent enough and slows the deck down. One of the deck's biggest strengths is its speed, and extending the game longer in matchups where you want to close quickly can weaken the deck. It also does suffer from splash damage by drawing random Lightning Bolts and Abrupt Decays and such, which just sucks. On another plus side, I've found that lists using Deathrite could enable the deck to run Cabal Therapy effectively (and by extension Gitaxian Probe), which is just great.

On Dark Confidant:

I've actually replaced my Sylvan Libraries with these and now run three main and absolutely love them. They do suffer the same splash damage from removal as Deathrite does, but at least it isn't tampering with your mana. But like Deathrite, it is a body that can protect from Diabolic Edict or draw Swords to Plowshares. I ended up shifting to Bobs over Sylvans because in many matchups, Sylvan ends up being too dangerous of a card to take the extras from. Four life is a lot. Given the high land count and low curve of the deck, on average you're going to take four life from a Bob over the course of a few turns instead. In general you'll find more cards and not lose as much life, but at the risk of being forced to pay the life over an extended time. As an early play, I prefer having that consistent stream of cards. Another benefit that has led me to using Bobs is that the deck has a much easier time finding black mana that green, so it's technically a little more castable. Against slower decks like Miracles, it still offers great card advantage, and if the opponent is going to waste a Swords or Terminus on it then that's one less to handle Marit Lage. Overall I've found that the matchups where Sylvan is good, Bob is also good. Being a body to block also is highly relevant, and it does at least give another creature to attack with for a plan B. I've personally replaced all of my Libraries with Bobs, but can see a split.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Di

I've tried lists using Deathrite Shaman, Dark Confidant, and both together. In theory the idea of making the deck grindier is nice against tougher matchups like Miracles, but most other matchups suffer in practice. There are other means of winning the grindy matchups more consistenty imo.

On Deathrite:

I've had mixed results with this, but found it underwhelming overall. It does have the benefit of being a body on the field which helps shield against Diabolic Edict, and against unsuspecting UW opponents it can draw out a Swords to Plowshares early if they aren't aware what you're on. However, you don't have the means to enable it for mana regularly compared to other Deathrite decks, and any matchups that run Deathrites themselves put you in a bind for mana when you have Deathrite wars jostling for position. That's an unnecessary place to find yourself in against matchups like that where we are already favored. It is a great secondary win condition, but given its primary focus is as a mana source it just isn't consistent enough and slows the deck down. One of the deck's biggest strengths is its speed, and extending the game longer in matchups where you want to close quickly can weaken the deck. It also does suffer from splash damage by drawing random Lightning Bolts and Abrupt Decays and such, which just sucks. On another plus side, I've found that lists using Deathrite could enable the deck to run Cabal Therapy effectively (and by extension Gitaxian Probe), which is just great.

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Definitely playing Probe/Therapy, it was one of the synergies I was most interested in playing in a depths shell. Probe/Therapy/Pithing Needle all feed off each other in a great way. My intent for Deathrite is to take the place of Elvish Spirit guide as mana acceleration that is also live as an alternative win condition.

Quote:

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On Dark Confidant:

I've actually replaced my Sylvan Libraries with these and now run three main and absolutely love them. They do suffer the same splash damage from removal as Deathrite does, but at least it isn't tampering with your mana. But like Deathrite, it is a body that can protect from Diabolic Edict or draw Swords to Plowshares. I ended up shifting to Bobs over Sylvans because in many matchups, Sylvan ends up being too dangerous of a card to take the extras from. Four life is a lot. Given the high land count and low curve of the deck, on average you're going to take four life from a Bob over the course of a few turns instead. In general you'll find more cards and not lose as much life, but at the risk of being forced to pay the life over an extended time. As an early play, I prefer having that consistent stream of cards. Another benefit that has led me to using Bobs is that the deck has a much easier time finding black mana that green, so it's technically a little more castable. Against slower decks like Miracles, it still offers great card advantage, and if the opponent is going to waste a Swords or Terminus on it then that's one less to handle Marit Lage. Overall I've found that the matchups where Sylvan is good, Bob is also good. Being a body to block also is highly relevant, and it does at least give another creature to attack with for a plan B. I've personally replaced all of my Libraries with Bobs, but can see a split.

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I would want both Library and Confidant as a way to generate card advantage and quality over a game. I also feel that Confidant is sometimes really bad in multiples but I always want 4 so I can get the best percentage of drawing him, which is where Cabal Therapy comes in to allow for abusing the flashback option. Deathrite also serves this purpose, especially if he becomes a dead horse.

I should qualify my approach a little more: I'm only playing 2x Depths, 1x Stage. I am definitely leaning on Crop Rotation and Hexmage as redundant enablers more than naturally drawing into the lands. I understand that it sacrifices the protection from countermagic. My metagame has only a few blue-based fair decks, a couple of delver players and a couple miracles players. I see a lot of Chalice Stompy variants, Maverick, Pox, Enchantress, Burn.

EDIT: http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...04#post1037704

I top 8 a 81 player tournament in the Netherlands with this awesome 75 beauties https://www.facebook.com/dutchopense...&theater&ifg=1
I went in 2nd seat undefeated.

You can see me play the quarterfinal here around the 9:00 clock.: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/232652279. I know i haven't play this match to my full potential but it was a long day (i was writing more excuses but he! you know how it works)

You can see me play against an elves player around 4:32

i do have very good results with the deck overall, i still want to tune the deck a bit. So if you have suggestions please let me know.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ribo

I top 8 a 81 player tournament in the Netherlands with this awesome 75 beauties https://www.facebook.com/dutchopense...&theater&ifg=1
I went in 2nd seat undefeated.

You can see me play the quarterfinal here around the 9:00 clock.: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/232652279. I know i haven't play this match to my full potential but it was a long day (i was writing more excuses but he! you know how it works)

You can see me play against an elves player around 4:32

i do have very good results with the deck overall, i still want to tune the deck a bit. So if you have suggestions please let me know.

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I've been watching you live and wondered "Why the hell the description of this deck is RiboDepths?! Is there some wierd mechanic I haven't seen in cards he played so far?" Well, now I know ;) Really good performance, especially in so diversed meta.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ribo

I top 8 a 81 player tournament in the Netherlands with this awesome 75 beauties https://www.facebook.com/dutchopense...&theater&ifg=1

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Nice work! Few questions:

1. Why Fatal Push in the main? What creatures are you afraid of?
2. Why Leyline of the Void in the side instead of Surgical Extraction?

I have had people sit down to play and even after seeing fetch bayou thoughtseize, still think I am on life from the loam. Pretty great.