Infinate Persist

4x Safehold Elite
4x Melira, Sylvok outcast
4x Kitchen Finks
3x Bird of Paradise
4x Dark Confidant
1x Tarmogoyf

1x Recurring Nightmare

4x Green Sun's Zenith
4x Inquisition of Kozilek
4x Thoughtseize

4x Carrion Feeder
1x Scarland Thrinax
3x Altar of Dementia

4x Verdant Catacombs
2x Windswept Heath
1x Misty Rainforest
3x Bayou
1x Taiga
3x Swamp
4x Forest
1x Dryad Arbor
1x Oran Reef, the Vastwood


I tested this against team america and went 2-2, should of have been 1-3, but ripped melira the turn before I would have lost. The main thing I think I would change is that I would Take out the discard spells. Against decks that play mental missteps, they get countered with tempo loss. I was thinking playing 4 Hymn. 3 Go For the Throat 1 Birds of Paradise. The beatdown plan is obsolete against decks with creatures because there is no removal to get rid of the creatures that are bigger than yours. I think the Go for the throats will be helpful. There isnt much one drops then...

Quote:

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Oh well. Perhaps Survival of the Fittest?

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That's why I was thinking Fauna Shaman. You need it active for a turn to find a missing creature.

There is also Tortured Existence and Fecundity. Not sure Fecundity makes the cut but you do draw your deck to find a win con.

I think the deck really want's to go gwb, but I don't think toughing red or blue would hurt too much if you decided to do it either. I think it's also criminal that no one has talked about Birthing Pod in this deck yet either. The tentative list I would run:

Creatures
4x Birds of Paradise (or Noble Hierarch, depends how much you want exalted vs. black mana)
3x Stoneforge Mystic
4x Melira, Sylvok Outcast
4x Kitchen Finks
4x Safehold Elite
1x Murderous Redcap
1x Essence Warden
1x Qasali Pridemage

Sorceries
4x Green Sun's Zenith
4x Cabal Therapy

Artifacts
4x Birthing Pod
1x Sword of Fire and Ice
1x Sword of Light and Shadow
1x Umezawa's Jitte

Lands
1x Dryad Arbor
3x Verdant Catacombs
3x Windswept Heath
3x Savannah
3x Bayou
1x Scrubland
2x Forest
1x Plains
1x Swamp
1x Volrath's Stronghold
4x Wasteland

I know that's a long way from optimal, but it does incorporate equipment wins + birthing pod, which is just a crazy tutor and advantage engine. Knight of the Reliquary and Horizon Canopy should probably both be in there as well, but I just thought of them as I was typing this paragraph.

Either way, I think all of these lists should include either Stonefore/Equips (6slots, requires white) or NO/Pro (4slots, requires a way to discard/shuffle Prog) as a backup plan in addition to the main combo.

I'd say the main tutor engines for this deck without going into blue and the BS/Ponder realm are Fauna Shaman, Green Sun's Zenith, Birthing Pod, and Diabolic Intent, with NO being able to fetch either Melira, Scarland Thrinax, or Finks/Elite in addition to it's Prog backup function.

Morgan, where are your sacrifice outlets?

ah crap, knew i was forgetting something. dammit. thanks guy. everyone ignore my nonsense list. except the part about birthing pod. thats just sheer fucking genius.

I knew I traded into a set of those for a reason. Maybe between Melira, Birthing Pod, GSZ, and Fauna Shaman the deck may be able to go for the combo or combo-control route. I'll try to work up a list.

I'm quite the fan of Momentary Blink in decks with this many CITP effects. You need a better way to protect Melira anyway.

Winning with (casting) three cards:
A)
1. Buried Alive (dumping Protean Hulk, and two other random cards) +
(Edit: Entomb would be enough, you just need Protean Hulk)
2. A sacrifice oulet in play (Carrion Feeder, Phyrexian Tower, etc.) +
3. Reanimate spell (Reanimate, Animate Dead, Exhume, whatever), reanimating Protean Hulk, then sacrifice Protean Hulk to bring:

Melira + Kitchen Finks + Carrion Feeder (should the above sacrifice outlet is no longer available), or
Melira + Safehold Elite + Carrion Feeder + Essence Warden
etc.

EXTRA: With Dark Ritual, this could be a turn one combo. (Land, Dark Ritual, Entomb, Carrion Feeder, Reanimate)

B)
1. Buried Alive (dumping Protean Hulk, and Carrion Feeder and 1 random cards) +
2. A random creature to sacrifice to:
3. Victimize, bringing Protean Hulk and Carrion Feeder from the graveyard into play, then it goes the same way as above.


With (casting) one card:
Tooth and Nail, bringing Protean Hulk and Carrion Feeder into play, then see above. (But who plays with Tooth and Nail in Legacy, anyway? :)


PS:
Tortured Existence & Survival of the Fittest looks great together...

After messing around with various lists some more I've gotten to this one. It's still far from perfect though. It seemed like having non creatures as part of the combo diluted it and made it harder to assemble, so I limited the Persist guys to Finks and Redcap, which provides either infinite life or infinite damage. I also set the disruption up as mana denial and discard. The mana denial slows down your opponent, and the discard clears the way for you to go off. This version lacks a solid backup plan aside from beating with subpar critters, which is bad. It also has zero removal MD, which may be good or bad depending on your opinion of it.

Discard
4x Cabal Therapy
3x Thoughtseize

Protect yourself when going off, prevent them from doing the same.

Mana Denial
4x Wasteland
3x Destructive Flow

Lots of basics and manabirds help you to ignore the effects of both of these while still accelerating yourself.

Persist
4x Kitchen Finks
4x Murderous Redcap

These give you a way to win through either infinite damage or make it really hard to lose through infinite life. Both have moderate utility on their own as well.

Sacrifice Outlets
2x Scarland Thrinax
2x Dimir House Guard

Thrinax can be found with Zenith, and House Guard can tutor for either Birthing Pod or Murderous Redcap.

Tutors
4x Green Sun's Zenith
4x Birthing Pod

GSZ is acceleration, mana fixing, and combo completion. Almost no downsides to it at all. Birthing Pod can find any creature in your deck without being vulnerable to counter magic. Can also come down on T2 with help from a Zenith or Bird. Finds two guys from every persist creature.

Combo
4x Melira, Sylvok Outcast
1x Sylvan Safekeeper
1x Eternal Witness

Melira is the enabler for the persist combos, while Sylvan protects your dudes while your going off, and Witness gets back anything you need.

Acceleration
1x Dryad Arbor
4x Birds of Paradise

With GSZ this gives you eight T1 manabirds without clogging your deck with them excessively. Birthing Pod can turn a BoP into a Melira if necessary. Or an Arbor into a BoP.

Lands
3x Wooded Foothills
3x Verdant Catacombs
2x Bloodstained Mire
3x Forest
2x Swamp
2x Mountain
1x Taiga
1x Badlands
1x Bayou

Sideboard
4x Grim Lavamancer

Removes little dudes, utility critters, Bobs, and Merfolk.

4x Krosan Grip

Kills Leylines (Void and Sanctity) and Humility among other things.

3x Phyrexian Metamorph

Kills Iona, Emrakul, and Progenitus, tutorable with both Dimir House Guard and Birthing Pod.

1x Genesis

Gets all your guys back.

3x Dosan, the Falling Leaf

Turns off countermagic and instant speed removal, protecting your combo in the face of hate.


Like I said the deck lacks a good backup plan and has dudes that are generally smaller and more expensive than other Legacy creatures, so either No/Pro (4 slots) or a bunch of equipment w/no SFM (4ish slots, various swords and/or jitte) should likely be in the maindeck. There could be more sacrifice outlets or a way to win outside of damage, like Altar of Dementia. But I'm not certain how necessary that is. The maindeck as it stands now is also 63 cards, which is three too many. And it has no card draw outside of the various tutors and Birthing Pod. Top seems like a natural fit in a deck with essentially unlimited shuffle effects, but I have no idea what to cut for it and it also seems like it would slow things down in a deck that is already not quick.

However, even with all of those disclaimers, this seems like a solid/very reasonable place to start from when building the deck. I also looked at some kind of beast package (likely Garruk) + contested cliffs as a way to get removal and an alt-win in the maindeck, but that plan would require dropping the Destructive Flows. One other thought on alt-wins that this deck could probably use is Rude Awakening, but it is expensive at eight mana.

Why not use Imperial Recruiter as a tutor if running :r:? It can tutor up any part of the combo, or the 1-of Sylvan Safekeeper/Eternal Witness.

Melira (4)
4x Melira, Sylvok Outcast

Tutors (8)
4x Imperial Recruiter
4x Green Sun's Zenith

Sac outlets (8)
1x Viscera Seer (also Scry for Redcap)
2x Carrion Feeder
1x Bloodthrone Vampire (cmc2)
1x Scarland Thrinax (1-of for GSZ)
1x Goblin Bombardment
1x Blasting Station
1x Altar of Dementia

Persist guys (8)
4x Murderous Redcap
2x Kitchen Finks
2x Safehold Elite (for cheaper GSZ and for Recruiter if stuck with 3 lands)

Mana accel. (4)
4x Birds of Paradise

Protection/recovery (2)
1x Sylvan Safekeeper
1x Eternal Witness

Disruption (7)
3x Thoughtseize
4x Cabal Therapy

Lands (19) - rough sketch
1x Dryad Arbor
4x Verdant Catacombs
4x Bloodstained Mire
4x Wooded Foothills
4x Bayou
1x Taiga
1x Badlands

Sideboard (15)
3x Natural Order
1x Terastodon
1x Progenitus
4x Tarmogoyf
4x Mental Misstep / Leyline of the Void / Nihil Spellbomb
2x Beast Within

3 of everything, then 4 living wish to get whatever is missing. Living Wish can actually get Carrion Feeder / Visera Seer unlike GSZ. You could also pack Volraths Stronghold. Protects against Extirpate as well.

An upgraded deck made top8 at a big tournament:
http://thecouncil.es/tcdecks/deck.ph...8&iddeck=46498

I don't think birthing pod is good enough for legacy. Investing 4 mana and 4 life should win the game and having 4 of those without filter effects is not good.

I can think of a 4 mana sourcery that is pretty good.
With this combo, NO can also end the game on the spot instead of bringing up a Progenitus, right?