[Deck] Spanish Inquisition (B/x Storm Combo)

Tomb of Urami is some tech from the old days of B.C.'s SI list! Never use it unless you feel forced to or have stripped the opponent's hand. Swords, EE, and Deed, all wreck this card, but it is there because it can be. Much like EtW it is a backup, incase you need it. Always Therapy before using Urami. Plus, much like the old SI decks themselves, it is VERY unexpected!

But the problem with lists like these are their inconsistencies, TES is everybit as fast as SI is these days, thanks to Ad Nauseam and just as fast so there honestly is not a single good reason to build this deck over DDFT, TES, or ANT. Unless it is for budget reasons, there is no reason to run SI, it is simply inferior in today's meta. Now Belcher is a very similar story, but it is hella faster and often wins before the hate can come down. So if duals and fetches are restricting you, and you want to play combo, build Spoils Belcher then move onto TES since they contain a lot of the same cards.

@whidye: I like your list, and I give you mad props for playing some kind of SI variant in today's meta, even if it was for budget reasons! Blue is truly the way to go with combo, these decks are never consistent enough to put up a series of results, Spoils or Serum Powder Belcher CAN but you have to get decent matchups. So if you want to build a combo deck and don't want to spend a shit ton of money I would build Belcher, I can give you the 2 most optimal lists if you want. Regarding your deck, I would highly recommend you put at least 2 Tomb of Urami in the main, the card is so cool and wins games out of nowhere! Plus you are mono-black so I really see no reason to not run a few in the main!

@whidye: I'm quite interestet how your version of the deck would look like without financial restrictions. Would you really play more white (+Scrubland) Silence/Chant and Angel's Grace? How much?

I don't know if you guys expected to read a long ramble about my deck, but here it is anyways ;p


I'm glad that you guys are at least slightly interested in this decklist. I will probably not try out any other lists; because as I said, there is no legacy in my area (in fact, the record that you see in my report [the only eternal tournament I've done] boosted me to a #19 ranking in my province - I hadn't been previously ranked). I really do enjoy playing legacy - I just have no place to play ;(

I have not tested the below list, but I think that without financial restraints I would move towards "this type" of list. Some of it (Disciple in main) is from knowledge gleaned from the tournament. Other choices are just things I would like to try out. I have added more Silence and taken out the pacts. I have added Mox Diamond instead of Tower. The problem with chrome is that it usually provides black - with diamond I have two ways to use it; do not discard a land and sac using disciple trigger, or play it after AdN where it really shines. However, a diamond is worse to see in your opener than a chrome; so I haven't decided on this factor yet. Another non-budget change you will notice is thoughtseize - it depends on your meta, but usually this gives you a lot more breathing room vs. aggro.

Also, I know this list strongly improves with the inclusion of blue - the combo color of choice; but I do not think of myself as a good enough deckbuilder to add blue to this list without it simply becoming ANT/TES. I am okay with that. This list wasn't built to be ANT/TES; it was built as mono-black SI. I think it is also slightly unfair to ask what this list would look like without a budget, since that also moves it towards ANT/TES. The reason the list was kept mono-black was because it was an easy budget choice, stops a lot of mana-hate which I expected (moon/wasteland/B2B/PoP) and the best cards I could add in black were added to it. If you do WANT to keep this deck mono-black I would think about cards like LED/Infernal for a nice tutor engine - but those two work (in my opinion for this deck) worse than walker/intent; however the advantage is that you do HAVE more tutors; and can run less Ad Nauseam. Finding the correct balance between tutors, protection, and raw speed is all up to you and your meta.

Anyways, a proposed list using white protection (silence) instead of blue (negation):

The SAINT

4 Swamp
1 Plains
2 Scrubland
1 Polluted Delta
2 Windswept Heath
2 Mox Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
4 Dark Ritual
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Culling the Weak
2 Ornithopter
2 Disciple of the Vault
3 Phyrexian Walker
4 Shield Sphere
4 Diabolic Intent
3 Ad Nauseam
2 Tendrils of Agony
4 Silence
3 Thoughtseize
4 Cabal Therapy
1 Slaughter Pact

Sideboard:
2 Powder Keg
2 Tormod's Crypt
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Pithing Needle
2 Empty the Warrens
2 Slaughter Pact
1 Thoughtseize
1 Vindicate
1 Pact of Negation


I like this list; but I don't necessarily think it is "strictly better" than my list.
#1: I value moon-hate highly. This deck loses to moons easier than my list.
#2: So many decks run wasteland...
#3: You are taking life loss from your lands. This isn't great and "thinning" doesn't really help this deck. When you AdN you don't care if you see five lands flop in a row (except that you should shuffle better).
#4: It has a higher avg. CMC than my previous deck. It's not the end of the world; but its not better.

Places to improve:
#1: My list in general IS better if it can run more tutors, and less AdN. It has trouble doing this; which blue helps greatly (with just mystical tutor!).
#2: My list has trouble against countertop - and no way to stop it MD. Blue can handle this. My list must pop a silence on their turn to slow them down if I don't have any discard.


So, if you are interested in making a mono-black SI, I would consider all of the information I posted (here and previously). Maybe it is a Tier 1 deck just hiding out for now; but I think the power blue can add outweighs the hate against this deck - but then you move away from an SI build. As such, I'll just stop my rambling and leave you with this:

-I had a ton of fun playing this deck; and so did everybody who watched me (re: "Are you playing TALL MEN?! Awesome!")
-This deck is old-tech, people I played were surprised to be against it and were not prepared causing a few misplays on their part.
-I'm not going to reinvent the wheel with this deck; that's why you guys are here!
-Thanks for your input/interest.

I really enjoyed reading your explanations, here above and the previous ones, it seems you put much efforts and love with this deck.
I have some more questions for you:
I actually own a single Mox Diamond, do you think that on the original list (the one on the previous page) will be better a single Mox, or a single Tower, or it's even?
2 Disciple, is really worth it? how many damage you will do usually per game with it?
Thanks for your time, i'm actually waiting the cards that i buyed for this deck on E-bay, i'll do my personal tests soon.

Thanks samsunait!

In my opinion - do not take out the tower for the diamond. The tower is a land, and the diamond needs a land - its just risky and can lead to bad draws. The reason I like tower: It provides a little boost of accel and knocks a walker off to disciple.

I really do like the disciples in this deck - when I sideboarded them in they helped a lot. Here is the list of things disciple is good for:
-Attacking for 1. Defending for 1.
-Killing a goblin lackey, rather than just blocking it.
-Lotus petal sacs.
-Diabolic Intent sacs.
-Culling the weak sacs.
-When your defenders die.
-When you explode powder keg.
-When they explode EE.


I have put quite a lot of effort into getting this deck as optimum as I can for a small investment; and I honestly do love playing it. With your single mox - I would test it out; but I don't know the best slot to place it. I think you will find mox is an excellent card post-AdN, but before, it is usually dead.

However, during testing (solo) - I only tested chrome mox; and I would not run them in this list for almost any reason. Stick with the diamond and see where it takes you ;p

Good luck!

A Spanish Nauseam deck placed 3° out of 20 at a recent tournament there.
The decklist is really similar to whidye's one except less budget, with Brainstom, Mystical Tutor and duals.
The concept anyhow is the same, nice that this kind of deck is showing in some tournaments.

How about going B/w with white for protection, trying to win of Ad Nauseum. Black gives us great acceleration and tutoring.
I came up with this list

4# Glimmervoid
4# Gemstone Mine
3# Scrubland

4# Lotus Petal
4# Lion's Eye Diamond
3# Chrome Mox

4# Shield Sphere
4# Phyrexian Walker
3# Ornithopter

4# Culling the Weak
4# Dark Ritual
4# Cabal Ritual
4# Diabolic Intent
4# Infernal Tutor
4# Orim's Chant
1# Silence
1# Ad-Nauseum
1# Tendrils of Agony

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Originally Posted by Samsunait

A Spanish Nauseam deck placed 3° out of 20 at a recent tournament there.
The decklist is really similar to whidye's one except less budget, with Brainstom, Mystical Tutor and duals.
The concept anyhow is the same, nice that this kind of deck is showing in some tournaments.

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Wasteland in Combo is busted. i think i'll try some Tendrils in Canadian Threshold soon.

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Originally Posted by Xentra

How about going B/w with white for protection, trying to win of Ad Nauseum. Black gives us great acceleration and tutoring.
I came up with this list

4# Glimmervoid
4# Gemstone Mine
3# Scrubland

4# Lotus Petal
4# Lion's Eye Diamond
3# Chrome Mox

4# Shield Sphere
4# Phyrexian Walker
3# Ornithopter

4# Culling the Weak
4# Dark Ritual
4# Cabal Ritual
4# Diabolic Intent
4# Infernal Tutor
4# Orim's Chant
1# Silence
1# Ad-Nauseum
1# Tendrils of Agony

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You don't need white. Some ANT lists uses Duress + Thoughseize for protection so you can keep monocolored. In any case I would go -1 Glimmervoid, +1 Scrubland.

But if you keep In WB, and play LEDs + Infernal Tutor, you MUST play a single Ill-gotten gains to combo via Igg-Loop. With enough tallmans you can combo without LED or Infernal, using Culling the weak or Diabolic Intent. Playing 16 ritual effects + 8 tutors will give you a lot of games.

The first decks with AdNauseam in Spain was based in SI and ended like this:
http://www.deckcheck.net/deck.php?id=24206

- UB decks
- Without LED but with Pact of Negation
- Mainboarding 2 City of Traitors or 2 Crystal Vein to do: T1 Underground ->Mystical for Ad Nauseam, T2 Dark Ritual, City -> Ad Nauseam.
- W for Sideboard Angel's Grace and/or Orim's Chant

I'm not sure if this is playable... but Death's Shadow interests me.

After a draw-4 it's a credible threat, and since our life is very controllable it can go the distance if an opponent doesn't find an answer. After the first draw-4, it's another creature to use for Culling even if it's not perfect for that. It renders a conventional clock even more meaningless. If both players have exhausted themselves, it's a big threat to dopdeck.

Despite everything I'm not convinced this is playable in the maindeck, even in my favourite version where it'd have additional synergy (first list in the first post, with Glimpse of Nature instead of Diabolic Intent and the second IGG being an open slot that keeps changing).
However, as an alternative to a conventional man plan, what about this: Death Wish into Death's Shadow!
A 3/3 for 4 isn't impressive but it'll grow if we're put on a clock. An 8/8 (after a draw-4) is already quite good.

The best part of this is that we aren't forced to go for Death's Shadow if we don't currently need it. We can blow up Confinements or fetch a lethal Tendrils or something that will force a lethal Tendrils through or... well, you get it.
I absolutely hate diluting B/g SI with cards that don't do anything: Speed and consistency are awesome and imo often not sacrificing for anti-hate cards (especially not against decks that can attack our initial mana sources - which includes everything with countermagic). Death Wish isn't a dead card for killing the opponent, and gets around a few cheap things that may otherwise leave us completely unable to win.

The problem with Death's Shadow is that he have no evasion. No trample, no flying, no fear, no shadow... So, Zoo could block Shadow and burn you, for example.

But would worth the test. Say us if him works.

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So, Zoo could block Shadow and burn you, for example.

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I would never side creatures against Zoo.

Has anyone tested Recross the Paths, in the B/G list ?

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I would never side creatures against Zoo.

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Yeah there isn't a reason to use the man plan against aggro, you should just steam roll Zoo with storm.

I'm actually interested in hearing people's thoughts on Diabolic Intent in the Pact SI list. I have yet to test it, but lists needs about 10 creatures to support it and Culling the Weak and this deck runs 4 Land Grant, 4 Summoner's Pact, and 2 creatures. Could it be done? The deck only runs 1 Tendrils so it would be a nice way to fetch it if you have the right number of spells and 6 mana floating. The only thing is that trying to chain Culling the Weak into Diabolic Intent won't always work and Diabolic Intent can't fetch IGG that well because if you loop it then you need an additional creature. Nonetheless, I think its worth exploring. It doesn't need LED to find stuff but if you end up playing it as the last card in your hand, with enough mana floating you can look for Infernal Tutor looking for IGG, cycling LED, Dark Ritual, and Infernal Tutor into Tendrils.


It should be noted also, that Carpet of Flowers errata makes this deck significantly better:

Carpet of Flowers (G)
Enchantment
At the beginning of each of your main phases, if you haven't added mana to your mana pool with Carpet of Flowers this turn, you may add up to X mana of any one color to your mana pool, where X is the number of Islands target opponent controls.

Now you can play it while you are going off, pass to your 2nd mainphase and add mana like a ritual, AND you can attack with Xantid Swarm and then add mana to your mana pool. Both as significant an improvement to the sideboard against control that the SI archetype could hope for. Its so nuts with Draw4's. The ability to threaten Draw4 (counter), Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, etc. go off. makes the control matchup a little better.

I play this board:
4 Xantid Swarm
4 Carpet of Flowers
4 Tomb of Urami
3 Tomb Stalker

Decks with force//
-4 Summoner's Pact
-3 Goblin Charbelcher
-1 Ill-Gotten Gains

+4 Carpet of Flowers
+4 Xantid Swarm

Stax and Stompy//
-4 Summoner's Pact
-2 Goblin Charbelcher
-1 Ill-Gotten Gains/Draw4/Infernal Tutor/Belcher (your choice really)

+4 Tomb of Urami
+3 Tombstalker

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Despite everything I'm not convinced this is playable in the maindeck, even in my favourite version where it'd have additional synergy (first list in the first post, with Glimpse of Nature instead of Diabolic Intent and the second IGG being an open slot that keeps changing).
However, as an alternative to a conventional man plan, what about this: Death Wish into Death's Shadow!
A 3/3 for 4 isn't impressive but it'll grow if we're put on a clock. An 8/8 (after a draw-4) is already quite good.

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Maybe in a Glimpse list it could be playable but drawing multiples without a draw 4 is bad. It looks tight as hell but does it matchup to Tombstalker? 5/5 Evasion for BB is pretty good. I think that it would be bad in the MD because it doesn't have haste. It will be really weak in against anything with removal. The man plan is better against decks that tend to board out their removal in games 2 and 3 for more combo hate.

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Has anyone tested Recross the Paths, in the B/G list ?

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I've tested it in the Pact shell and it was meh. It might work better in the old Land Grant build that runs the tall men to stall.

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It might work better in the old Land Grant build that runs the tall men to stall.

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My thoughts:

4 Elvish Spirit guide
4 Lion's eye diamond
4 Chrome mox
4 Lotus Petal
4 Dark ritual
2 Bayou

4 Cabal Ritual
4 Culling the weak
4 Land Grant

4 Shield Sphere
4 Phyrexian Walker

4 Infernal Contract
3 Cruel Bargain
4 Infernal Tutor

2 Tendrils of Agony
1 Goblin Charbelcher
2 Recross the paths
2 Ill Gotten gains

@Vacrix
Can I see your PactSI list :-) ?

Death Wish would fetch a Death's Shadow against Zoo very rarely to never. A bad tutor for a finisher (because overcosted and painful) still isn't dead, and it also gets answers for random junk especially in games 2 and 3.
I probably don't want to sideboard in potentially dead cards and play to my strengths instead. Not losing outright to a random Hate Bear without making concessions is good.

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Recross the path: Hardcast Land Grant (with a chance to come back) or a Doomsday with a more awkward mana cost, without the ugly but usually irrelevant drawbacks. Hmm. I have attempted Doomsday in an SI-like shell but wasn't all that impressed with it, I think it needs lighter draw effects to pull its weight if what we're looking for is a way to increase speed/consitency.

Seems somewhat good for giving you a late game with the right list though: 'You'll run out of things to stop a Belcher before I run out of Belchers and things that stop things from stopping Belcher'. With the deck in its current incarnations, I'd prefer to chain random junk into random junk into a win though.

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Carpet of Flowers is interesting. People can stop forget about stopping you with 1-for-1 answers because you do't have to waste a ritual per threat; they'll run out of relevant resources before you do unless they lay down a wrecking ball.
It only becomes truly interesting when the opponent reaches 2 islands which means they have access to Counterbalance and possibly an assortment of hate bears so I wouldn't exepct miracles. However, on the draw it improves our long-term chances while having a decent chance to be mana-neutral in the first turn (opponent can still sit on fetch lands).

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My thoughts:

4 Elvish Spirit guide
4 Lion's eye diamond
4 Chrome mox
4 Lotus Petal
4 Dark ritual
2 Bayou

4 Cabal Ritual
4 Culling the weak
4 Land Grant

4 Shield Sphere
4 Phyrexian Walker

4 Infernal Contract
3 Cruel Bargain
4 Infernal Tutor

2 Tendrils of Agony
1 Goblin Charbelcher
2 Recross the paths
2 Ill Gotten gains

@Vacrix
Can I see your PactSI list :-) ?

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Well.. the problem with this list is the lands. Having 2 lands makes it very unlikely to find both, which means you will often just be playing Rampant Growth and rearranging the bottom of your library. Its best in one land builds that can often fetch out that land. So I think it really needs to be in a 1 land build if its worth running at all, and that land will have to be easily fetchable. Pact SI does a great job at thinning its deck of the 2 lands because it runs Summoner's Pact and Land Grant. The question is really, does a balls to the wall combo deck really want to build its strategy around something that wins on the following turn. I think not. Doomsday is awesome because you play a cantrip and draw into what you have waiting, or use SDT, but we can't really do that.

As for the Pact SI list, I run this IRL:

Pact SI:
Business:
4 Goblin Charbelcher
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Ill Gotten Gains
4 Infernal Tutor
4 Infernal Contract
4 Cruel Bargain

Mana:
4 Manamorphose
4 Summoner's Pact
3 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
4 Chrome Mox
4 Dark Ritual
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Culling the Weak
4 Land Grant
1 Bayou
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Vine Dryad

SB:
4 Xantid Swarm
4 Carpet of Flowers
4 Tomb of Urami
3 Tomb Stalker

Its awesome.

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Death Wish would fetch a Death's Shadow against Zoo very rarely to never. A bad tutor for a finisher (because overcosted and painful) still isn't dead, and it also gets answers for random junk especially in games 2 and 3.
I probably don't want to sideboard in potentially dead cards and play to my strengths instead. Not losing outright to a random Hate Bear without making concessions is good.

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If you are going to run Death Wish, then you have to cut a business spell. It fetches anything in the board, but why run that over business? It just adds a lot to the cost. 6 for a Cruel Bargain that makes you lose half your life twice would be better just as an Ad Nauseum, and 4 mana for a 12/12 that doesn't win the game immediately is just subpar when you consider what you are cutting for Death Wish.
You can avoid hatebears entirely with the speed of SI. Besides, Death Wish --> Oxidize is impossible if you trying to get rid of something like Thorn of Amethyst.

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Carpet of Flowers is interesting. People can stop forget about stopping you with 1-for-1 answers because you do't have to waste a ritual per threat; they'll run out of relevant resources before you do unless they lay down a wrecking ball.
It only becomes truly interesting when the opponent reaches 2 islands which means they have access to Counterbalance and possibly an assortment of hate bears so I wouldn't exepct miracles. However, on the draw it improves our long-term chances while having a decent chance to be mana-neutral in the first turn (opponent can still sit on fetch lands).

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Agreed, its busted in SI because you have such a high threat density. It forces your opponent to play with fewer lands, usually no more than 3, but sometimes just 2. Its great against Merfolk and Dreadstill, but against something like Thresh.. they can play just 1 island in game 3 to avoid it by just fetching their non-island lands with their fetchlands. So its not always the best idea to drop it early. Sometimes its better to wait a few turns either til they tap out, then try to spin off, or wait til they drop 3 or so islands. Carpet of Flowers is good with Belcher. Sometimes you have enough mana to Dark Ritual, bait with a draw4, then play out Belcher, pass, activate during your next mainphase.


Also, I think a relevant question that is a precursor to any discussion of SI is, why play SI in the current meta and which build is the most viable?

The answer is, SI can get the turn 1 kill more often than any other deck in the format. For those dank percentages, you need to be a good pilot, and sacrifice a little consistency. SI also mulligans better than any deck in the format.

Now the question is, what build is the best given the current meta? Power creep has made the tall men plan from the original Land Grant SI pretty weak. 0/6 doesn't stop a Goyf for long. QSI was made obsolete by Ad Nauseum. SITES looks pretty good. Pact SI looks pretty good. What do people play these days? Who still plays this deck IRL or MWS besides myself?

Since we're posting lists, the final list of Pact SI I played ran 4 Tendrils of Agony MD with the 4 Goblin Charbelchers in the SB and replaced Manamorphose with Pact of Negation, you have to have some kind of answer to Force of Will or Spell Snare/Spell Pierce on Land Grant MD and Manamorphose sucks really bad because it "turns on" their Spell Snares.

I don't mind Death Wish, and I thought about replacing 3 Tendrils of Agony for 3 Death Wish for some time or just replacing all copies of Infernal Tutor for Death Wish and all copies of Tendrils of Agony for Goblin Charbelchers to maximize my threat density.

Recross the Paths looks really damn cool, it's like a Doomsday with bigger piles and a mana refund after you cast it, I have no idea how to break that but it'd be interesting to try.

Also, I think you guys should be SBing 4 Serum Powder to bring in when you don't need disruption vs aggro.

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Since we're posting lists, the final list of Pact SI I played ran 4 Tendrils of Agony MD with the 4 Goblin Charbelchers in the SB and replaced Manamorphose with Pact of Negation, you have to have some kind of answer to Force of Will or Spell Snare/Spell Pierce on Land Grant MD and Manamorphose sucks really bad because it "turns on" their Spell Snares.

I don't mind Death Wish, and I thought about replacing 3 Tendrils of Agony for 3 Death Wish for some time or just replacing all copies of Infernal Tutor for Death Wish and all copies of Tendrils of Agony for Goblin Charbelchers to maximize my threat density.

Recross the Paths looks really damn cool, it's like a Doomsday with bigger piles and a mana refund after you cast it, I have no idea how to break that but it'd be interesting to try.

Also, I think you guys should be SBing 4 Serum Powder to bring in when you don't need disruption vs aggro.

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I tried your list a while back but preferred the Manamorphose over Pact of Negation because it improved my goldfish consistency considerably. I agree its horrid against control but if you punt the stax matchup (or just beat them with speed) then you have 15 cards in the board to deal with control. Carpet of Flowers got better with new oracle text and I've always liked Xantid Swarm. Tombstalker is really just good against stax and I want to drop it for EtW in my board.

I have yet to test Serum Powder though. How has that worked out for you?

Also, the Pact list has enough creatures access to support Diabolic Intent. Would that be worth running in place of some business? I'm thinking about cutting 2 Belcher in my list for 2 Diabolic Intent.

Diabolic Intent blows, don't bother.

Pact SI wasn't just designed for speed, Pact SI was designed to withstand disruption by turning your robots into "anti-Daze" tech. However that's not enough, because Land Grant eats Spellsnare, so you have to have disruption in order to prevent them from countering Land Grant and mulliganing into Force of Will

Tombstalker, Tomb of Urami and Carpet of Flowers do not work in this deck, you are reliant on Summoner's Pact and there's not a single mana source I'd board out for Carpet of Flowers.

I find that reasoning deeply flawed. Having a Land Grant countered is annoying but hardly a death sentence. That counter would have gone towards a Ritual-fueled Contract instead, about the same harm done - we just need to topdeck initial mana rather than business and are in a better position when we find what we need. We can recover from either.
The true harm of using Land Grant is already done - broadcasting our weaknesses.

Pact for protecting Land Grants is a case where paranoia lets us scrape for a solution that is worse than the threat. They can mulligan into Force semi- reliably, but not into Force + something to stop us for good (without the robots, they can reliably mulligan into Force and a clock of some sort though).

One drawing point of SI is that we often remain one topdeck away from victory even if we are stopped the first time. I'd be very reluctant to throw that away. The Spirit Guides to play around Daze are nice, and give us a theoretical chance to win under a Trinisphere... but I think if we make too many concessions we destroy a big part of what makes this deck attractive in the first place.
this is why I'm interested in janky outs to janky things that can randomly 'cheat' us out of a win if they aren't dead cards if we just care about doing our thing and killing our opponent.