[Deck] Nic Fit (GBx Explorer Zenith Control)

Ok so I've been lurking in this thread for the last few days catching up with the vast wealth of insights and developments surrounding the deck. I've been trying to come up with something that has a better match up against Sneak Show, Reanimator and Dredge, and I remember a long while back someone mentioned Crop Rotation, but there was basically no discussion of it. I was wondering if something with a Crop Rotation/Diabolic Intent package using Karakas (reanimator, sneak show), Bojuka Bog (reanimator, dredge) and Boseiju (miracles) could help sure up some of the tougher match ups? Crop Rotation could be a turn one instant speed middle finger to a quick Emrakul or Iona. I was thinking something like this:

ENGINE
4 Veteran Explorer
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Cable Therapy
1 Recurring Nightmare

REMOVAL
3 Pernicious Deed
4 Abrupt Decay
2 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Swords to Plowshares

TUTORS
3 Diabolic Intent
2 Crop Rotation
1 Sensei's Diving Top

ZENITH TARGETS
3 Eternal Witness
1 Primeval Titan
1 Thrun, The Last Troll
1 Thragtusk
1 Kithen Finks
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
1 Armada Worm
1 Scavenging Ooze

LAND
1 Karakas
1 Bojuka Bog
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Windswept Heath
2 Bayou
1 Savanna
2 Treetop Village
2 Plains
3 Swamp
3 Forest


SIDEBOARD
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Crop Rotation
1 Quasili Pridemage
2 Extirpate
1 Memoricide
1 Cranial Extraction
1 Groundbreaker
1 Tormod's Crypt
2 Duress
3 Engineered Plague
1 Choke



OTHER CONSIDERATIONS

Garruk, Primal Hunter
Karn Liberated
Knight of the Reliquary - extra land tutor/beat stick, dies to deed though.
Thoughtseize - not sure this is necessary as this list has plenty of ways to find Therapies.
Unearth - Opening with Explorer, Intent, Unearth, Therapy, Deed could be hilarious but seems very magical christmas land. Might work as an Intent target.
Hymn to Tourach - enables disgusting godhands, but I err on the side of targeted discard.
Life from the Loam - Probably not necessary, Witnesses recur plenty.
Umezawa's Jitte - Plenty of tutors to find a singleton, and a very powerful anti aggro tool.
Phyrexian Tower/Volrath's Stronghold - -1 Nightmare, -1 something else?
More Top?

This list is completely off the top of my head, and I'm not experienced enough to get the mana base 100% right but the idea is there...

Thoughts Anyone?

Edit: Was considering the Groundbreaker as a hasty zenith target to hit Jace

So Wizards apparently fucked up and this will be printed:

Identity Nemesis {1UU}
Creature — Merfolk Rogue
As Identity Nemesis enters the battlefield, choose a player.
Identity Nemesis has protection from that player. (This creature cannot be blocked, targeted, damaged or enchanted by a source controlled by that player.)
3/1

We can be sure to face this quite a lot and in blue (non-Pod) Nic Fit decks this seems very good. Just comparing Thrun to this makes me cry a little.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Commander decks

From the Ashes
3r
Sorcery Rare
Destroy all nonbasic lands. For each land destroyed this way, its controller may search his or her library for a basic land card and put it onto the battlefield. Then each player who searched his or her library this way shuffles it.
Illus. Karl Kopinski

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I just came.

EDIT: this is also potentially interesting:

Shattergang Brothers
1brg
Legendary Creature - Goblin Artificer Mythic Rare
2{B}, Sacrifice a creature: Each other player sacrifices a creature.
2{R}, Sacrifice a artifact: Each other player sacrifices an artifact.
2{G}, Sacrifice an enchantment: Each other player sacrifices an enchantment.
Illus. Kev Walker 3/3

He's more fringe, I think, but he has a lot of powerful effects, and he's Zenithable at X=4, which is a hard number to find good targets at.

Is this card a joke? It has to be.

The only answers to it in legacy are:
Pernicious Deed
Innocent Blood
Terminus
Golgari Charm
Pyroclasm?
Infest?

This is more narrow than Geist in some ways. I am disgusted.

Edit: From the Ashes is like Vet Explorer on PCP. Ohman.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hymntotourcock

Is this card a joke? It has to be.

The only answers to it in legacy are:
Pernicious Deed
Innocent Blood
Terminus
Golgari Charm
Pyroclasm?
Infest?

This is more narrow than Geist in some ways. I am disgusted.

Edit: From the Ashes is like Vet Explorer on PCP. Ohman.

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Pyroclasm doesn't answer it, since Pyroclasm is dealing damage.

Also, you forgot Liliana of the Veil.

Also, Moat gets a lot better now.

Duh. Yeah it's still kinda early. :D

How can we incorporate From the Ashes into Punishing Fit? And when are these fancy new cards supposed to drop?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hymntotourcock

Duh. Yeah it's still kinda early. :D

How can we incorporate From the Ashes into Punishing Fit? And when are these fancy new cards supposed to drop?

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Nov 1st...
And the new blue king is kinda very very annoying.
Won't be surprised to see Merfolk in the DTB section in a couple of months.

Geez

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Arianrhod

I just came.

From the Ashes
3r
Sorcery Rare
Destroy all nonbasic lands. For each land destroyed this way, its controller may search his or her library for a basic land card and put it onto the battlefield. Then each player who searched his or her library this way shuffles it.
Illus. Karl Kopinski

EDIT: this is also potentially interesting:

Shattergang Brothers
1brg
Legendary Creature - Goblin Artificer Mythic Rare
2{B}, Sacrifice a creature: Each other player sacrifices a creature.
2{R}, Sacrifice a artifact: Each other player sacrifices an artifact.
2{G}, Sacrifice an enchantment: Each other player sacrifices an enchantment.
Illus. Kev Walker 3/3

He's more fringe, I think, but he has a lot of powerful effects, and he's Zenithable at X=4, which is a hard number to find good targets at.

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If only the Brothers were 2/4 to survive Bolts!!! But still, they seem quite powerful. Too expensive to be used as a sac outlet but built-in edicts and artifact removal (you can still draw the card with Top) seems good.

From the Ashes is like a dream-come-true and is probably worth building around (play a high basic count). Scapewish got a big buff (Arian clean your pants :) )and it might be a good reason to re-evaluate Burning Wish for Punishing Fire lists.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ralf

Nov 1st...

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Which means I'm going to need to try to find a couple of From the Ashes on the DAY BEFORE LEGACY CHAMPS somehow. That's gonna be fucking fun.

I know in ScapeWish, From the Ashes will definitely replace ruination as a wish target.

As for the new Merfolk, thank goodness we run deed! I also have a suspicion that Nimble Mongoose just may have gotten pushed out of the format.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tao

If only the Brothers were 2/4 to survive Bolts!!! But still, they seem quite powerful. Too expensive to be used as a sac outlet but built-in edicts and artifact removal (you can still draw the card with Top) seems good.

From the Ashes is like a dream-come-true and is probably worth building around (play a high basic count). Scapewish got a big buff (Arian clean your pants :) )and it might be a good reason to re-evaluate Burning Wish for Punishing Fire lists.

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I like the new armageddon in RED !

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Star|Scream

I know in ScapeWish, From the Ashes will definitely replace ruination as a wish target.

As for the new Merfolk, thank goodness we run deed! I also have a suspicion that Nimble Mongoose just may have gotten pushed out of the format.

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What you suggest is very interesting. RUG moving towards an upper mana curve with even more reach:
1 CMC = Delver
2 CMC = Goyf
3 CMC = Identity if the job is not done yet...

Also a turn 2 nemesis off of a shaman is interesting, as well.

One thing that I just noticed. The lands enter the battlefield untapped. So if you cast this with nonbasics you can play more spells the same turn. This just seems amazing.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tao

One thing that I just noticed. The lands enter the battlefield untapped. So if you cast this with nonbasics you can play more spells the same turn. This just seems amazing.

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The only dilemma I see is: If you want to ramp to this, you need to get your basics out asap. So how many basics will you still have available when you cast this? Further, how many duals will you have to sacrifice?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Star|Scream

The only dilemma I see is: If you want to ramp to this, you need to get your basics out asap. So how many basics will you still have available when you cast this? Further, how many duals will you have to sacrifice?

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Basically you will get as many lands are their basics in your deck (or less).

If you have 7 basics in deck and cast it with 3 non-basics, 4 basics you get 7 basics. With 0 non-basics, 7 basics, you get 7 basics. With 7 non-basics you get 7 basics.

More importantly, its a one sided Armageddon against a lot of decks.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TheArchitect

Basically you will get as many lands are their basics in your deck (or less).

If you have 7 basics in deck and cast it with 3 non-basics, 4 basics you get 7 basics. With 0 non-basics, 7 basics, you get 7 basics. With 7 non-basics you get 7 basics.

More importantly, its a one sided Armageddon against a lot of decks.

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Especially since most decks will have already gotten their basics out of their deck via Explorer by this point.

Yeah, sorry, I'm not sure what I was trying to say with that last post. Counting is hard.

It's a fine wish target, but is it really sideboard-able in Punishing Fit? Against which decks would you board these? 12Post, obviously. Jund?

P.s. It's a very funny answer to Blood Moon from Miracles.

Not sure yet how to use this is Punishing versions. If used as a SB card I would side this in most importantly against Shardless and Jund. Also an all-star against random Lands, Loam and 12-post.

The other option is to include Burning Wishes in Fire lists. Outside of Scapewish Burning Wish had the problem that it only answered things, but was no threat in a deck that is already full of answers. This qualfies as a big threat for many decks. But I am not sure if it is enough.

The biggest impact this will have is certainly for Scapewish, it seems like a big boost for the deck.

Yeah, the question is how many and replacing what -- what should the sideboard look like with this in the mix?

I'm thinking that I want a pair, with the intentions being to sideboard it in. The other option would be to put it maindeck in place of the 2 flex spots. I haven't decided yet if it's good enough to take that step. It very well might be.