Extirpate / surgical extraction deck
Hi all,
I could be the master of dud deck ideas but I’d like the minds of legacy to comment and maybe even improve it, if it’s possible. If you think it’s shite that’s fine, but please say why and perhaps suggest improvements. No budget constraints, I have most legacy staples and wanted to investigate something different to the usual meta.
The idea is to have them discard stuff which gets extirpated or surgically extracted. Many decks have key pieces they need. Exile their doomsday, murktides or other important bits and close with Kaya. I would like to have another wincon, but what? Anyway, all discussion and critique is welcomed.
4 Dark Ritual
4 Extirpate
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Prismatic Ending
4 Surgical Extraction
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Thoughtseize
4 Hymn to Tourach
3 Kaya, Orzhov Usurper
2 Lost Legacy
2 Wrath of God
2 Flooded Strand
2 Marsh Flats
2 Plains
3 Polluted Delta
4 Scrubland
9 Swamp
SB:
3 Kambal, Consul of Allocation
2 Plague Engineer
2 The Rack
3 Waste Not
2 Lost Legacy
3 Persecute
Re: Extirpate / surgical extraction deck
I have been thinking along similar lines, and I have a few suggestions.
I think that Prismatic Ending and Swords are excellent cards, but they go against what the deck is doing. I think that having "Destroy" or "Sacrifice" cards would be better, so then the permanent can be Surgically Extracted. So, Vindicate would be at the top of the list to replace those effects.
It would change the deck quite a bit, but Grief, Solitude, Ephemerate, and Tidehollow Sculler could be powerful together.
I also think that Gerrard's Verdict may be worth running.
Damn is better than Wrath of God, and is probably worth running 4x.
So, my proposed list would be:
4 Extirpate
4 Surgical Extraction
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Thoughtseize
4 Hymn to Tourach
2 Gerrard's Verdict
4 Vindicate
3 Damn
3 Kaya, Orzhov Usurper
2 Liliana of the Veil
2 Lost Legacy
2 Flooded Strand
4 Marsh Flats
3 Polluted Delta
4 Scrubland
2 Plains
9 Swamp
Re: Extirpate / surgical extraction deck
Plague Engineer could effectively "surgical" any x/1 from your opponents deck, and it acts as a slow wincon.
Needles can cancel out fetches, or you can just waste their dual and then surgical it to really make them tilt. Now I want to try this deck out...
Edit: Opposition agent could be good here too. Not quite the effect you are looking for but gives wincons and disruption in one. Tourach, Dread Cantor could play nicely out of the board in some matchups too.
Re: Extirpate / surgical extraction deck
This type of deck gets tried once in a while. They tend to be extremely good against graveyard decks and combo but weak against fair decks. Beating combo is for obvious reasons (extract their wincon). Against fair decks Surgical Extraction and Extirpate and Lost Legacy are usually card disadvantage, so you fall behind in cards.
For the deck to have a chance, the main thing is to fill it out in a way that improves the fair matchups. You want to avoid filling the deck with too many 1-for-1s (StP + Ending + Thoughtseize + Inquisition) because then it'll struggle to stay at parity with fair decks. You don't want to be in a 1-for-1 mirror as the person with 8 Surgical vs the person with 4 Brainstorm. You'll fall behind after trades. To avoid that, this needs a source of card advantage (Dark Confidant?) to make up for the inherent card disadvantage as Surgical.dec. Cards that trade positively also help. 2-for-1s like Hymn to Tourach. Maybe Gerrard's Verdict or Tourach, Dread Cantor. Planeswalkers can get you ahead. Damn looks good, because it's early removal that can also help you catch up later (more versatile than Wrath). 3-mana 1-for-1 (Vindicate) does not help this issue.
For removal, I think the deck also needs maindeck Sudden Edict. In this format you want some removal that won't lose to Delver's Daze (either 1 cmc or uncounterable) and that answers instant Marit Lage. Damn and Vindicate don't fill that role. Sudden Edict does. Swords does too, but as Whoshim said exiling removal is awkward because you can't Surgical after. Either way this slot will be a 1-for-1, but you're forced to run some to interact with fast decks.
If you're on Dark Ritual, payoffs like Opposition Agent and Liliana of the Veil look good. It does increase the card disadvantage risk though.
Finally, the manabase. To dodge nonbasic hate, BW can fetch basics more often than Scrubland. The mana should start with
4 Marsh Flats
4 Prismatic Vista
2-4 Scrubland
1 Karakas
some Plains
more Swamps
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth could help the BB cards like Hymn, Damn and Liliana.
Edit: And you want Wasteland in here because Wasteland+Surgical wins many matchups.
Re: Extirpate / surgical extraction deck
Example deck
//Lands: 21
4 Marsh Flats
4 Prismatic Vista
2 Scrubland
4 Swamp
2 Plains
1 Karakas
4 Wasteland
//Creatures: 12
4 Esper Sentinel
4 Dark Confidant
2 Tourach, Dread Cantor
2 Monastery Mentor
//Spells: 24
4 Surgical Extraction
4 Extirpate
2 Swords to Plowshares
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Hymn to Tourach
2 Gerrard's Verdict
2 Sudden Edict
2 Damn
//Planeswalker: 3
2 Kaya, Orzhov Usurper
1 Liliana of the Veil
//Sideboard: 15
3 Thoughtseize
3 Plague Engineer
2 Serenity
2 Prismatic Ending
1 Lost Legacy
1 Pithing Needle
1 Torpor Orb
1 Liliana of the Veil
1 Damn
All 12 creatures can generate card advantage or sacrifice bodies to Cabal Therapy when they're no longer good.
The curve is very low for Dark Confidant (21 0s / 18 1s / 16 2s / 5 3s). Sideboard has nothing over 3. Kaya gains back life. Tourach and Damn are 4 cmc cards that only lose 2 life with Bob.
Esper Sentinel has synergy with Wasteland and discard. Either they slow down their plays (being vulnerable to discard) or you draw free cards.
To avoid 1-for-1s against fair decks, Cabal Therapy + Hymn + Gerrard's + Tourach make a whopping 12 "discard 2s"! Liliana can also take multiple cards while you're hellbent. Seeing their hand from Surgical should make Cabal Therapies hit better. Against combo, where precision and speed matter, board in Thoughtseizes and Lost Legacy.
Against fair creatures the SB has cards like Plague Engineer, Torpor Orb, Liliana and Damn to handle multiple creatures at once instead of trying to 1-for-1 them.
This is a bit light on wincons. I crammed in Mentor as a lazy solution, but maybe there's something better.
Re: Extirpate / surgical extraction deck
Quote:
Originally Posted by
FTW
That looks certainly spicy.
As for wincons your GY should be stacked enough to support Anglers or Tombstalkers.
Bitterblossom might also work and supports Therapy.
Graveyard Trespasser // Graveyard Glutton could also be nice.
Eats more stuff, gains life, is annoying to remove and is very hard to flip back once the discard has hit.
Re: Extirpate / surgical extraction deck
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Zoid
That looks certainly spicy.
As for wincons your GY should be stacked enough to support Anglers or Tombstalkers.
Bitterblossom might also work and supports Therapy.
Graveyard Trespasser //
Graveyard Glutton could also be nice.
Eats more stuff, gains life, is annoying to remove and is very hard to flip back once the discard has hit.
Angler and Tombstalker are nonbos with Bob. Even worse when Murktide can just go over them.
Bitterblossom, Graveyard Trespasser, and the black Mentor (Magecraft - create a 1/1) could all be good.
Re: Extirpate / surgical extraction deck
Quote:
Originally Posted by
FTW
Angler and Tombstalker are nonbos with Bob. Even worse when Murktide can just go over them.
Bitterblossom, Graveyard Trespasser, and the black Mentor (Magecraft - create a 1/1) could all be good.
Whops, true.
Bitterblossom might actually be really good as it stalls Murktide.
The life loss together with Bob, Surgical and possibly Thoughtseize might be a bit much.
On that front Trespasser might be better even though the question is how much he's going to eat.
I suppose you were thinking about Sedgemoor Witch.
She could also work although Ward is pretty bad.
Also maybe 1 or 2 Raven's Crime might be worth it just to always have a discard and recycling excess lands.
