Root Maze Parfait

[Laser Brains]

This deck is a dirty monster. I haven't tested it yet but it goldfishes like a champ.

The deck is all-in mana denial boasting 28 main deck mana denial slots. There is zero removal. We're depending on not allowing the opponent to cast spells by aggressively dropping mana-denial-dorks and closing out the game fast with quick heavy beats.

The key is to take advantage of Root Maze by not running fetchlands ourselves all the while punishing opponents who do. This strategy seemingly should be good in a UR Delver meta.

If we don't get a first-turn Root Maze we have Elvish Spirit Guide which can power out a turn one Leonin Arbiter and/or Thalia, Guardian of Thraben. Both of which as you probably already know are insane with Root Maze. ESG also helps us power through our own Root Maze by allowing us to cast Root Maze and a mana-dork on turn one.

With mana-dorks, we can easily establish a turn two Trinisphere, Thalia, Heretic Cathar, Sanctum Prelate, and/or Anointed Peacekeeper. Turns three, four, and/or five we have the nails in the coffin with Armageddon.

Steel Leaf Champion is probably the flex slot however his usual drawback of ggg is not a drawback here and he can close out games fast with the backup of a little mana denial. As far as big beat-sticks go I think he is the best option by far. Tarmogoyf in theory shouldn't get too big if our deck is working correctly. My thoughts are to run SLC in the main-deck and side him out based on game-one information.

There are a bunch of other synergies that pop up such as Anointed Peacekeeper giving you information for Sanctum Prelate, Noble Hierarch buffing dudes, Peacekeeper's vigilance, SLC's evasion, ESG is an extra body late game, etc..

Everything synergizes very well together and there isn't much in the way of nombos.

I'm thinking that the sideboard should be running some form of removal in the vein of Skyclave Apparition, Karakas, Cathar Commando and STP.

Other cards come to mind such as Winter Orb and Suppression Field but I'm not that impressed versus cards that do similar things but also have legs and a body to close out the game.

Here's the deck:

Root Maze Parfait:

Beatz / Denial: 23
4x Steel Leaf Champion
4x Anointed Peacekeeper
4x Leonin Arbiter
4x Sanctum Prelate
4x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3x Thalia, Heretic Cathar

More Mana Denial:
4x Root Maze
3x Trinisphere
2x Armageddon

Ramp: 12
4x Noble Hierarch
4x Birds of Paradise
4x Elvish Spirit Guide

Land:
4x Savannah
4x Brushland
4x Razorverge Thicket
4x Temple Garden

Sideboard:
???

EDIT: Thalia, Guardian of Thraben is really really good when almost every card in the deck is a creature.

[Weapon X]

I wouldn’t call this parfait since it’s missing any hallmarks of it. It feels more like maverick with different parts.

[FTW]

Cool idea.

Horizon Canopy seems better than Brushland.

It's a shame you can't run Land Grant, because that would work well with the no-fetch all-dual strategy, instead of playing Tier 3 duals. Land Grant is still good on Turn 1 but bad later with Leonin Arbiter, so maybe that's why you aren't playing it? The usual suspects like Green Sun's Zenith and Elvish Reclaimer don't work for the same reason.

I think Trinisphere is awkward in a deck that tops out at 3 and runs no sol lands. You can't abuse the asymmetry like most 3sphere decks. Maybe Thorn of Amethyst (Thalia 5-8) or Sphere of Resistance would be better.

Playing 0 removal is risky. Even if you have the ESG, what if you lose the die roll? They get to resolve threats before any mana denial is online. T1 OTP Dragon's Rage Channeler or T1 FoW your lock piece T2 Murktide/other threat could sneak under. Solitude seems strong. It lets you regain tempo through all the mana denial and isn't slowed down by Thalia/Thorn. Maybe March of Otherworldly Light and Force of Vigor in the SB too. Pitch removal seems strong for you, letting you trade cards for tempo if they snuck out an early board presence.

Endurance is very strong in any green deck. If you don't have multiple maindeck, there should be 3-4 in the SB.

Sylvan Library seems good too.

I don't know about Geddon. You don't have a recovery plan to break the symmetry like Geddon decks do (Flagstones, Crucible, Cosmic Intervention). What about Wasteland?

[Laser Brains]

I wouldn’t call this parfait since it’s missing any hallmarks of it. It feels more like maverick with different parts.

Oh that's too funny. I meant to call this deck Root Maze Taxes but had just been reading the Parfait thread and just randomly typed what was fresh in my mind.

Cool idea.

Horizon Canopy seems better than Brushland.

Yes, Horizon Canopy should be here. Good call.

It's a shame you can't run Land Grant, because that would work well with the no-fetch all-dual strategy, instead of playing Tier 3 duals. Land Grant is still good on Turn 1 but bad later with Leonin Arbiter, so maybe that's why you aren't playing it? The usual suspects like Green Sun's Zenith and Elvish Reclaimer don't work for the same reason.

Yes, that's exactly why I opted not to play tutors. If you happen to remember my old Winter Maze deck I did explore a tutor route with GSZ and Natural Order. But yeah, I feel like Cat Jesus is too strong with Root Maze to run cards that tutor.

I think Trinisphere is awkward in a deck that tops out at 3 and runs no sol lands. You can't abuse the asymmetry like most 3sphere decks. Maybe Thorn of Amethyst (Thalia 5-8) or Sphere of Resistance would be better.

I've ran Sphere of Resistance in the past in other decks and I really don't like it outside of decks like Lands. Thorn is much better. I do like Trinisphere though. With mana dorks it can be dropped turn 2 and most of the cards in the deck are already 3 drops so it doesn't punish me much. The only drawback with Trinisphere in my opinion is that it taps to Root Maze the turn it comes into play, but other than that it's really good.

Playing 0 removal is risky. Even if you have the ESG, what if you lose the die roll? They get to resolve threats before any mana denial is online. T1 OTP Dragon's Rage Channeler or T1 FoW your lock piece T2 Murktide/other threat could sneak under. Solitude seems strong. It lets you regain tempo through all the mana denial and isn't slowed down by Thalia/Thorn. Maybe March of Otherworldly Light and Force of Vigor in the SB too. Pitch removal seems strong for you, letting you trade cards for tempo if they snuck out an early board presence.

Endurance is very strong in any green deck. If you don't have multiple maindeck, there should be 3-4 in the SB.

I agree and I like your style. Solitude / Endurance seems not shitty at all. Probably best in the SLC slot.

Sylvan Library seems good too.

I'm not sold on Sylvan Library. Seems like I don't want to be dropping anything that doesn't follow the "attack the mana" game plan. Theoretically I should drop prison dudes the first few turns and close out the game with beats.

I don't know about Geddon. You don't have a recovery plan to break the symmetry like Geddon decks do (Flagstones, Crucible, Cosmic Intervention). What about Wasteland?

I don't like Wasteland with Root Maze. It's too slow to set up and at the cost of a land drop it has poor tempo.

I do like Geddon though. Although there's no Flagstones or Crucible recovery plan I do have the mana dorks plan and they stick around after Armageddon is cast. So really, that's my recovery plan however, the real plan with Geddon is to close out the game by having bigger/better/heavier beats like the ol' Vintage Ernhamgeddon decks.

Some of my inspiration comes from ErnhamGeddon but some of it also comes from the old Vintage Nether Void decks that just dropped big cheap fatties into play then slapped down a Nether Void to lock out the opponent and secure the win.

[Laser Brains]

I'm going to test this deck out with the following tweaks.

-1x Thalia, Heretic Cathar
-3x Trinisphere

+4x Thorn of Amethyst

-4x Brushland

+4x Horizon Canopy

I'm going to keep the Steel Leaf Champions in. The thought is that they can close out the game in 4 turns if not checked, the evasion is nice. I can always side them out game two for Solitude or Skyclave Apparition.

Thorn of Amethyst seems really good. It's probably better than Trinisphere here, especially since I'm running 34 creatures and only 10 non-creature spells.

New list:

Root Maze Taxes: 60

Creatures: 34
4x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4x Anointed Peacekeeper
4x Leonin Arbiter
4x Sanctum Prelate
4x Steel Leaf Champion
2x Thalia, Heretic Cathar
4x Elvish Spirit Guide
4x Noble Hierarch
4x Birds of Paradise

Non-Creatures: 10
4x Root Maze
4x Thorn of Amethyst
2x Armageddon

Land: 16
4x Savannah
4x Horizon Canopy
4x Razorverge Thicket
4x Temple Garden

Sideboard: 15
3x Choke
2x Collector Ouphe
3x Solitude
2x Skyclave Apparition
3x Endurance
2x Cathar Commando

The sideboard needs more suggestions for sure, but I think this is a good start.

[Zoid]

Deafening Silence if you already play so many dorks?

Have you tested some MUs or have an idea what bad MUs are?

Containment Priest could be help vs S&T if that's a problem.

[Purple Blood]

How does Amulet of Vigor interact with Root Maze?

[FTW]

I like Thorn much better here. You can play it on turn 1 and it doesn't tax you. 3sphere is turn 2-3 and taxes half your cards. The good 3sphere decks can consistently play it Turn 1 (Mox + Dark Rit + Sol Land in Curses, Mox + SSG + Sol land in Moon Stompy). Thorn seems a better fit.

Sideboard:
2x Cathar Commando

I would make that 3 Force of Vigor.

Consider the opponent playing things like Turn 1 Blood Moon OTP, Turn 1 Trinisphere OTP, or a well-timed Back to Basics. Your manabase can get blown out by 1 card, so the SB disenchant should cost 0 mana.

[Laser Brains]

Deafening Silence if you already play so many dorks?

Have you tested some MUs or have an idea what bad MUs are?

Containment Priest could be help vs S&T if that's a problem.

Deafening Silence maybe in the sideboard for the combo match-ups but it seems like we're already fairly good against most of those. Root Maze and or Thalia/Amethyst should, in theory, limit most combo decks from going off.

Not sure about the match-ups yet. I'm mostly focusing on stopping Izzet Delver since according to MTG-Top-8 UR Delver is 16% of the meta.

In theory I would think Show & Tell should already be a decent match-up, same with Reanimator. I'm running a lot of combo hate already, but if it ends up becoming a problem maybe it would be a good addition.

Thanks for the suggestions!

How does Amulet of Vigor interact with Root Maze?

I don't think that Amulet interacts with enough of the deck to validate it's inclusion. If it interacted with 30-50% of the deck then I might consider it, but really it only interacts with Root Maze.

I like Thorn much better here. You can play it on turn 1 and it doesn't tax you. 3sphere is turn 2-3 and taxes half your cards. The good 3sphere decks can consistently play it Turn 1 (Mox + Dark Rit + Sol Land in Curses, Mox + SSG + Sol land in Moon Stompy). Thorn seems a better fit.

I would make that 3 Force of Vigor.

Consider the opponent playing things like Turn 1 Blood Moon OTP, Turn 1 Trinisphere OTP, or a well-timed Back to Basics. Your manabase can get blown out by 1 card, so the SB disenchant should cost 0 mana.

Good points!

I was goldfishing with Amethyst in the 3ball slots and it was much less awkward, plus easier to put into play. Everything you mentioned about it, including that it can be dropped turn one makes more sense. 8 Thalias seems really good.

Force of Vigor is perfect. Great suggestion!