Shardless Thopters

[Artlee]

During my testing I have reached the conclusion that some kind of GY hate is needed in the sideboard.

So far i think I want to take out Supreme Verdict in my sideboard and put a Relic of Progenitus instead, as I feel the aggro matchups is already in our favor, but not when it comes to the amount of creatures Dredge can spit out quite quickly. I have yet to find out what to take out for a second Relic.

[theMonster]

This idea interests me. I'm a Tezzeret player (Mox Diamond version) who's been splashing green for an Intuition/Life from the Loam/Dark Depths package - list is here, if you're curious.

Think that could work in this shell? Here's an idea - no testing or anything, just getting conversation started:

4 Shardless Agent
4 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Vendilion Clique
1 True-Name Nemesis

1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of the Meek
3 Thopter Foundry
1 Batterskull

4 Brainstorm
3 Ancestral Vision
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Intuition
1 Life from the Loam
4 Force of Will

1 Sylvan Library

2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

1 Academy Ruins
1 Wasteland
1 Thespian’s Stage
1 Dark Depths
1 Karakas
4 Flooded Strand
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Windswept Heath
2 Tundra
2 Tropical Island
2 Island
1 Plains
1 Forest

-- sideboard --

1 Flusterstorm
1 Pithing Needle
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Relice of Progenitus
2 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Containment Priest
2 Meddling Mage
2 Krosan Grip
1 Council's Judgment
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Misdirection

The manabase is probably terrible. The singleton Wasteland, which can be found with Intuition and recurred with Life from the Loam, is really to nab an opposing Karakas, which could bounce Marit Lage, or The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale. Might not be necessary, though. Seeing as this list uses Intuition, I eschewed Enlightened Tutor. Most of my hate cards are artifacts because you can, say, make Intuition piles like hate piece/Academy Ruins/Loam. The nasty one is Loam/Stage/Depths, of course, but if you have either Thopter Foundry, Sword of the Meek, Ruins or Loam, you can tutor for the other three to assemble the combo. Perhaps because of all the tutoring, I could cut one Stoneforge Mystic and play a maindeck hate piece instead.

Might be too cute, but lots of decks struggle with indestructible, flying 20/20s. Plus cascading into Loam is probably pretty good, especially with ten fetchlands. Jace, the Mind Sculptor is good with Loam 'cuz, if you're missing a fetchland, you can put the chaff on top and dredge Loam to see new cards.

Open to all thoughts.

Thanks for reading!

[Artlee]

This idea interests me. I'm a Tezzeret player (Mox Diamond version) who's been splashing green for an Intuition/Life from the Loam/Dark Depths package - list is here, if you're curious.

Think that could work in this shell? Here's an idea - no testing or anything, just getting conversation started:

4 Shardless Agent
4 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Vendilion Clique
1 True-Name Nemesis

1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of the Meek
3 Thopter Foundry
1 Batterskull

4 Brainstorm
3 Ancestral Vision
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Intuition
1 Life from the Loam
4 Force of Will

1 Sylvan Library

2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

1 Academy Ruins
1 Wasteland
1 Thespian’s Stage
1 Dark Depths
1 Karakas
4 Flooded Strand
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Windswept Heath
2 Tundra
2 Tropical Island
2 Island
1 Plains
1 Forest

-- sideboard --

1 Flusterstorm
1 Pithing Needle
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Relice of Progenitus
2 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Containment Priest
2 Meddling Mage
2 Krosan Grip
1 Council's Judgment
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Misdirection

The manabase is probably terrible. The singleton Wasteland, which can be found with Intuition and recurred with Life from the Loam, is really to nab an opposing Karakas, which could bounce Marit Lage, or The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale. Might not be necessary, though. Seeing as this list uses Intuition, I eschewed Enlightened Tutor. Most of my hate cards are artifacts because you can, say, make Intuition piles like hate piece/Academy Ruins/Loam. The nasty one is Loam/Stage/Depths, of course, but if you have either Thopter Foundry, Sword of the Meek, Ruins or Loam, you can tutor for the other three to assemble the combo. Perhaps because of all the tutoring, I could cut one Stoneforge Mystic and play a maindeck hate piece instead.

Might be too cute, but lots of decks struggle with indestructible, flying 20/20s. Plus cascading into Loam is probably pretty good, especially with ten fetchlands. Jace, the Mind Sculptor is good with Loam 'cuz, if you're missing a fetchland, you can put the chaff on top and dredge Loam to see new cards.

Open to all thoughts.

Thanks for reading!

Thats a list for sure. While I have not tried it, I would love to hear if you sleeved this up and tell how it went.

Personally I am carrying on with my list, and get some more solid testing with it before I try other variants. So far it is still combo decks that are my main concern, but I guess it also comes down to being able to name the right cards with Meddling Mage. Im still not sure whether or not my list needs GY hate in the sideboard.

[HSCK]

Necro'ing another thread for me it seems. With the rise of Eldrazi and a larger share of Shardless BUG, maybe it's time to try this deck again.

[Ricardio]

Necro'ing another thread for me it seems. With the rise of Eldrazi and a larger share of Shardless BUG, maybe it's time to try this deck again.

Yes but is Bant correct or something BUG with Tezz AoB what we need?

[HSCK]

I think that's more of a Chalice deck than a Shardless deck. I'll probably experiment with something like this:

Shardless Bant

Creatures: 11
3 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Shardless Agent

Spells: 20
1 Council's Judgment
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Humility
1 Misdirection
3 Ancestral Vision
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
4 Swords to Plowshares

Artifacts: 6
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Batterskull
1 Sword of the Meek
2 Thopter Foundry
1 Ensnaring Bridge

Planeswalkers: 2
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Lands: 22
1 Academy Ruins
2 Plain
2 Island
1 Bayou
3 Tropical Island
3 Tundra
2 Windswept Heath
4 Flooded Strand
4 Misty Rainforest

Sideboard: 15
1 Underground Sea
1 Vendilion Clique
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Meddling Mage
2 Flusterstorm
2 Abrupt Decay
3 Thoughtseize

[Ricardio]

we need to focus on what makes this deck better than other stoneblade decks and the value we can get with shardless

[HSCK]

What are you thinking of for a BUG variant with Tezz?

[Ricardio]

What are you thinking of for a BUG variant with Tezz?

DRS, DECAY, LOTV. all strong cards that work with this decks strat

[HSCK]

So like Shardless BUG with no Tarmos but Thopters? Seems interesting, do you have any lists in mind?

[Ricardio]

So like Shardless BUG with no Tarmos but Thopters? Seems interesting, do you have any lists in mind?

I could draw up a list but it would be entirely theorycrafted with no real testing behind it.

[HSCK]

Which artifacts are you running that gives you a high enough count for Tezz but are good in a cascade?

[maharis]

I can't imagine such a deck would be very good -- if you take a shardless BUG shell and replace the Strixes and Goyfs with the thopter combo you end up with dead cascades and your 2 drops are of limited value early. Losing the early pressure/defense of those cards puts a big strain on the rest of the deck.

A BUG version of this deck could exist, but I think you have to go way out of the box. The original version of this deck was a Bant CounterTop Thopter deck; a similar support package would be helpful here. You could also play a heavy ramp package of 4 DRS + 3-4 Hierarchs to support big 3-drops like Shardless, Liliana, or Top+CB. Completely spitballing, but how about this?

4 DRS
4 Shardless Agent
4 Noble Hierarch

4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
3 Thopter Foundry
3 Counterbalance
3 Sensei's Divining Top
3 Abrupt Decay
2 Ponder
2 Sword of the Meek
2 Liliana of the Veil
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

4 Misty Rainforest
3 Polluted Delta
3 Wasteland
3 Underground Sea
2 Tropical Island
2 Bayou
1 Island
1 Forest
1 Swamp
1 Verdant Catacombs