[CaNGD - Finalist] Not Quite Survival

[diffy]

Updated list found here.

CaNGD Contest – a German entry

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Development
   
   • The list
   • Card Choices
   • Matchup Analysis
3. Tournament Report
4. Possible Modifications
5. Conclusion

1. An Introduction

When Anusien first leaked a new Thresh list he got from Zac Hill’s article Unprepared, I was fascinated by the fact that this has never been tried: Survival of the Fittest in a NQG shell.

At first sight, the idea might sound a little bit crazy because Gro tends to focus on running low land counts and functioning with little mana in contrast to the normal Survival decks which are most of the time packing at least 4 pieces of acceleration, but after a quick brainstorming and some testing I found the idea to be really great… you’ve just got another way of sealing the game on the second turn! Counterbalance and Dark Confidant will win you the game if left unchecked and so will Survival of the Fittest. The more you run of these, the more broken your openings will be which should increase about every matchup in Legacy. More brokenness in the most consistent shell can only be gold.

2. Development

For reference, here’s Zac Hills original list:

/// Maindeck (60 cards)

// Lands
    4 Flooded Strand
    4 Polluted Delta
    1 Wooded Foothills
    4 Tropical Island
    4 Underground Sea
    1 Island

// Permission
    1 Spell Snare
    4 Stifle
    4 Daze
    4 Force of Will

// Removal
    3 Ghastly Demise
    1 Darkblast
    1 Repeal

// Cantrips
    4 Brainstorm
    3 Ponder
    2 Peek
    4 Thoughtseize

// Card Advantage
    3 Survival of the Fittest
    1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
    1 Wonder
    2 Dark Confidant

// Critters
    4 Nimble Mongoose
    4 Tarmogoyf

/// Sideboard (15 cards)
    1 Duress
    1 Spell Snare
    1 Dark Confidant
    1 Threads of Disloyalty
    4 Engineered Plague
    2 Krosan Grip
    1 Extirpate
    1 Coffin Purge
    2 Pithing Needle
    1 Genesis

It was quite ingenious but some numbers and choices were seriously odd… 1 Spell Snare? Peek?
I also question the non-inclusion of one of the most broken engines in Legacy: CounterTop.
When Anusien asked him what the reason for this omission was, he answered:

Running Top/Counterbalance gives you a midgame lock but the deck is *so strong* in the midgame that this seems unnecessary. You've got Daze/FoW either way but every deck in the universe is prepared to handle that.

I don’t share his point of view as CounterTop is in my opinion one of the reasons why NQG has even the hint of a chance against any control deck and is so strong at being the control deck in many matchups…

Anusiens first list was more to my liking:

/// Maindeck (60 cards)

// Lands
    1 Flooded Strand
    4 Polluted Delta
    3 Wooded Foothills
    3 Tropical Island
    4 Underground Sea
    1 Forest
    2 Island

// Counters 
    4 Daze
    4 Force of Will

// Cantrips
    4 Brainstorm
    4 Ponder 
    3 Sensei's Divining Top

// Scary turn 2 ‘I win the game if left unchecked’ plays
    3 Counterbalance
    2 Dark Confidant
    4 Survival of the Fittest

// Creatures
    4 Nimble Mongoose
    4 Tarmogoyf

// Survival Men
    1 Mulldrifter
    1 Venser, Shaper Savant
    1 Wonder
    1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
    1 Shriekmaw
    1 Genesis

I started testing this exact list and found some weak spots:

• I often didn’t have enough green mana to abuse Survival and had to stretch activations over multiple turns rendering Survival pretty un-broken
• I found the lack of removal really hard as an opposing Goyf would just stop your entire non-survival-powered agro
• I never really used Survival to search anything else than more Goyfs and the occasional Wonder or Genesis. A too big toolbox would dilute the deck and make more weak draws while only being of a very narrow advantage

I did some preliminary testing and some changes.
When Stefan Czolk (spiritofthewretch) and I asked ourselves what to develop for the CaNGD Contest, I proposed this deck.

2.1 The list

After a while of testing, this is what we had come up with:

/// Maindeck (60 cards)

// Lands (18)
    2 Windswept Heath
    2 Wooded Foothills
    4 Polluted Delta
    2 Flooded Strand
    3 Underground Sea
    4 Tropical Island
    1 Bayou

// Beaters (8)
    4 Nimble Mongoose
    4 Tarmogoyf

// Removal (4)
    3 Ghastly Demise
    1 Shriekmaw

// Cantrips (10)
    4 Brainstorm
    3 Ponder
    3 Sensei's Divining Top

// Permission (8)
    4 Force of Will
    4 Daze

// Scary turn 2 ‘I win the game if left unchecked’ plays (10)
    3 Counterbalance
    4 Survival of the Fittest
    3 Dark Confidant

// Survival Stuff (2)
    1 Genesis
    1 Squee, Goblin Nabob

// Sideboard (15 cards)
    2 Extirpate
    1 Yixlid Jailer
    4 Thoughtseize
    1 Krosan Grip
    1 Trygon Predator
    4 Engineered Plague
    1 Wonder 
    1 Counterbalance

2.2 Card Choices

• Mainboard
  
  
  • The Manabase
    
    
    • Tropical Island: The most important part of the manabase as you want access to blue mana in the early turns (Cantrips, Daze) but need immense quantities of green mana to get your Survival engine going
    • Underground Sea: Access to blue and black mana but you’ll only rarely fetch more than one of these as a single black mana source is enough to function well and you’ll rather have more green mana in the mid-late game.
    • Bayou: Having this as your only land in the start hand (and some cantrips) really sucks but as this occasion is rather rare and you always want to fetch green mana when you have landed a Survival, this is a fix include. It facilitates Shriekmaw and Confidant off Survival while still allowing you to get more green sources to operate even more efficiently under Survival.
    • Flooded Strand: Shuffle effect for Brainstorm/SdT/Counterbalance, color stability… for the mere cost of a single life? Count me in! Even if some people might say that the life loss of the fetches and Dark Confidant might accumulate and be too much… this is simply not true as if you have a Confidant that draws you cards and an established mana base, you simply win, nothing else. Only included 2 because it can’t fetch Bayou.
    • Polluted Delta: See above. Best fetchie in the deck as it fetches every single Dual.
    • Wooded Foothills: See above. Included in larger quantities over Flooded Strand because you want access to as much green mana as possible.
    • Windswept Heath: See above.
    • Notable omission: We chose not to include any basic lands because this version is way more color hungry than other NQG versions… not being able to make 2 colors (green!) out of a single dual is really, really painful. Also, you can’t function well/at all under 3 basics which would be the number one would want to include.
    
    
  • The Beaters
    
    • Nimble Mongoose: The nightmare of every control deck… quite quick clock with shroud make it a staple since the old days in any NQG… no change here, this is still excellent. You do even survival it over more Tarmogoyfs in the control matchup which really shows its strength. Threshold is easily obtained with the cantrips (7) and fetchies (9) or via discarding useless stuff to Survival.
    • Tarmogoyf: Mostly 4/5 as you don’t have an opportunity to mill an artifact or enchantment. Still good enough and an excellent answer to your opponent’s Goyfs.
    
    
  • The Removal Suite
    
    • Ghastly Demise: Played over Smother because of being cheaper. Can remove stuff which Smother can’t and vice-versa. A matter of preference.
    • Shriekmaw: Awesome dude. Early on a Terror, in the late a finisher with evasion. Only one is played because he hurts in conjunction with Dark Confidant and costs 2 mana to evoke (Demise is cheaper).
    
    
  • The Cantrips:
    
    • Brainstorm: Easily one of the best cantrips available and pretty awesome with the plenty of shuffle effects of this deck.
    • Ponder: Possibly the second best cantrip as it finds a land early on and digs up to 4 cards deep later. Supports the aggressive feel of this deck by drawing immediately.
    • Sensei’s Divining Top: Needed for the Counterbalance lock. Strong on its own and even better with the many shuffle effects. Wins the mirror.
    
    
  • Permission
    
    • Daze: A staple in any agro-control deck that can afford the tempo loss. A shaky slot at first because of the Survival engine being very mana intensive but on the long run you really need this.
    • Force of Will: 18 blue cards are enough to support this.
    
    
  • Scary “turn 2: I win the game” plays
    
    • Counterbalance: As the format gets faster and faster to react to combo, this gets better and better as you can abuse the lower mana curves and counter nearly every single spell. Even better in conjunction with Survival and Brainstorm as you can tutor something with a different converted mana cost from the usual (e.g. Squee for cmc3).
    • Survival of the Fittest: The card advantage gained out of this is so devastating that most of the time, casting this is equals to casting a Door to Nothingness.
    • Dark Confidant: See above. The average converted mana cost is 2.05 which is pretty high but still acceptable, even more so with all the library manipulation.
    
    
  • Survival Stuff
    
    • Squee, Goblin Nabob: Needed to gain card advantage via Survival. Played over Krovikan Horror because of not being so mana intensive.
    • Genesis: Wins every control matchup and is awesome in the late game where this deck tends to loose the advantage. Also, notice the mad synergy ™ with Shriekmaw.
  
  
• Sideboard
  
  • Extirpate: Comes in against Control, Engine based decks (e.g. Life from the Loam), Combo and Graveyard based decks (e.g. Cephalid Breakfast). Not bad in the mirror either.
  • Yixlid Jailer: See above. Tutorable with Survival and a body but costs 2 mana.
  • Thoughtseize: Comes in against Control to force your bombs through (Survival, Dark Confidant…) and against combo to disrupt.
  • Krosan Grip: Comes in against anything with significant enchantments/artifacts (e.g. Stax, Survival, Landstill…) and for the mirror.
  • Trygon Predator: See above. Tutorable with Survival, a body and re-usable. Overall nice, but easier to disrupt.
  • Engineered Plague: Comes in against anything tribal (e.g. Goblins), Combo and Enchantress.
  • Wonder: Comes in against anything with little weenies which stall the ground (e.g. Goblins)
  • Counterbalance: Comes in against the mirror and Combo.