[Deck] ShitList Long (SHLong)

[Bryant Cook]

Let me start out by saying that over the last few months I've been trying to get a consistant/resiliant Tendrils of Agony list together. I've tried everything from Nausea, Iggy Pop, Sunrise Eggs, Draw 4 (Uno as somepeople called it.), Death Long, Burning Long, ect... None of these have been enough for me. But each deck had something I liked, I won't list each thing I liked about the decks but the one that stood out was Draw 4. Culling the weak just made me want to bust the card in half. I tried creatures like ornithopter and shield sphere, but they just pissed me off mid combo doing nothing. They were about as useful as Vacon's posts to be perfectly honest. Then I was randomly ripping off some kid in a trade and saw Priest of gix. This card I had forgetten about, but with Helm of Awakening it seems better than ornithopter being another ritual effect. After 5 months of testing I've come up with this I'm not saying it's the most broken thing to ever happen to Legacy/1.5 but it's very good. The deck's fundamental turn is turn 2.5, which is very fast for combo. I will say this deck is very hard to play, not as an excuse to anything but if you're unskilled when it comes to combo, click the back button. This deck resembles the best combo deck in Type 1, Grim long. Now onto the deck list.

ShitList Long V. 1.0
Updated 8/11/06

// Lands
4 [AN] City of Brass
2 [WL] Gemstone Mine
1 [OD] Cabal Pit

// Creatures
4 [US] Priest of Gix
3 [FD] Trinket Mage

// Spells
1 [SC] Tendrils of Agony
2 [PS] Diabolic Intent
3 [MR] Chromatic Sphere
4 [B] Dark Ritual
4 [TE] Lotus Petal
4 [TO] Cabal Ritual
4 [JU] Burning Wish
3 [DIS] Infernal Tutor
4 [MI] Lion's Eye Diamond
4 [VI] Helm of Awakening
4 [MR] Chrome Mox
1 [MR] Second Sunrise
1 [US] Ill-Gotten Gains
2 [EX] Culling the Weak
4 [JU] Cabal Therapy
1 [OD] Recoup
1 [UL] Snap

// Sideboard
SB: 1 [SC] Tendrils of Agony
SB: 1 [DIS] Infernal Tutor
SB: 1 [US] Ill-Gotten Gains
SB: 1 [OD] Recoup
SB: 1 [OD] Firebolt
SB: 1 [PT] Cruel Bargain
SB: 1 [GP] Shattering Spree
SB: 1 [CHK] Cleanfall
SB: 1 [AL] Diminishing Returns
SB: 4 [UL] Defense Grid
SB: 2 [FD] Engineered Explosives


Card Choices

Mana Base

City of Brass- Taps for all 5 colors. It's draw back is hardly ever relevant.
Gemstone Mine-Taps for all 5 colors. Can comeback with second Sunrise to double the fun.
Cabal Pit- Kills mage, but only taps for B which can be an issue.

Fast Mana

Dark Ritual- Does this really need explaining? BBB for B. Sounds like a deal.
Cabal Ritual- Get's around chalice for 1, which is nice. Once in a grand while it produces BBBBB I heard.
Culling The Weak- This card helps fuel the deck, Sacing a Mage or Priest for Sunrise while adding BBBB for B, why not?
Lion's Eye Diamond- 0cc neutered Black Lotus, why not? Argueably best card in legacy.
Lotus Petal- 0cc, +1 storm, Add's a mana of ANY color. True story.
Chrome Mox- 0cc, card disadvantage, add's a mana I guess...

Creatures

Trinket Mage- ugh... It's 3cc kinda suck's but with Helm out it's more reasonable and it demonic's LED, Mox, Lotus petal, Chrome sphere.
Priest of Gix- It's a free dude, with helm it's a Cabal ritual. Sac's to Diabolic intent, Culling the Weak, or Cabal therapy.

Tutors

Burning Wish- Horendously broken card...
Infernal Tutor- Demonic for 1.5, ok... I guess I'll take what I can get.
Diabolic Intent-Demonic while Sacing a dude, Wait? No hellbent. Ok.

Other "Stuff"

Tendrils of Agony- Remember it GAINS life. I'm "that guy" who lost to his own Tendrils... Fuckin' Mindslaver.
Ill-Gotten Gains- Get's cards back, the deck isn't based around it. No need for leyline.
Helm Of Awakening- Makes cards cost less, Makes my cards better. Alright.
Chromatic Sphere- Fix's your mana issues, cantrips, sure.
Second Sunrise- I like to pretend this card is yawgmoth's will... Has great synergy with the whole deck.
Cabal Therapy- Rip's out force of will, comes back for second's if need be. Has synergy with Sunrise, and Ill-Gotten Gains.
Recoup- Has synergy with second sunrise, it's a 2 for 1.
Snap-Effectively deals with Meddling mage while adding mana, you can also always target you're own men.

Sideboard

Tendrils of Agony- Look up.
Infernal Tutor-Look up.
Ill-Gotten Gains-Look up.
Recoup- Helps against control, Snyergy with LED 2 for 1.
Firebolt- If you manage to fizzel it can kill them, kills mage.
Cruel Bargain- Draws 4.
Shattering Spree- Kills pesky artifacts, can't think of too many at the moment.
Cleanfall- Kills enchantments, why have a SB that can't deal with EVERYTHING?
Diminishing Returns- Draw 7, I tend to try and not use this. It's an OH! SHIT! handle.
Defense Grid- Boarded against Control and Solidarity.
Engineered Explosives- Mage can tutor it, kills mage and ton's of other cards.

Cards that didn't make the cut

Land Grant and his nasty green friends- Forests only can tap for so many colors.
Forbidden Orchard- I just prefer City of brass. If you can justify this go ahead run it.
Spoils of the vault- I'm no gambler. I hate losing to bad luck also.
Tainted Pact- Read above.
Intuition- I hate this card, end of story.
Night's Whisper- Only if you got to choose what two cards you draw...
Chain of Vapor/Echoing truth- Makes comboing inconsistant and keepable hands iffy.
Duress- Therapy is just better in this deck.
Brainstorm- I love this card but I just can't justify running it.
Shield Sphere and friends- They don't do anything.
Auriok Salvagers- Alternate win? Makes swords relevant.
Eternal Witness- GG in casting cost was in a few lists, I had 2 Sunrises though to justify her.

Match-ups

Angel Stax(5-3) Hard to believe, I know but this is no Dirt story. I would either attempt to go off turn 1-2 fizzel or not and finish him off with small beaters or He'd mull into chalice 0 and chalice 1 and I played gix/mage and beat until he was within range of a 10-12 point tendrils. Chalice 0 or Chalice 1 is not death for this deck, sorry. Trinisphere however.

Threshold (Ugw) (3-3) This is against threshold with MD mages, You can wait to go off in this match-up by saving up therapy's or until your clock is up. Or you can have huge nuts and go for the 1-2 which isn't always a bad choice. Red threshold is much easyier.

Solidarity(6-4) The key is too go off when they have 2 lands or before that. Because at worse when they have 2 lands they could have remand and force. You can shrug off remand. Force is annoying but can be played around.

Goblins(4-2) You race. Not too much to say, The two games I lost he had nut starts and all I had was ritual effects.

Deadguy/Red Death (2-6) Horrible their disruption is just too much sometimes if the game is dragged out and they dont have a solid clock, don't scoop. You can recover with Ill-gotten Gains.

Rifter (7-1) You're a combo deck, all they have is creature removal. Although the one game I lost was to a Chant in responce to Burning wish.

Affinnity(5-5) Disiple, and cabal therapy are annoying to work around, thier clock is just as fast as you with disruption. An annoying match-up, winnable though.

Uber Maddenss(4-0) Their clock is extremely fast, but you're always a turn faster. Side out therapies for explosives, since therapy is about as good as an island of walk-walk.

5/3(2-5) Horrible match-up their clock and fast lock peices leave you near hopeless. If they didn't have a clock you'd be fine, but the two combined leave this a horrible match-up.

Burning Tog(4-2) IF they stall you out into a cranial on B.Wish it's an extremely hard uphill battle. That's how I lost the two games I did, they run 11 counterspells so don't wait all day.

Zoo/Random Aggro Generally in your favor, not much testing here a few games. I won them all. Random aggro with black had 4 duress 4 therapy which was annoying but I still pulled it out.