Vampire Hexmaster + dark depths

[Mystical_Jackass]

MAN, last time I checked for Dark Depths was like $4 not too long ago, just checked again 'cause I was thinking of trying it and almost fell over! DAMN YOU'S all!

Well, gl hf with that combo ;P

[dahcmai]

Star City Results are up if you search it out. Here's the one that was played there.


Artifacts
3 Crucible Of Worlds

Creatures
4 Bloodghast
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Vampire Hexmage

Instants
3 Ghastly Demise

Sorceries
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Grim Discovery
4 Living Wish
4 Sinkhole
4 Smallpox

Basic Lands
2 Swamp

Lands
4 Bayou
1 Bloodstained Mire
2 Marsh Flats
1 Polluted Delta
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Wasteland

Legendary Lands
4 Urborg, Tomb Of Yawgmoth

Legendary Snow Lands
3 Dark Depths

Sideboard:
4 Dark Confidant
1 Tombstalker
1 Vampire Hexmage
4 Ravenous Trap
1 Maze Of Ith
1 Treetop Village
1 Wasteland
1 The Tabernacle At Pendrell Vale
1 Dark Depths

[Barook]

So the deck used a LD-heavy route? Definitely interesting, especially the combo between Grim Discovery and Smallpox.

But which match-ups require 4 Bobs? Control?

[Rico Suave]

I gave that deck a quick whirl for a few games, and was not impressed. How did this pile win anything at the Legacy event?

First of all the mana base has issues. I can't believe that 4 Urborg is right, let alone how the deck functions (or ceases to) if one of them doesn't show up. I'd think something could be done such that the deck functions better both with and without the card. I had to mull every other game simply because the deck gave me an unplayable hand.

Bloodghast has very little practical application in this deck. Sure you can discard one to SmallPox and then play a land to get it back. Sure you can sac it to recast Therapy. So what? It's still a 2/1 that can't block, and you don't exactly have a clock to go with it.

The deck has no gas. Your opening hand and the next 4 or so cards will likely decide 70% of your games.

4 Therapy is weak. You have a grand total of 4 cards in the entire deck that let you flash it back.

Crucible, largely, does nothing if you don't have Wasteland.

Very rarely did I ever actually draw into the combo, which is doubly painful given the deck has absolutely no card draw. Sure you can Living Wish for a piece, but you're still only running 6 cards that you *need* to draw to beat anything that isn't terrible.

The deck's mana curve is atrocious. Most games would just bottleneck at the 2cc slot.

LD is passe. This deck does not use LD to gain tempo. It uses LD with the attempt to completely mana screw the opponent, but if that doesn't work you may as well concede.

Grim Discovery, while looking OK on paper, isn't that good. It's a shame that most of the lands just aren't worth returning, not to mention you already have Crucible, and for yet another 2cc slot this could be something that actually fuels the combo instead of sitting dead in your hand because you are missing a combo piece.

I really just don't get it.

[Dr.AgOn]

I agree.

I think we should turn away from green and go UB for Brainstorm and Force. We could take the Dreadstill shell and either fit Hexmage in instead of the Dreadnought or play both Hexmage and nought, although the nought dies to really anything in Legacy.

Living Wish is only good with Dark Ritual, otherwise you have to wait a full turn to play the combo piece. Besides, it needs a wishboard which might hinder some MUs.

[Shanghi Knights]

the deck that top 8ed i don't understand why they used 4 tomb of yawgmoth? are they that concerned they won't be able to produce the 2 black for hexmage? swap some fetches for duals? i almost think ritual would work just as well in its place.

[JRR]

the deck that top 8ed i don't understand why they used 4 tomb of yawgmoth? are they that concerned they won't be able to produce the 2 black for hexmage? swap some fetches for duals? i almost think ritual would work just as well in its place.

2 Urborg and Crucible means unlimited Bloodghast recurrsion.

[Shanghi Knights]

forgot those were even in there, but makes sense.

[Humphrey]

u shouldnt test on mws, due to the messed up shuffle engine

[dahcmai]

I'm trying a version out this saturday and I'll let you know how it goes. I'm using Intuition as a search and Loam for a recursion engine with Raven's Crime and Tranquil Thickets. Odd, but hey it's unexplored territory anyway.

I actually like the Bloodghast in there. Makes me want to play the thing in Survival so I can dum 4 in the yard and start having fun. Until then, I'll settle for Intuitioning 4 up and dumping a couple off. It is a perfect Cabal Therapy target that doesn't hurt you a bit.

[flrn]

I actually like the Bloodghast in there. Makes me want to play the thing in Survival so I can dum 4 in the yard and start having fun. Until then, I'll settle for Intuitioning 4 up and dumping a couple off. It is a perfect Cabal Therapy target that doesn't hurt you a bit.

Wants to make me test Bloodghast with Dryad Arbor in a Survival Build. You can just smash the Bloodghast into the Graveyard and search with the fourth Bloodghast a Dryad Arbor to get em all into play at once. But well thats not the topic of this thread.

[ilovejess2]

Some interesting extended lists popping up at the Pro Tour this weekend:

LSV's Deck Tech [UB/Chalice/Clique Version]

Lukas Siow's Deck Tech [Combo Gifts - Hexmage/Depths/Thopter foundry/Sword of the Meek/Gifts]

[BonQ87]

Maybe smth. like this list would be appropriate ?? :

Maindeck:

1 x Crucible of Worlds
3 x Sensei's Divining Top

4 x Duress
4 x Thoughtseize
3 x Tombstalker
4 x Vampire Hexmage

4 x Brainstorm
4 x Counterbalance
4 x Daze
4 x Force of Will
4 x Stifle

1 x Academy Ruins
3 x Tropical Island
3 x Dark Depths
1 x Island
4 x Polluted Delta
2 x Flooded Strand
2 x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 x Volrath's Stronghold
4 x Underground Sea

Sideboard:

2 x Engineered Explosives
4 x Pithing Needle
4 x Tormod's Crypt
2 x Trickbind
3 x Krosan Grip

[Barook]

Lukas Siow's Deck Tech [Combo Gifts - Hexmage/Depths/Thopter foundry/Sword of the Meek/Gifts]

I've never heard of the Thopter Foundry/Sword of the Meek combo, but it seems to be a huge kick into the nuts for aggro:

Pay , make a 1/1 flyer, gain 1 life, repeat? The Foundry even pitches to FoW!

[Reaver027]

Some interesting extended lists popping up at the Pro Tour this weekend:

LSV's Deck Tech [UB/Chalice/Clique Version]

Lukas Siow's Deck Tech [Combo Gifts - Hexmage/Depths/Thopter foundry/Sword of the Meek/Gifts]

I like the Gifts deck a lot. Perhaps we have finally found the way to make this deck work in legacy.

[ilovejess2]

As do I.

Cards he had on the deck tech table as far as I could make out or infer. (Some may be part of the sideboard which he largely talks about and some sb cards are obviously missing including the Goyfs/Damnations he talks about:

Stuff
4x Thopter Foundry
4x Sword of the Meek
3x Muddle the mixture
2x Vampire Hexmage
3x Gifts Ungiven
3x Ponder
1x Nature's Spiral
4x Duress
1x Thoughtseize
3x Engineered Explosives
2x Thirst for Knowledge
1x Grim Discovery
1x Life from the Loam
1x Academy Ruins
4x Chrome Mox
3x Muddle the Mixture

Land:
1x Overgrown Tomb
4x Misty Rainforest
1x Island
1x Snow Covered Island
1x Forest
2x Watery Grave
1x Swamp
1x Black artifact land whose name escapes me
2x Sunken Ruins
1x Breeding Pool
4x Verdant Catacombs
1x Urborg Tomb of Yawgmoth

Obviously we could just replace some cards for their upgraded legacy versions, Regrowths and original duals etc but I am not sure this is the best way to go. Force of Will is the usual strong contender for auto include although at the minute we have a questionable number of blue pitchers and this may cause some number changes and new inclusions. (Such as a 4th gifts or muddle/ brainstorms and ponder). Also with the life from the loam/grim discovery/regrowth Mox Diamonds may be better than the Chromes.

Early thoughts but I fancy giving it a go.

[1maarten1]

I saw someone play the deck at a local tournament today, he played black blue version. A lot of mana denial, wasteland, stifle. Duress/seize Lim dulls vault, worked pretty well. The artifact combo is also a nice addition i think.

[Humphrey]

Id add Painterservant combo

[Aggro_zombies]

Looking at the recent Extended results, I've been wondering if it would be possible to attack this combo from a more Dreadstill-ish angle. Dreadnought isn't too hot right now because there's a million billion Qasali Pridemages and Krosan Grips floating around the format, but this combo dodges those particular cards while still conforming to the same general "drop a fucking HUGE GUY using a two-card combination" formula. Plus, it takes up about the same amount of space in the main.

Here's a "proof of concept" list:

// Lands
3 Polluted Delta
3 Scalding Tarn
4 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island
5 Island
3 Wasteland
1 Dark Depths
1 Tolaria West

4 Vampire Hexmage
2 Trinket Mage

4 Brainstorm
3 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Standstill

4 Stifle
3 Spell Snare
3 Counterbalance
4 Daze
4 Force of Will

1 Engineered Explosives
1 Expedition Map
1 Crucible of Worlds

Map is probably the oddest inclusion, but it allows you to find Dark Depths using Trinket Mage, which gives you another tutor angle in addition to Tolaria West and the draw and card filtration packages. That, in turn, lets you run a very small number of Depths main, which saves you from having to run shitty lands like Urborg to make up for all of the colorless or non-mana you're making. I think the biggest thing this list is missing is a set of Factories to go with the Crucible, but I wanted to do three colors to gain access to Firespout as an anti-aggro weapon.

Thoughts? Living Wish seems to be the in-vogue tutor, but I'm sure there's other ways to address the issue that give the deck a bit more power.

[Rico Suave]

1 Dark Depths is an incredible failure, especially considering you have virtually no possible way to win outside of the combo excepting Trinket Mage beatdown.