Hey maybe you can put 1x Vampire Hexmage into the board as a wish target?
Mainboard: 3x Vampire Hexmage
Sideboard: 1x Vampire Hexmage maybe cut the gatekeeper
Have you guys considered hex parasite? It's easier to play.Originally Posted by Deckerator
Hex Parasite
Mana Cost:
1
Converted Mana Cost:
1
Types:
Artifact Creature — Insect
Card Text:
Variable ColorlessPhyrexian Black: Remove up to X counters from target permanent. For each counter removed this way, Hex Parasite gets +1/+0 until end of turn. (Phyrexian Black can be paid with either Black or 2 life.)
In addition to your marit lage, you still have a beater..
Just my opinion.. :)
@Hex Parasite: Do you think it is competetive to sink 10 mana into the Parasite in order to get a Marit Lage? It's a beater, but...
Before you discount it, tribket mage can grab hex parasite and parasite+tribket mage can deal 7/8 damage the following turn while also eing able to kill liliana and jace or reducing aether vials. You can also grab pithing needle, but hex parasite is much more aggressive and can also pump itself with dark depths. An added bonus wpuld be sumon ing a 20/20.
Wrong!
The cost is: (black/2 life) and X mana. The effect is: remove up to X counters of target permanent, X being the amount you paid.
If it was like you said it would read something like: (black/2 life) and remove any amount counters from a permanent you control: Hex Parasite gets +1/0 for each counter removed this way.
Ok thanks for the clarification! My bad. It's slow for the combo but still disruptive in some point. Not as good as I thought.
I've been playing around with this a G/B version;
3 Hexmage (+1 in the side)
4 DRS
2* Birds of Paradise (or Sylvan Safekeeper)
(21 Lands)
3 Dark Depths (+1 in the side)
2 Thespian's Stage (+ ditto)
4 Bayou
8 Fetches
2 Swamp, 1 Forest
1 Wasteland (+1 in the side, for Karakas)
4 Living Wish
3* Crop Rotation
3* Sylvan Scrying
1* Life from the Loam
4* Not of this World
3 Thoughtsieze
4 Abrupt Decay
2 Maelstrom Pulse
3* Cabal Therapy
2* Hymn to Tourach
1 Damnation
* = numbers not finalised yet.
Pretty happy so far. The discard really helps to buy time against a lot of decks, as does DRS against graveyard & snapcaster.
Therapy is one of my fave cards, so far it works well with mana-dorks.
Damnation just cos. It rocks.
I'm gonna run this deck soon at a meet. I don't expect too much land-destruction, but this deck may change that! LOL.
See how it goes.
=========================================================================================
On another idea, I'm gonna try running a list with White, for Flickering Ward, or simply include a full 8 manadorks for mana of any colour.
The ward wouldn't just be for Lage either, you could block with a Bird of Paradise for a while too....
first off, i haven't play tested this deck at all, but conceptually its broken. Here is why
you are playing a combo deck, that is uncountable.
Your combo requires only 2 cards.
There are more ways to search for you combo than any other combo you could assemble.
You can build a deck that consists only of instant speed cards that can win you the game.
There are so few cards that are in the metagame that could actually disrupt you.
It should be more consistent than other combo decks, and allow for more defense to protect your combo.
The wheel of magic
Aggro>control
Control>combo
combo>aggro
Depths>all...
You can play more counterspells / protection than traditional control decks so your matchup against other combo decks should be superior.
you are playing combo so your matchup against aggro should be no problem
Since control decks cannot counter your combo they can only STP, karakas, or terminus it you should have saved all your counterspells for those...
Threats this deck has to answer
Maze of Ith (43 lands, Maverick)
Karakas (miracles, Maverick, Stoneblade, death and taxes, 43 lands)
wasteland (Jund, merfolk, Team America, Maverick, Death and Taxes, Goblins)
Vensur shaper savant
sting scourger
Swords to Plowshares (miracles, maverick, stoneblade, death and taxes)
Pithing needle (naming thespian stage)
Humility
Ensnaring Bridge (g2 of 43 lands, burn, some stone blade)
Blood Moon (not sure this is even being play in anything popular right now, id imagine burn, dragon stompy)
Diabolic Edict (have not seen it in any jund lists or anything that is top 8'ing)
Flying creatures (delver, aven minscensor, vendilion clique) These just delay you a turn
Things you don't have to worry about
discard (there are no discard spells that can discard lands, with exception of hymn cause its random and enroach)
counterspells (can't counter land drops, and they'll have to have a lot of back up to get their swords to plowshares through)
This is unbelievable because discard and counterspells are typically the only things combo is concerned about.
If i centered the deck around just the depths thespian stage combo i would run UG
yall remember blue is the best color right? Also it has more cantrips than any other color / tutors. However, For this deck tutoring for a land doesnt get any easier than crop rotation.
4 crop rotation
4 depths
4 stage
4 brainstom
4 ponder
2 impulse (dig deep)
2 intuition
1 life from the loam
4 spell pierce (maybe dispel is better cause your only worried about swords?)
4 stifle (wasteland is only real threat here since the combo is uncounterable)
4 force of will
2 misdirection (for STP, Edict)
2 counterspell
4 wasteland
4 tropical island
4 misty rainforest
4 flooded strand
2 island
1 forest
IDK, this draft seems lack luster since the cards you are worried about are lands mainly and can be stopped with pithing needle. However running pithing needle main seems bad.
I dont have a sideboard in mind cause its 2am but i would imagine it would strengthen your matchups against death and taxes, stoneblade, 43 lands and maverick. They seem to be major threats.
The other smart idea i had as a version for this deck is putting it in a stax shell (god i love stax shell)
29 spells
4 Chalice of the void
4 mox diamond
3 Crucible
1 life from the loam
4 intuition
4 nether void (delay opponent and still play your combo)
3 trinisphere
3 propaganda
3 vampire hexmage
31 lands
2 maze of ith
1 academy ruins
4 Wasteland
4 Ancient tomb
2 City of traitors
4 dark depths
4 thespian stage
2 polluted delta
3 underground sea
1 tropical island
3 urborg tomb of yawgmoth
1 island
what yall think?
Play 4 Card Blind!
Currently Playing
Legacy: Dark Depths
EDH: 5-Color Hermit Druid
Currently Brewing: [Deck] Sadistic Sacrament / Chalice NO Eldrazi
why cards are so expensive...hoarders
I don't understand the reasoning behind going all cute and build creatures and multiple colors into the deck when you can just simply go strictly mono blue control with a superior win condition than traditional. Going pure blue it'd be so easy to dig for the combo and protect it. As I always do when brewing I've brainstormed up a list of cards that'd work in such a list:
INTUITION'S INTUITION:
Because I am broken -
Jace, the mind sculptor
Combo -
Dark Depths
Thespian's Stage
Draw/Search -
Intuition
Thirst for Knowledge
Artificer's Intuition
Sensei's Divining Top
Brainstorm
Expedition Map
Utility -
Life from the Loam
Control da game -
Devastation Tide
Counterbalance
Echoing Truth
Pithing Needle
Repeal
Engineered Explosives
Chalice of the Void
Counters -
Force of Will
Daze
Spell Pierce
Dispel
Mana -
Mox Diamond
Utility Lands - (U/G + CL)
Seat of the Synod
Tree of Tales
Academy Ruins
Lands - (+ Thespian's Stage)
Tropical Island
Misty Rainforest
Polluted Delta
Scalding Tarn
Island
Forest
For obvious reasons there's not space for all of them, but there's some nice synergies:
Artificer's Intuition would be capable of fetching not only the combo (through Expedition maps), it'd also provide an execellent engine for controling the board and provide constant shuffling for a counterbalance.
Intuition can find the combination straight up with Loam/Depth/Stage -- again Artificer's can find the needed green mana, or you could just rely on a fetchland.
Fitting in board control and counter magic seems to me vastly superior to being "cute". I'd consider the deck as an up-to-date Trix list, with the advantage of being colorless and uncounterable -- not losing to Krosan's Grip is also a nice evolution.
Another completely different idea could be a Cloud Post list as Stage can swap to it and provide massive amounts of mana in case playing out Emrakul would be better than Marit Lage.
Since my original view completely differs from what I've seen thus far in this thread, "Hey, this is a better Trix", I wanted to share my initial thoughts. :-)
Regarding the random Daze, I always makes my 61st card in any deck I play with Islands a Daze -- everyone at my local MTG cribs know this and it's become a tradition.
Last edited by Grollub; 05-31-2013 at 05:31 AM. Reason: Regarding Daze
I'm also breweing something in BG/UG/U. Currently MUC seems nice since you can play the combo without the fear of counters through Tolaria West and can win from other combo decks by out-countering them :)
I've come up with something like (not figured out cardamounts yet :))
Snapcaster Mage - Replay Counters/Cantrips
Kira, Great Glass Spinner - Protect the Combo Token
Vendillion Clique - Against Combo
Realmwright - Mana fixing for so many colorless land
Force of Will - Counter
Counterspell - Counters
Spell Pierce - More counters
Stifle - Against Wasteland, Karakas, Jace
Jace, the Mind Sculptor - Alternate Win
Brainstorm - Combo searcher
Ponder - Combo searcher
Standstill - Card advantage
Dark Depths - Combopiece 1
Thespian's Stage - Combopiece 2
Tolaria West - Tutor cannot be countered
Mishra's Factory - Alt slow win
Wasteland - Waste wastelands :)
Blue Fetch - Fetch
Islands - Anti Blood Moon
Side Board could carry Phyrexian Dreadnought as Suprise wincon.
Also thinking about Counter/Top.
another idea, cause this combo is so versatile
Mono Black Pox
fits extremely nicely in here
the list would look something like
35 cards
4 chalice of the void
4 mox diamond *
4 vampire hexmage
3 liliana of the veil
4 sinkhole
4 small pox
4 pox
4 nether void
1 the abyss
3 crucible of worlds
25 lands
4 wasteland
4 urborb tomb of yawgmoth
6 swamp
2 mishras factory
4 thespian stage
4 dark depths
Chalice and land destruction (sinkhole wasteland smallpox and pox) solve 90% of your problems maindeck. check my previous post for problems.
nether void is great cause it buys lots of time and slows other decks down while not slowing your combo. Your combo is also immune to the abyss. Hexmage in here makes sense cause being black you have no outs to pithing needle other than chalice. Also speeds up the combo and provides alternate routes.
*(traditionally im against mox diamond in pox cause it creates further card disadvantage in a game of close resources but you have so many extra lands because of your combo you can now do something with the extra copies, also speed up into the combo)
Play 4 Card Blind!
Currently Playing
Legacy: Dark Depths
EDH: 5-Color Hermit Druid
Currently Brewing: [Deck] Sadistic Sacrament / Chalice NO Eldrazi
why cards are so expensive...hoarders
If you're going to go the pox route, why not go loam pox so you can recur your lands in a pinch?
Mana base is already shakey and is loam better than crucible here? Maybe cause you can use it to dredge your combo into grave as a tutor?
Play 4 Card Blind!
Currently Playing
Legacy: Dark Depths
EDH: 5-Color Hermit Druid
Currently Brewing: [Deck] Sadistic Sacrament / Chalice NO Eldrazi
why cards are so expensive...hoarders
In this sort of build, wouldn't you be better suited to running only a few of each win condition and just have Scapeshift? Intuition -> Map -> One piece is a slow build to the combo, and since you're planning to play a long control game anyway, why not just have the win in a single card?
I'm thinking something like this:
Combo (3):
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Dark Depths
1 Thespian Stage
Tutor (4):
4 Scapeshift
Dig (4):
4 Brainstorm
Countermagic (13)
4 Spell Pierce
2 Daze
4 Force of Will
3 Counterspell
Board Control (13)
3 Devestation Tide
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Terminus
3 Oblivion Ring
Lands'n'mana (23 other than Tomb)
The primarily reasoning for using Artificer's is more-so for it's multi-functional uses. It can enable the combo by finding the Maps, albeit slow. However, it offers great versatility, tons of shuffling for Counter Balance and easily improving the filtering of Top and Brainstorm. At the least, that was the idea -- haven't had time to try it yet, so it may very well be a too slow route.
What I personally don't like about the Scapeshift combo is it requires two green mana, which means being heavy blue can pose an issue in regards to casting the spell -- the Scapeshift route I believe would be better suited in maybe a more traditional lands.dec list? Above all, I love all the innovative lists! :D
I love how flexible this combo is, however it is also why I'm sort of concerned about wether or not it might be banned out; but I suppose time will tell -- an uncounterable combo is in itself scary.
Last edited by Grollub; 06-01-2013 at 08:01 AM. Reason: some grammar and typo fixes
I have tested a BG and UG build against DeathBlade and I think this is one of the toughest matchups because they have so many mainboard answers like: Karakas,Jace 2.0, Swords, Wastelands, Discard/Counters and DRS. Side they can play Surgical Extractions. With an early Batterskull you need multiple Marit Lage attacks as they tend to have 20+ lifes when the token comes into play. I lost with both versions, but the UG version felt more resiliant.
This is exactly why I'm advocating experimenting with an Artificer's build, as it'd provide easy access silver bullets (which aren't dead in any match up) to answer the threats to the combo; I don't think brute speed is the solution as despite easily activated the combo is prone to a certain subset of cards.
artificer's build requires too many steps...and only accompishes what crop rotation does in 1 card...
Play 4 Card Blind!
Currently Playing
Legacy: Dark Depths
EDH: 5-Color Hermit Druid
Currently Brewing: [Deck] Sadistic Sacrament / Chalice NO Eldrazi
why cards are so expensive...hoarders
How do you protect your combo and the board with Crop Rotation? I'm not too keen on Crop Rotation, it requires you to have 5 lands when using it as a tutor for a combo part and is basically a dead card if you have drawn the parts.
EDIT:
I do think however, Crop Rotation would have great potential in a list design to utilize it for more than finding combo pieces (alongside friends like Scapeshift), but that'd result in a completely different style of deck and philosophy.
-- Just realized you probably wasn't thinking about cramming it into a heavy MUCish list. ;)
i don't think a dedicated deck is a good idea. If this combo becomes widespread, it should not be more than an alternative win condition because blood moon will just own you if its your only way to win. Blood moon is going to be in every control deck (UWr).
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
