When Leo was first spoiled, I built a control style Leo deck with a doomsday finisher. The early version of this list was incredibly consistent at getting a turn 3 Leo+wheel/puzzle box. However, this strategy was crude and getting Leo to stick proved to be difficult, since I was essentially playing 1v3 each game.
The DD finisher was great IF I got an early lock, but it was really suspect if I could not. The only other "tried and true" combo was hermit druid due to Leo's affinity for labman. Beyond that, Leo had no other good way to win the game.
Other Leo players went a traditional High Tide/DD storm route. This provided an alternative tendrils win condition, which was nice. Unfortunately, the deck was a turn slower most games at getting a hand lock since high tide storm has antisynergy with 1 drop dorks. As it became clear that playing 1v3 is a terrible way to win, I eventually caved and tried out the storm version. At first I struggled, because frankly I was new to storm so I thought the inconsistency was due to my lack of experience. However, as I got better at, two things stood out for me:
1) BUG storm is significantly worse than grixis storm: Not a big suprise as grixis has better enablers for the strategy.
2) Leo is a mediocre storm commander: While Leo has synergy with wheels and Labman, he cannot produce cards if you run out of gas. After the first wheel you get diminishing turns on windfall type effects since noone else has a hand. He also cannot win the game off infinite mana.
I tried many different hybrid versions of storm and lock strategies, but at the end of the day I just was never satisfied with how the deck performed. Then Paradox Engine was spoiled and everything changed. I realized that this card would change the way cEDH was played so I immediately built this Paradox Scepter Storm Deck. I quickly discovered a deck devoted to paradox engine can consistently win on turns 2-4 and the combo itself is compact and has numerous redundant parts that are pretty decent (to great) standalone cards.
I concluded that mucktide storm was obsolete for BUG mana bases since having access to rocks, rituals, and mana dorks gave Paradox Engine storm all the tools necessary win a fair share of games against top generals. Paradox scepter is fast without having to overextend or distort ones mana base for high tide. The combo is also very resilient since there is not a particular card that the combo relied upon to win each game.
Then skellyton3 posted his Leovold build on reddit. He had dumped the traditional DD piles and high tide package for a deck built around early
Ad Nauseam
s that eventually won by using Paradox Engine and Aetherflux Reservoir. Since he wasnt utilizing 9-12 basic islands nedded for Gush and High Tide, He also had an elegant backup combo in
Tainted Pact
/Demonic Consultation+Laboratory Maniac.
This new approach offered multiple paths to early victories and the deck could utilize mana dorks, which facilitate the early lock strategy as well. Rather than having to play reactive control (which is bad), early lock (which is predictable and easily hated out), or traditional BUG storm (which Leo is meh at and is relatively slow), his build could attack opponent from multiple angles early and play a stronger late game since engine functions like Omniscience at that point in the game.
This deck is an adaption of that brew with my own engine shenanigans mixed in. There are several ways this deck can secure an early victory:
1) Leo Hand lock with either wheels or puzzle box: This win condition is much stronger in this deck than with the traditional High tide doomsday build due to the precense of 1 drop dorks. Getting this on turn 3 is very easy. Our high concentration of rocks and rituals also allows us to occassionally turn 1 puzzle box and turn 2 Leo.
2) Main Phase Ad Nauseam: This idea was borrowed from Skellyton. With a avg cc below 1.65 and a high concentration of tutors, rituals, and net positive rocks this deck can consitently win off a main phase ad naus with just 1-2 floating mana. It is in this role that Paradox engine and Dramatic scepter flourish because with a hand full of 20-25 cards these cards easily end the game on the spot.
3)Dramatic Reversal+Isochron Scepter infinite combo with
Sensei's Diving Top
or Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
as the usual method for drawing my deck. Or Paradox Engine with Brainstorm,
Tainted Pact
, or
Impulse
imprinted on scepter. Thesecombos are worse here than with Thrasios since Leo cannot dig for more cards. Nonetheless these combos can usually be assembled to win the game on turn 3-5 without the assistance of Ad Nauseam and all the cards involved are useful on thier own. Engine can also allow me to draw my deck with Kiora's Follower/Voltaic Key+Sensei's Divining Top and just 2/1 mana worth of rocks/dorks. The overlap and synergy is real...
4) Laboratory Maniac+
Tainted Pact
+any draw effect. This is quite easily assembled on its own, or with any of the above scenarios.
While its not smart or effective to jam a combo down your opponents throats on turn 3 every game, being capable of winning fast from multiple different angles with limited resources is vitally important when playing against stax and midrange decks that will deny you some of your resources at all points in the game. This deck grinds reasonably well despite its fast combo nature and has a decent interaction suite.
