Much has changed. It all started with a Necropotence deck inspired by Brian Davis, but has evolved somehow to an unpowered vintage worthy TPS (The Perfect Storm) deck.
This deck has so many insane plays.
Which reminds me: anyone interested in Vintage, or looking to get into it, NEEDS to read this man, Stephen Menedian's, articles. They are perfect for information on the format and can be located here:
http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/archive.php?Article=Stephen%20Menendian
How does the deck work?
As Stephen has put it, the deck revolves around the notion that "Yawgmoth's Will is the best card in vintage." From there, Tendrils of Agony is its best friend because together, they win you the game.
Mana is extremely important to this deck as the more mana you have the faster you can go off. I am playing an Unpowered variant of this deck, which means it does not include the Power Nine cards;
Black Lotus
,
Mox Jet
,
Mox Pearl
,
Mox Sapphire
,
Mox Emerald
,
Mox Ruby
, Timetwister,
Time Walk
, and Ancestral Recall (Note: some players like to include Library of Alexandria in their list of Power Ten). Though this be the case, i still run many mana accelerants like Sol Ring, Mana Vault, Dark Ritual,
Cabal Ritual
, including a heap of free to play ones such as: Mox Opal, Lion's Eye Diamond, Chrome Mox, Lotus Petal and Lotus Bloom
Ideally, I would like to win turn 1. Wouldnt you? There are numerous ways this can be acheived, my personal favorite includes an opening hand of: land, Dark Ritual, dark ritual, Gitaxian Probe and Vampiric Tutor. Look at the deck list, see for yourself how beautiful only 5 cards out of 7 can be, then imagine what can be done with 2 other cards that are relevant.
Gitaxian Probe leads me to the drawing aspect of this deck. Of course Turn 1 is the most favorable, but taking into consideration the fact that your opponent will definitely have some form of disruption, you need a plan for the later game and especially to stop yourself from stalling. Probe, Brainstorm,
Urza's Bauble
and
Manamorphose
are great because they replace themselves increasing the probablity of drawing the card you need, and for the most part are free spells that add to storm. Urza's Bauble also helps metal craft for Mox Opal while staying relevant as you can sac it whenever you want (preferably at the beginning/end of their turn, after youve already exhausted your Opal and they've drawn a new card for information purposes). These aren't the only draws, and that leads me to the draw7s.
Wheel of Fortune, Windfall and Memory Jar are the backbones of the deck, because a) they break the combo your opponent is holding in hand, the hand they chose not to mulligan (turn 1 draw7 is the most effective) but more importantly it will find you all the cards you need to go off, if not this turn then guaranteed the next (and that is where the free/plentiful mana comes into play). Lion's Eye Diamond works especially nicely here because you cast Wheel of Fortune, respond by cracking the LED, discard the hand you were gonna discard anyways and draw 7 whole new cards while having 3 mana floating, of any color! (Note: LED works in a very similar way with Yawgmoth's Will as you get to play it twice for 6 free mana. You cant lose.)
DURESS! oh man, how important is Duress? well if you havent figured it out, let me spell it out for you. It guarantees safe passage. if youre holding a Force of Will or a Mana Drain waiting for the perfect card to counter, youve already lost because i just ate it. If youve got multiple control magic, losing one can be just as devastating (thers a lot more to take into consideration here, like what else is in the hand, but that has nothing to do with how this deck functions, so ill leave it at this)
That leaves us the fun...wait, who am i kidding, every card in this deck is fun. This leaves us with our business cards: Necropotence, Yawgmoth's Bargain, Tinker, Mystical Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Dimir Machinations and the infamous Demonic Tutor. Just to get Tinker out of the way,
Tendrills of Agony
is not a flawless card, i know, shocking. It can and will fizz some of the time and so an alternative plan is required: enter Tinker for Inkwell Leviathan.The other tutors are there simply to find the cards that will help me win, theres nothing else to say about these, and because tehres so many insane plays you can search almost any card in the deck for any situation and you will 100% profit. Some of you may be wondering why Dimir Machinations, well simply put: i havent the urge to spend what is required for a Grim Tutor or Imperial Seal and in any case this card costs the same as Grim and will be used to find 1 of 3 cards -> Yawgmoth's Will, Tinker or Necropotence, which brings us to the end of the road:
Necropotence, or Yawgmoth's Bargain (the bad necro (dont let that confuse it, this card is restricted for a reason)) will do everything for you. Imagine this T1 play: land, ritual, necro. Inexperienced players dont undertand Necropotence, good players fear it, great players abuse it. Notice with that turn 1 play weve only used 3 of the 7 cards in our hand, which sets us up for a huge turn 2. Now, necro is on the board, what do? Well you necro for 12 (this is a variable, the point is you necro for a huge card draw and the ridiculous card advantage will take card of the rest for you), discard excess lands and sculpt the perfect hand. Unless you fizz on the draw (which you wont, remember you still have 4 other cards in your hand, presumably at least 2 are useful to your turn 2 play) and youve just drawn 12 cards. keep a Duress for next turns safety, and the other cards you pick complete the combo.
This deck at face value seems easy: just rack up a bunch of cheap costing cards and then tendrils for the win. this is a misconception because there will always be at least 10 different options when you draw and keep your opening hand that will affect the game greatly, including guessing what the other guy is holding if Duress and Gitaxian Probe are unavailable to you. I have left out a lot of math that revolves around every play for this deck, if youre interested in that, i highly suggest you read this article: http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/vintage/13719-So-Many-Insane-Plays-8212-Deconstructing-Combo-versus-Control.html
This deck is super fun, i highly encourage you guys to playtest it. Comment if you see fit, I will respond to everything: questions, criticisms etc..
til next time,AngerDragon
