When I opened a pack of Weatherlight as a kid and saw a Psychic Vortex staring back at me, my reaction to the rare was the following:
1) Wow, that art is awesome!
2) Cumulative upkeep, f*** that.
3) ...wait, the upkeep is to draw cards? what does that even mean? Would it just keep going forever.
4) What? Discard the entire hand I just drew? Why, you tease, why?!
5) What would I even have to do to make this viable?
And here we are. I recently got interested in finding a use for the vortex, and I found a deck from 2004 that I present to you along with sideboard ideas of my own. (Source: http://archive.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/as42)Note: I am aware of Sundial of the Infinite, but that would make for a completely different deck, and I still like this one.This is also a budget deck. The bridges are the only thing in here that costs anything.
Psychic Vortex
Just look at that abomination.
Early game use
Vine Trellis
, Wall of Blossoms, and Wall of Roots to stall and build the mana base. Your goal is to get a Seismic Assault out quickly. You can even use Long-Term Plans for it.
Stormbind
will work in a pinch, too. Then get the Vortex in. Ensnaring Bridge makes you immune to creature attacks and
Null Brooch
helps control the battlefield. Far Wanderings is great as you'll get to threshold really quickly
Reminisce
helps refill your deck if it starts getting thin. Just keep lobbing lands through Seismic Assault and you'll get there.
To me, this is a casual troll deck, so I feel like you can amp up the troll by going with
Zombie Infestation
instead of Seismic Assault. Birds of Paradise for fixing if I feel it needs it. Telepathy and Arcane Laboratory are really mean. You see their hand, you watch them pick their one spell allowed by AL, and you counter it with
Null Brooch
. Then they watch you draw a ton of cards just to throw them at them in the form of Seismic Assault damage or dead guys from
Zombie Infestation
. The deck doesn't really need to cast more than one spell each turn, so you aren't hindered. You discard anything you couldn't otherwise dump and your opponent is again left with the quandry. You can try to help him pick which card he should play :3
Oh and I put a Sundial of the Infinite in there for the haters.
Definitely looking for help making this deck better/stupider. Come with me on a starship through this trash card.
