ok, this is working much better even against the random MTGO meta... I almost never even cast Tendrils though... almost always end up slotting them out for Tormod's or Create Removal, depending... still needs some work... I'd be happy with a 33% win rate.
Thank you guys for your suggestions!!

Swamp x15 (prolly at least 1 too many)
Strip Mine x1
Wasteland x2

Black Lotus
Mox Jet
Jet Medallion (I know, I know... but against non-super-competitive decks it can be money)
Tormod's Crypt

Banehound x2 (haste and lifegain? please.)
Dark Ritual x4
Duress x4
Vampiric Tutor (basically only for Will)

Cabal Ritual x3 (almost ready to get rid of these)
Chains of Mephistopheles x2 (secret tech! secret PROXY tech... wow $$)
Demonic Tutor (Will he or won't he Will)
Hymn to Tourach x4
Order of the Ebon Hand x2 (Fallen Empires doesn't suck!!!!)
Sinkhole x4 (zapping the sole Volcanic in a Breach deck feels good... and I just love these black-bordered beauties)

Mind Drain x2 (I dunno... it fits the theme...?)
Yawgmoth's will (duh)
Hero's Downfall (I need to replace this main deck... really wanted to include Beta Terror... but... artifacts........)
Hyptnotic Spectre x4

Lilliana of the Dark Realms x2
Tendrils of Agony x1 (I tried with 4... it just wasn't working)

Drain Life x1 (I just love winning on a DL...)

Sideboard
Tormod's Crypt x3
Terror x4 (I've never used them... they need to go)
Order of the Ebon Hand x2
Dark Banishing x2 (these are actually helpful)
Hero's Downfall
Tendrils of Agony x3 (again... never used)

This is MUCH better than the previous build... obviously still some work to do, but thank you guys again!

Boseiju, Who Shelters All and Cavern of Souls are odd inclusions. Making Violent Outburst and Shardless Agent uncounterable doesn't have an effect on the Hypergenesis you're cascading into.

Typical Squee Disruption:
2 Fury
1 Mental Misstep
4 Force of Negation
4 Force of Vigor
3 Mindbreak Trap
4 Force of Will
1 Chalice of the Void
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland

Your Disruption:
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
4 Force of Will
1 Mental Misstep
4 Force of Negation
4 Commandeer
2 Mindbreak Trap
4 Not of this World

It looks like you're running the same amount of disruption but without the green count to support Force of Vigor.

@revengeanceful ahhh... thanks! That's kinda too bad but good to know 🙂

@serracollector Thanks for the recommendation. I tried Rishadon Dockhand and Tide Shaper. They were Ok, and I am still testing the Dockhand. The issue is tempo. 2 drops and cards requiring 3 mana really hurt tempo.

@serracollector Sorry about that. The Abundant Harvest was awesome. It was very useful in finding lands or I pitched it to Force of Vigor. The mode to find non-land was not great.

@nofuture I guess in my deck the value of pyroblast is a bit greater since it's a way to remove enchantments (like turn 2 oath) or nuke basics so I get max value out of Magus.

I see 1 bolt, 1 fire in your list as the only removal for Ouphe. If your other outs are in the SB, you are likely looking at tutor chain into a possible answer (which means you're not tutoring into a combo). I agree that pyro vs an ancestral or time walk or FoW or something may not be the best (though it is strong), stopping something like turn 1/2 tinker when you just have 1 land IS huge.

On your list specifically, my only recommendation is swapping a bolt and grudge for 2 abrade. You are never whittling the opponent to 3 life with your build, so the burn to the face is irrelevant. When you face an ouphe and draw a grudge, you'll be glad it's abrade instead. The flexibility is big. You lose the ability to bolt a PW, but there are no PWs you really need to try to bolt anyway, as far as I can tell. Oko is immediately a 5 loyalty, and you don't really care about anything else as far as PWs. Maybe Karn, but he's 6 loyalty immediately as well.

You note doomsday and PO are bad matches. Pyro goes a long way in those matches too. Stopping a hand refill (PO), tinker->citadel, or Doomsday when they cast thassa's oracle when they've blown their counters stopping your combo, are really great uses for pyro.

Does Daretti actually do anything particularly threatening if they choose not to counter it or are you relying on fear and confusion?

Well, the idea is to get Fastbond out asap, and then something like Treasure Hunt to drop 10 lands, then Limited Resources, and lock the opponent out of playing lands. Competitive? Meh. Fun, definitely. So with the idea of a Bant style list Lavinia could definitely fit the bill. I will work on a list or 2 over the next few nights, and try some games on cockatrice. Once I have a list that's halfway decent, I'll post it, and we can all work from there. Thanks everyone so far for all the idea's!

@protoaddict Re: Noble, I often use her like a great colored mox, more than exalted - but exalted has ground out some games. Moxen in general are not great off-color, and ouphe is a necessary evil that makes moxen worse. ESG is nice, but I think I want them WITH nobles, not in place of. The repeated mana is important often.

Ichorclaw had its place, but with FoV now, I feel it just adds a target to get blown out - killing my dude and a mox, or worse the ichorclaw and an inkmoth.

I'm considering BG as my modern version is a solid deck, whereas my legacy version is just super fast with daze protection that sucks wind after turn 2 or 3. I think if I have ESG and noble, I can turn 2 a crusader easy enough with a 2-color build, especially clearing the road with a duress/seize. Or I could use ritual and a mox to turn 1 duress/crusader. I also get Stinger, which is a fine replacement for Blighted Agent. Having trophy/decay is also fantastic. And black has some bomb spells.

I'll post a BG version tomorrow.

If anybody is interested in producing video content that serves a similar role to a deck primer - a deck tech, video-primer, or vlog that you could point a newer player at ... I'm very open to using TMD as a platform to promote or host that sort of content as well. It doesn't have to be a traditional thread if that's not the best way to showcase the information, we can take "www.themanadrain.com/workshops" and turn that into the best possible landing page for however you'd like to teach a new player about shops, whatever that looks like.

@ten-ten said in New decks and deck building strategies.:

Hatebears are tempting especially because of Drannith, Collector Ouphe and kunoros.

Drannith is intriguing, but I think there are better options like Grafdigger's Cage in particular (unless you want to play Lurrus yourself, which I don't think is very good for the hatebears pilot). Kunoros is interesting as well (I had totally forgotten that that card exists), but I'm not 100% convinced that you actually want to play black in a WGx hatebears shell atm.

I didn't do well with this deck, but my plan was to slow them down with ouphes and make the serpents and other things boltable, or use things like force of vigor to get rid of them. Your also on the perfect colors for ancient grudge.

Masticore is a good card that is often suggested for such a deck. The synergies are pretty nice but often it does not pass the cut.
IMHO, in the upper curve there are better cards to use (namely golos but i would also probably use wurmoil or steel hellkite before it). It is also a bad topdeck and awfull when using uba/bazaar combo.
The main interest is that it provides a very efficient and nullrod-proof effect to ping creatures. That is strong enough and i often test it as a 2-of in sideboard.

@Dr-J I tried horn to begin with figuring an old Turboland deck would be fine, but found that my opp drawing a card(s) was too much of a burden. Even though most decks are land light in vintage it really just means the card draw spells lead to more board advantage/ game ending hits for those decks...

@Serracollector I like the idea of Regrowth a ton, gives me a reason to play with my beta ones 😁, I think my biggest concern with this particular list is playing against Jeskai or Outcome game 1. The Ziasbond list has a much more reasonable game 1 against those decks, but I do feel my list is more explosive. I was really trying to find a way to play Veil of Summer in the main without compromising the land v spell count, so that's my next project

@megantic said in ChubbyBrews: RUG Elementals:

This deck is fun to play. Just wanted to add that. Thanks for brewing it!

Comments like this are one of the reasons I enjoy brewing so much. You are very welcome. Kudos to Volrath for his continued piloting and promotion of the deck and congrats on a well deserved trophy. 🏆 🐠

If another deck gets a particularly good combination of cards then this would lose but that is generally the case in Magic. I'm not sure Karn Forge with a Defense Grid is that combination though, generally a turn 1 Defense Grid means a turn 2 Karn which means Key/Vault or Lattice is turn 3. If it's turn 3 you have a 50% chance of having 3 mana anyway for Force of Vigor or alternatively will have cast one of Pithing Needle/Null Rod or Collector Ouphe. Following that you can drop wasteland effects which will make it hard to hit 6 mana under a Null Rod so Mycosyth Lattice is out of reach and Vault/Key can't activate under Null Rod. If they delay at all then Elvish Reclaimer or Collector Ouphe will be hitting the Karn. You could certainly lose to it but I don't think it would be often enough to be a particular threat. Try the deck against Karn Forge and let me know how it goes, I think that would show the lines of play between the two decks and where any problems are.

@john-cox Wow - that brings back some memories. I haven't looked at that list in forever. I remember the 4x trinisphere days were just absurd, but the 4x chalice version after the trini restriction was still amazing. The ability to mask in a 1cmc dreadnaught through a chalice @1 was the bee's knees. Loved that deck.

Side note - if I remember correctly, at the time, it was the most expensive deck list in paper ever built!