TPS 2017!
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// 60 Maindeck
// 11 Artifact
1 Black Lotus- Big Mana
1 Lotus Petal- Mana
1 Mana Crypt -Mana
1 Mana Vault -Big Mana
1 Memory Jar- Draw
1 Mox Emerald- Mana
1 Mox Jet- Mana
1 Mox Pearl- Mana
1 Mox Ruby- Mana
1 Mox Sapphire- Mana
1 Sol Ring- Mana// 1 Creature
1 Blightsteel Colossus- Win condition// 2 Enchantment
1 Necropotence- Draw
4 Yawgmoth's Bargain- Draw// 17 Instant
1 Ancestral Recall- Big draw
1 Brainstorm- Draw
1 Cabal Ritual- Fast mana
4 Dark Ritual- Fast mana
4 Force of Will- Counter
4 Gifts Ungiven- Tutor and combo enabler
1 Mystical Tutor- Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor- Tutor
1 Rebuild- Mana, Artifact removal, Draw
1 Chain of Vapor- Removal, Mana
// 12 Land
2 Island- Mana
2 Swamp- Mana
4 Polluted Delta- Fetch
4 Underground Sea- Mana// 14 Sorcery
1 Demonic Tutor- Tutor
4 Duress- Discard
1 Imperial Seal- Tutor
1 Merchant Scroll- Tutor
1 Mind's Desire- Combo enabler
1 Ponder- Draw
1 Tendrils of Agony- Finisher
1 Time Walk- Extra turn
1 Timetwister- Combo enabler, draw 7
1 Tinker- Draw and win condition
1 Yawgmoth's Will- Combo enabler
1 Windfall- Big draw or Combo EnablerSideboard:
4 Leyline of the Void- Anti Combo
3 Chain of Vapor- Anti Control
4 Echoing Truth- Anti Control
4 Yixlid Jailer- Anti AggroThe sideboard is completely customizable. Within the colors blue and black
Card explanations are in the dashes next to the cards. Now the problem is whether to use Gifts Ungiven, or try and use some alternative method for a tutor or combo enabler. The deck needs 3 more blue sources to be at tip top condition. Maybe a unrestricted brainstorm would help. I had a list earlier about TPS but forgot the one of cards it used. I guess slot something like Treasure Cruise, Dig Through Time or possibly something like Windfall.
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I love seeing a TPS thread on the site. Can you give any more insight into why you chose some of the cards? I mean every deck likes tutors and mana, but why pick the numbers you did?
It looks like you're running 4 Gifts Ungiven where other players might be running Dark Petition, any chance you could give any example typical Gifts piles?
A lot of players seem to have dropped off of TPS in favor of Outcome-based decks. Why have decided to stick with TPS, and how do you think it fits in the current meta compared to other options?
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Well TPS has a long history of being one of the most dominant decks in MtG history.
It has the tools, skills, and atleast to some extent the flair needed to get it over the hump.With recent restrictions like Chalice of the Void and Lodestone Golem; Stax has took a nosedive in tournaments so it's time to dust off a old deck of mine.
The cards selected show the raw power of TPS, and also show how it can be versatile in the SB with anti Combo, Control, and Aggro.
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I like it, I would personally switch to thoughtseize over duress.
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@Shax While stax may be low in numbers, shops is not. So expect a lot of spheres still.
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@Shax In most metagames right now, Shops is still a popular and successful archetype, but of course that kind of thing varies in different metas. I still think a well-built TPS deck can handle the field, though.
If you haven't played a lot of vintage since the Chalice/Lodestone restrictions, I would look into the card [[Dark Petition]]. TPS had a small revival a few years back ... in fact a lot of newer players now call the deck "DPS" instead (Dark Petition Storm), but it's basically the same deck.
I'd also highly recommend [[Defense Grid]] against the field now. Control decks have largely shifted toward super-efficient, but specialized counterspells like [[Mental Misstep]], [[Fluterstorm]] and [[Pyroblast]]. A well-timed Defense Grid can really beat up on modern control decks.
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Mental Misstep, while a good four of; can potentially hurt more than what it does with trick countering a spell.
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I think it's because Gifts is one of the best blue engine cards for a Storm deck; it's to meet the blue threshold for FoW. Otherwise you definitely play Petition.
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Since we are playing Tinker, and we have 4 leyline of the void in the sideboard, would it be good to also play a helm of obedience? It would make tinker win faster and not trouble us with needing to build storm. You could basically just tutor for tinker too.
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Helm is a route, but requires many sideboard slots dedicated to it and also maybe like Serum Powder. Serum Powder might rise in price and usage if people start needing mulligans in magic more often and more ways to find their combos. With new sets new combos emerge so serum powder is the perfect canidate for such a deck.
4 Leyline is to fight other Combo decks using Yawgmoth's will.
4 Echoing Truth and 3 Chain of Vapor is to fight the Control decks basically toe to toe with whatever they throw out.
4 Yixlid Jailer is to fight aggro decks that think they can fight with flashback or some sort of abilities from the graveyard. Dredge for example. -
TPS should be a strong contender in a metagame of shops and mentor. It's naturally favored against blue decks as long as it can somewhat keep up on cards (the restriction of gush opens this). It's far more resilient to hate than Paradoxical outcome. It also has a much better shops matchup than traditional ritual storm due to having more lands and FoW.
I feel like the list from the OP is a little outdated however.
I was thinking something like this for the current meta:3 Underground Sea
2 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
2 Island
1 Swamp
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Necropotence
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
1 Dig Through Time
1 Gifts Ungiven
1 Vampiric Tutor
4 Dark Ritual
1 Cabal Ritual
1 Hurkyl's Recall
3 Flusterstorm
3 Mental Misstep
4 Force of Will
1 Ponder
1 Preordain
1 Gitaxian Probe
1 Time Walk
3 Dark Petition
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Mind's Desire
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Timetwister
1 Tendrils of AgonySB: 1 Mindbreak Trap
SB: 1 Island
SB: 2 Mystic Remora
SB: 3 Pack Rat
SB: 1 Toxic Deluge
SB: 2 Hurkyl's Recall
SB: 2 Engineered Explosives
SB: 1 Surgical Extraction
SB: 2 Ravenous Trap -
@Macdeath I should have known you were working on TPS too! I really like the direction you've taken, but I feel like you should play more than 1 Gifts. It's incredibly versatile and let's you grab either gas, mana or value. It also brings up your blue count for FoW, which from my experience tends to be a little bit of struggle for TPS!
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@Macdeath I should have known you were working on TPS too! I really like the direction you've taken, but I feel like you should play more than 1 Gifts. It's incredibly versatile and let's you grab either gas, mana or value. It also brings up your blue count for FoW, which from my experience tends to be a little bit of struggle for TPS!
I really love gifts in the deck but there are only so many slots for combo enablers. The deck already runs petition and is very ywill centric so more gifts means more liability vs grave hate. I also wanted to make room for the singleton gush (to give the deck more blue on blue game)but slots are too tight.
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Hi All,
I'm thinking about making the move from Legacy to Vintage (on MTGO) and was wondering whether this deck is still viable in the current meta? I'm not overly enthusiastic about the Paradoxical Storm variant that appears to be dominant at present, and was really hoping to use an old school style ritual/petition version.
I'm not expecting it to be a top tier deck, but I was hoping that a competitive version is still possible. Any advice you can give me would be much appreciated. I've seen some interesting deck lists (including those posted in this and the Yawgmoth's Storm thread), but I'm nervous about liquidating my Legacy collection on MTGO to invest in a deck if it's going to be unable to win many matchups.
Many thanks in advance for any feedback that you may be able to give me (and for the information already provided on this thread).
Best wishes,
Z
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@zedan I think you can definitely perform with an Outcomeless build, too. One nice thing about TPS/DPS vs Outcome is far less vulnerability to Null Rod effects - it's pretty trivial to Ritual through them, where Outcome decks usually have to find an answer first.
I would avoid the list in the original post of this thread, though. Something like @MacDeath 's list is a lot closer to what a modern Ritual storm deck looks like. With the recent [[Yawgmoth's Bargain]] unrestriction, I think people are pretty excited to build around that. I've played against a few Dark Petition/Bargain lists online but I don't know of any published lists.
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@shax im assuming you would bring in leyline against dredge as well, do you think helm could have a place in the side against dredge as a way to win quickly as dredge has many ways to deal with a leyline, helm would give a way to win with the leyline out, im not sure if its good enough or even worth the slot for just dredge but just an idea.
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@brass-man Many thanks for this detailed reply Brass-Man! I am ideally looking for a Outcomeless build and will look to put MacDeath's list together on MTGO over the next few days. Do you still think that the sideboard is relevant for the current meta (or would you add something to it)? Cheers again (and to hierarchnoble) for the suggestions. Much appreciated.
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@zedan The list I posted is a good starting point, although it definitely needs some tuning to adjust to your own playstyle. For instance I am comfortable playing the list without a tinker bot plan, some people will swear against not running it. Some people will like playing more copies of Gifts ungiven.
As for the sideboard, it's pretty stock. The plan vs denial decks is to bring in lands, counter hate pieces (EE, hurkyl's, toxic Deluge) and Pack rat is also an option as a secondary win condition to just ignore what they are doing or buy you a few turns so you can set up. The graveyard hate is for dredge, although surgical has some versatile applications in certain matchups. Against blue decks and combo, your plan is to leverage remora + counters and drawspells to win the control war. Remora is great because it punishes your opponent for trying to interact with you when you are going off or it slows down your storm/cantrip opponent.
Lands in the sideboard should always be basics, Ancient tomb is really not that good unless you have a 5c manabase in my experience and disruptive lands are really not where you want to be with this deck.
Toxic Deluge and pack rat were in the sideboard mainly because of White Eldrazi and how rough of a matchup it is due to them attacking you from multiple angles (creatures, artifacts and sometimes enchantments). Engineered explosives also looses some of its appeal with Thorn restricted.Adjustments I would consider would be more Gifts ungiven, Monastery mentor or tinker Blightsteel as a side wincon, Gush and/or Treasure cruise to help the deck in the blue arms race. You can also customize the disruption package if you would like more duress effects for the perfect information it provides and Echoing truth if you feel like main deck stony silence is really a concern for you. Yawgmoth's bargain is difficult to integrate as it demands a heavy cabal ritual commitment.
Mox opal is really not a card you'd ever want in tps since it opens up vulnerability to stony silence. One of this deck's best strengths is that it has a very solid mana base with basic lands, only the best artifact mana and Rituals.
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Now that Yawgmoth's Bargain is unrestricted this deck needs a massive overhaul or a few slight tweaks. I'll update the original post with a modified build. Instead of adding 3 Blue sources we get x3 more Bargains. Definitely a fair trade on our part of the combo game.
