Hello all, I thought I would post a deck I have been playing a lot lately and tinkering with a lot. I would like to thank @ChubbyRain and @NBA84 for starting what I think is a good trend and what I hope continues. I think the recent postings have been great to start a good dialogue about trying new things, sharing new ideas, and an overall discussion about deck ideas.
I play online and in paper. This deck was inspired based on my shops heavy paper meta which is what I am mainly concerned with and I am tired of losing to shops. I do also run the deck online (same 75).
The list went 3-2 Monday evening (Win: Shops, landstill (RUG), 4c Sylvan Walkers. Loss: Shops, Storm).
The list:
Land (16):
3 Polluted Delta
1 Scalding Tarn
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 volcanic island
1 badlands
2 underground sea
2 Island
1 mountain
1 library of Alexandria
1 Swamp
Artifact (6):
1 black lotus
1 mox sapphire
1 mox ruby
1 mox jet
1 Sol ring
1 Sensei's Divining Top
Instants (22):
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
4 Mental Misstep
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
3 lightning Bolt
2 Kolaghan's Command
1 Skeletal Scrying
Creatures (5):
4 Dark Confidant
1 Snapcaster Mage
Sorcery (7):
1 Time Walk
1 Ponder
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Subterranean Tremors
1 Meltdown
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Gitaxian Probe
Planeswalkers (4):
1 Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast
1 Dack Fayden
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Sideboard (15):
2 By force
1 Meltdown
1 Hurkyl's Recall
3 Grafdigger's Cage
4 Leyline of the Void
1 Pyroblast
1 Flusterstorm
1 Slaughter Games
1 Toxic Deluge
Card Choice:
Dark Confidant: I am a huge fan of Bob. There is a lot of STP running around right now but the deck runs a lot of protection for him to stick around. He avoids pyroblast which is very common right now and he is good against shops. A turn one Bob forces a shops opponent to deal with him via ballista or give you immediate card advantage. He feeds you cards every turn and allows you to keep your mana open. With this list running 4 drains I always want my mana available to me.
Mana Drain x4: I understand that 4 mana drain is a lot but it serves a dual purpose: it is a counter spell and a quasi cantrip. I get to use the mana drain as a draw spell by countering what my opponent plays, move to my turn, draw, and then use the mana available to me. It also helps me 1) cast spells through a sphere and 2) ramp up one of the many x cost spells in the deck
Meltdown: I think Meltdown is wildly underplayed. By Force is a great card and appears in my board, but Meltdown is a superior board wipe. Especially in a deck with 4 mana drains and only 6 artifacts I can use drain mana to wipe a shops board and still have other mana available to me. With the low mana curve shops has favored lately a meltdown on 3 usually blows up the opponents entire board. Also, against a paradoxical opponent for one red I can blow up a large portion of their mana base by getting rid of moxen and crypt.
Skeletal Scrying: I love this card. When running bob obviously Dig and Cruise are out because they hurt a lot. This card is flips well for Bob and though it does take some life from you on the back end it allows me to scale my draw, use drain mana, and avoids pyroblast.
Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast: Daretti is gasoline. Even in a deck with a low artifact count he proves very scary. Having a walking terminate on the board is really scary for the opponent if they cannot deal with him. He blows up oath targets, everything on a shops board, and his 1/1 minions present huge issues for cards like pyromancer and buy me time.
Yawgmoth's Will: Yawg Will appears solely for its pure value. I have ended more than one game solely from resolving a will and burying my opponent under value and card advantage. I think the value will is sometimes overlooked and underplayed.
Slaughter Games (sideboard): Double and Triple Griselbrand Oath lists are popping up more and more. Casting an uncounterable spell that sucks out the only oath target or even 2/3 of the oath targets is great, even for 4 mana. It has ended more than one game for me after it resolves.
4 basic land in a 3 color list: wasteland is ever present and a card I have a seen a lot of now. In a deck with only 16 land I want to play around wasteland whenever possible. It does cut down on some of the synergy but keeps me from getting cut out of the game.
Cards that aren't there
Pyroblast: I loath this card. I think pyroblast is a card everyone is running but it is worse than useless against shops, the best deck in the format. At least misstep can pitch to force and hits sol ring, pyroblast does literally nothing. I understand that I give up points in the blue mirror by not running this card but it is hard to run blank cards against shops. I make up for some of the loss with the extra drains. I do run one in the board to bring in.
Tinker/Blightsteel: I understand it is a corner case but getting a blightsteel stolen by Dack is something I do not want to happen. Also, most shops lists are running multiple main deck metamorphs at this point. It just was not a risk I wanted to take. Also, minus 12 with Bob makes blightsteel a terrible option.
Please let me know what you think I am open to any suggestions, comments, questions, criticisms.
Happy Brewing