Hello everyone, I was wondering if you had any input on my take of how to do a Freed from the Real deck that I've been working on.
At it's core, this deck aims to pull off an infinite mana combo to cast a Kaervek's Torch for lethal. The strength of the deck comes from the fact it runs two synergistic combos that help one another and allow you to direct your play depending on the matchup and your draw. Against aggro, I have been consistently winning T4/5, and in control matchups, winning is more difficult, but still fair given you know how to play mind games and plan accordingly. Faeries still poses a problem.
Guardian Zendikon enables both win cons: makes a land a creature to enchant and adds a defender to the board. Abundant Growths help fix the deck early, and can be fetched from Dizzy Spell to fix early on if need-be. Fertile Grounds help make any land (ideally islands) into dual lands in case you don't draw Izzet Boilerworks or another dual.
Sunscape Familiars help you go off a turn early, or act as defenders to turn on Axebane Guardian. Power Sink is used most in control matchups to make your combos resolve and also can act as a way to shut-down an opponent's mana at the end of their turn on the last spell they play, to ensure that you can go off on your next turn.
Subtleties I've found for play:
~You need to mulligan until it's feasible for you to get GUU sources, so you can fertilize lands and transmute to combo pieces you need.
~This deck has to play the long game against mono-U as you need the mana and cards to get through all their counters when you decide to go off. Fortunately, because of the two lines to combo, you're able to get a lot of value from fake threats. Say, if you choose to animate a land as your win-con, you really don't care if they counter your familiars, axebanes, drifts, etc. (other than mana-ramp obviously), so just play those first to wear down their defense, as they know they have to counter those. (If they don't, you can easily use them to combo).
~Ulamog's Crusher is in there just as an alternate win condition. There aren't lots of things that you can do with infinite mana in Pauper, so I think it's good if you draw it. A protected torch is the best way though. I played around with splashing black for Soul Burn, but I think torch is better for the 2 to counter, and sideboard choices in red.
~Sideboarding is fairly easy into any color you want, as all of the color fixing in the deck gives you access to any color by T3 at the latest.
~When the coast is clear to go off, don't forget that if you're choosing to tap out all your mana sources you still need U to untap that land or Axebane, so wait until that is feasible.
~Because of all the redundancy, you will generally draw into missing pieces or ways to get them, so factor that in when making mulligan decisions. There is a lot to set up before you can go off, so make sure you can set up the early game. There's an 80% chance you draw a type of Freed from the Real by T5, whatever that means to you. The main ways you will loose will be from explosive T2 or T3 wins or from your Freed from the Real hitting 3 counter-spells in a row.
~A land that taps for RU is ideal because you need a R to cast Kaervek's Torch and U to untap the combo permanent. A Izzet Boilerworks does this all in one go. Sill, given you have an R source somewhere like Gruul Turf or something, a Freed Fertilized Plains could work works.
~This is a fairly difficult deck to play, from my experience. I spent a lot of time developing, refining, and playing this deck and a lot of subtleties of play don't really come out of the decklist.
Maybeboard (#-irrelevant) 1 Condescend (In place of Power Sink, for digging) 1 Counterspell (In place of Power Sink for finality) 1 Oona's Gatewarden (In place of Familiars for Delver) 1 Perplex (In place of Familiars for more counters, transmutations) 1 Hydroform (Another Lifespark Spellbomb for artifact hate)
At it's core, this deck aims to pull off an infinite mana combo to cast a Kaervek's Torch for lethal. The strength of the deck comes from the fact it runs two synergistic combos that help one another and allow you to direct your play depending on the matchup and your draw. Against aggro, I have been consistently winning T4/5, and in control matchups, winning is more difficult, but still fair given you know how to play mind games and plan accordingly. Faeries still poses a problem.
The two combos are:
Freed from the Real + Lifespark Spellbomb + any land that taps for 2 mana (ideally, R/U)
Freed from the Real + Axebane Guardian + another defender in play
6 Forest
6 Mountain
2 Plains
2 Gruul Turf
2 Boros Garrison
4 Izzet Boilerworks
3 Sunscape Familiar
4 Drift of Phantasms
3 Axebane Guardian
1 Ulamog's Crusher
Enchantments and Auras
3 Abundant Growth
4 Fertile Ground
3 Guardian Zendikon
3 Freed from the Real
4 Dizzy Spell
4 Power Sink
3 Kaervek's Torch
Artifact
3 Lifespark Spellbomb
6 Forest
6 Mountain
2 Plains
2 Gruul Turf
2 Boros Garrison
4 Izzet Boilerworks
3 Freed from the Real
3 Axebane Guardian
3 Lifespark Spellbomb
Win-Conditions
3 Kaervek's Torch
1 Ulamog's Crusher
Tutors
4 Drift of Phantasms
4 Dizzy Spell
3 Sunscape Familiar
3 Abundant Growth
4 Fertile Ground
3 Guardian Zendikon
Protection
4 Power Sink
I have put a lot of redundancy in the deck to enable consistency and power:
Two playsets of transmute spells that effectively double all of the combo cards.
-Dizzy Spell to get Lifespark Spellbomb, Kaervek's Torch, Power Sink, or color fixing. It also can just be played to hold off aggro for a turn if you already drew the transmute targets.
-Drift of Phantasms to get Freed from the Real, Axebane Guardian, or Guardian Zendikon. As a plus is also played as a functional defender for aggro, or to turn on Axebane Guardian.
Guardian Zendikon enables both win cons: makes a land a creature to enchant and adds a defender to the board.
Abundant Growths help fix the deck early, and can be fetched from Dizzy Spell to fix early on if need-be.
Fertile Grounds help make any land (ideally islands) into dual lands in case you don't draw Izzet Boilerworks or another dual.
Sunscape Familiars help you go off a turn early, or act as defenders to turn on Axebane Guardian.
Power Sink is used most in control matchups to make your combos resolve and also can act as a way to shut-down an opponent's mana at the end of their turn on the last spell they play, to ensure that you can go off on your next turn.
Subtleties I've found for play:
~You need to mulligan until it's feasible for you to get GUU sources, so you can fertilize lands and transmute to combo pieces you need.
~This deck has to play the long game against mono-U as you need the mana and cards to get through all their counters when you decide to go off. Fortunately, because of the two lines to combo, you're able to get a lot of value from fake threats. Say, if you choose to animate a land as your win-con, you really don't care if they counter your familiars, axebanes, drifts, etc. (other than mana-ramp obviously), so just play those first to wear down their defense, as they know they have to counter those. (If they don't, you can easily use them to combo).
~Ulamog's Crusher is in there just as an alternate win condition. There aren't lots of things that you can do with infinite mana in Pauper, so I think it's good if you draw it. A protected torch is the best way though. I played around with splashing black for Soul Burn, but I think torch is better for the 2 to counter, and sideboard choices in red.
~Sideboarding is fairly easy into any color you want, as all of the color fixing in the deck gives you access to any color by T3 at the latest.
~When the coast is clear to go off, don't forget that if you're choosing to tap out all your mana sources you still need U to untap that land or Axebane, so wait until that is feasible.
~Because of all the redundancy, you will generally draw into missing pieces or ways to get them, so factor that in when making mulligan decisions. There is a lot to set up before you can go off, so make sure you can set up the early game. There's an 80% chance you draw a type of Freed from the Real by T5, whatever that means to you. The main ways you will loose will be from explosive T2 or T3 wins or from your Freed from the Real hitting 3 counter-spells in a row.
~A land that taps for RU is ideal because you need a R to cast Kaervek's Torch and U to untap the combo permanent. A Izzet Boilerworks does this all in one go. Sill, given you have an R source somewhere like Gruul Turf or something, a Freed Fertilized Plains could work works.
~This is a fairly difficult deck to play, from my experience. I spent a lot of time developing, refining, and playing this deck and a lot of subtleties of play don't really come out of the decklist.
1 Condescend (In place of Power Sink, for digging)
1 Counterspell (In place of Power Sink for finality)
1 Oona's Gatewarden (In place of Familiars for Delver)
1 Perplex (In place of Familiars for more counters, transmutations)
1 Hydroform (Another Lifespark Spellbomb for artifact hate)
Thanks for reading!