MTG Salvation

The goal is simple: make a deck for last week's tournament that would have had the best record.

For reference, the metagame was:

1) bateleur : "Death By a Thousand Cutpurses"
Black Lotus / Aluren / Cavern Harpy / Stern Proctor / Rishadan Cutpurse
In a format where you can deploy four threats via a single land, surely countermagic won't get played? Oops.

2) WhammWhamme : "Get a Life"
Grove of the Burnwillows / Mistcutter Hydra / Leyline of Singularity / Karakas / Pithing Needle
Very nice design here - looks slightly underpowered at first glance, but interacts well with so many of the key cards in this format.

3) Draco9 : "I Have a Ligature and I'm Not Afraid to Use It!"
Æther Snap / Maze of Ith / Nettlevine Blight / Dark Depths / Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Not one but two cards I didn't even consider! Looks as though you made the opposite mistake from me and were expecting more countermagic than actually showed up?

4) CogMonocle : "Leyline of Io"
Leyline of Lifeforce / Leyline of the Void / Leyline of Singularity / Serra's Sanctum / Iona, Shield of Emeria
Welcome to ABT! Casting Iona seems like a great plan, although as it turned out you might have been better just doing it with a Black Lotus...

5) tomsloger : "Scarecrow Tribal"
Reaper King / Reaper King / Cavern of Souls / Changeling Berserker / Heap Doll
Reaper King is a nice bit of tech, but the power level of the format was high enough that it falls well short of being broken.

6) Reyemile : "Monowhite"
Black Lotus / Pact of Negation / Celestial Dawn / Platinum Angel / Mycosynth Lattice
This deck is a work of art. I love it!

7) piato : "I'll Have Whatever She's Having"
Leyline of Lifeforce / Ancient Den / Phyrexian Metamorph / Phyrexian Metamorph / Iona, Shield of Emeria
Clever! Took me a moment to even understand how you cast Iona here! Metamorph is a nice option to have, but sadly not many players submitted good targets for it.

8) aurorasparrow : "Emerian Revolution"
Island / Ertai’s Meddling / Black Lotus / Iona, Shield of Emeria / Martial Coup
This seems like a good way to build an Emeria deck, but it's still quite a bit weaker on the draw, which may be a problem.

9) Feyd Ruin : "I Have a Quagnoth and I'm Not Afraid to Use It!"
Elvish Spirit Guide / Karakas / Leyline of Singularity / Phyrexian Metamorph / Quagnoth
This looks as though you were anticipating discard? I admit to being puzzled by your choice of threat.

10) Mogg : "In Response, Infinite Saprolings"
Basking Rootwalla / Foil / Graypelt Refuge / Sprout Swarm / Tundra
Rootwalla! Very nice! This comes very close to being an "I broke the format" deck, but several players saw the token swarm thing coming and brought their leylines. Despite this you might still win...

11) knobbodi : "Many burst, such flying spaghetti monster":
Gemstone Cavern / Volcanic Island / Spell Burst / Through the Breach / Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
The potential is there, but this looks a little awkward. Not being able to hold up Spell Burst and send Emrakul at the same time might result in a lot of draws.

For reference:
4 Leyline of Lifeforce/Cavern of Souls/Quagnoth
3 Black Lotus
3 Iona, Shield of Emeria
3 Leyline of Singularity
2 Karakas
2 Token decks
2 Counterspell on the draw
2 Phyrexian Metamorph

It seems like Karakas and/or Simian Spirit Guide/Artifact Blast might be a good place to start.

Black Lotus / Iona, Shield of Emeria / Elvish Spirit Guide / Manamorphose / Draining Whelk

1. Iona shuts down, and/or Whelk stops the Aluren. +6
2. Take the loss.
3. Iona-Black locks. +6
4. 10/10 whelk beats 7/7 iona (he gets counters even if no counterspell) +6
5. Name red on play. +2
6. Iona on play. +2
7. 10/10 whelk wins. +6
8. Split. +2
9. Take the loss.
0. Iona green. Whelk the foil. +6
1. Can't burst and breach. +2

Hmm.. that's only 38 points.
Just a little better if I'd gone with this one.
(It was my 2nd choice deck)
Will have to try again.


EDIT:

Lets look at:
Mishra's Workshop / Painter's Servant / Kozilek, Butcher of Truth / Leyline of Lifeforce / Spine of Ish-Ash
(Another contender I had in mind)
(Painter makes the 10 drop kozilek colored, which makes him 10 mana less)

1. Instant-speed Loss
2. Spine hits Karakas. Koz annihilates. +6
3. Spine + Annihilation +6
4. Choose the color Iona doesn't. +6
5. 2-Vindicates-Loss
6. Time stamp makes them the color I choose. +6
7. Choose a different color, swing first against Metamorph. +6
8. Coup loss.
9. Spine karakas, Annihilate. +6
0. Swarm loss.
1. Tie via Spine the land, so no land. +2

Again.. 38 points :/

Painter's Servant was banned for this week.

whoops.
Glad I didn't go with that then lol

(Maybe that's why I decided not to.. and have since forgot )

Quote from Feyd_Ruin

Black Lotus / Iona, Shield of Emeria / Elvish Spirit Guide / Manamorphose / Draining Whelk
...
0. Iona green. Whelk the foil. +6

I Foil Iona. If you Whelk the Foil, I get to make infinite tokens. If you Whelk the Rootwalla, Iona is countered, and I make infinite tokens later. If you don't Whelk, then I win with Rootwalla.

Quote from aurorasparrow

It seems like Karakas and/or Simian Spirit Guide/Artifact Blast might be a good place to start.

Either of those approaches is probably too narrow to get the results you're looking for.

Elvish Spirit Guide / Manamorphose / Mindbreak Trap / Reaper King / Reaper King

Reaper King effectively has Grandeur - Vindicate. Entering this deck as deck 12 gives:

X| 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 |
2| 6 6 2 6 2 0 6 0 6 6 6 X | 46

I feel like there has to be a Beacon of Tommorrows deck I'm missing.


Gemstone Cavern OR Mox Sapphire
Island
Bacon of Tommy
Protection
Wincon

Does that do anything? I tried to make this work, but ended up just going with that Iona deck.

Sadly, infinite turns counts as winning before their second turn (unless you can't win without letting them have that many turns), which makes that a bit of a non-starter.

Hrm, suppose so