Has anyone made the statistics of cantrip vs no-cantrip version of this deck? Because I've heard people complaining a lot that usually you cantrip to find mana, so it's better to run mana instead.
I agree that for the most part the no-cantrip strategy is interesting. However if you run some kind of protection like Pact of Negation then cantrips start getting more interesting, while chancellors gets less attractive, since you could end drawing some while cantripping.
Why this is important? Because basically each mana generator we have makes 1 mana per card (if you count that Dark Ritual generates 2 we have Chrome Mox that eats 1 card, so they compensate each other). So in general we would want 4 mana generator and one Spy/Informer in hand. That alone makes 5 cards, that's why this deck suffers a lot from inconsistency, because we are trying to do a turn 1 kill and for this to happen we need 5 cards on our opening 7. Cantrips can help making this possible, but you can also end up drawing some combo piece, which can be deadly. What I'd like to know is if the probability of drawing a good cards while cantripping is much higher than drawing a bad card and if that could compensate compared to simply mulliganing in a no-cantrip version.
Using the most recently list I saw scrolling back, we have the following ratio of cards in the deck:
4 Dead Cards (Chancellor of the Tangle) 6.6%
8 Burritos (Spy or Informer) 13.3%
20 Accelerators 33.3%
8 Cantrip 13.3%
9 Fixing 15%
11 Other Combo pieces 18.3%
The Chancellor of the Tangle, wasn't sure how to classify that but definitely useless to cantrip into.
So, it's definitely better to keep a hand with cantrips hoping to cycle into an accelerator than it is to hope to cycle into a Burrito (Spy or Informer).
That said I'm not a fan of this because why not just replace those cantrips with what you want? Tinder Walls and Grim Monolith's fill the role of what you want to cantrip into in a huge number of cases anyway. All the Wraith's and GitProbes have done here is made mulliganing decisions really dicey.
Leave one Street Wraith in to do the Underworld Cerberus kill with and away we go...
Actually cantrips can be tricky because you need to do lots of math to guess if it's worth or not keeping the hand. The thing is, if you don't run cantrips what can you do? Mulligan till 4 then scoop because you didn't have the cards?
This combo is a little harder than it looks because it's not about generating 4, but 3B. This makes a lot of difference. You just cannot group cards like "mana" cards because there are tons of cases where you can get 4 mana but lack the black one. Black mana can only be generated by lotus petal, chrome mox pitching a black card or manamorphose/wild cantor. That's what make this deck inconsistent, if you run some grim monolith and tinder wall there will be cases where you just won't have any black card to pitch for mox or you wont have the G needed to cast the wall.
you rez the cerberus, then kill it with therapy and get back all your dudes. Spirit guides and wild cantor (which you get in your hand when cerberus dies) cast your lab man. Street wraith (also in your hand thanks to cerberus) give you the draw trigger to win.
I really like the Cerberus option as it gets to play one less card, no Azami or Angel needed. But what to add in? I'm thinking more black filter is required, especially in the one drop slot, and since beside black we generate red and green, a second wild cantor? Also, is bridge from below no longer needed in the Cerberus builds? It would be used only for therapy-ing your opponent before dread return to get a counter spell or removal out, and that would realistically require a third therapy for the Cerberus.
Yes, but the ability to add one more mana fixer such as wild cantor or metamorphose makes the combo easier to get off, or one more narcomoeba makes it so that you don't lose due to those undercity informer/one narcomoeba hands.
someone went 3-1 on Mtgo this week. The chancellors are interesting, good in multiples but a brick after turn 0. Especially with the 4 gprobes, I don't know how good it is. I keep mine in the side, for games 2-3 when I'm on the draw against decks with duress/thoughtsieze. And what purpose does the 4 leyline of the void serve? Surely the mirror isn't that prevalent?
actually running a living wish build w/ cerberus kill, i wondered, could it be a strategy to just dump all sideboard into the main deck and just try and beatdown?
this is my decklist
from my (limited) experience, there are really few decks that have an answer to magus of the moon (especially if they sided in counters or grave hate instead of removal). any opinions?
While brainstorming earlier today, I realized that a possible line of play was to use pact for elvish aberration. This is significant because it opens up the possibility for testing land grant (10 ways to search for). While gold-fishing, I also noticed that living wish was an additional out to not being able find bayou. My updated past in flames list is below but can probably still be improved on. Land grant might be ok in the traditional dread return version but doesn't take advantage of LED as well. Here is my list below. I only included the sideboard cards I think are absolutely necessary. Cabal therapy is boarded in post-board games to try to steal a game from bad blue players waiting to counter after you've milled your deck. This is relevant because 7/11 of the win-cons are balustrade spy. The rationale behind the other sideboard cards are fairly straight-forward.
got first place in a small tournament, feels awesome to wreck thousand of dollars decks
as long as the opponent doesn't land hate in form of artifact or enchantment, or surgical extraction, the deck is just fine.
i'll be trying the full 4x cabal and 4x unmask, or add 2 pact of negation main to deal with instant threats, but resolved permanents are going to be trouble anyway (and my only out is to living wish for ingot chewer and cast it, for artifacts). unmask main is the only reason i keep running deathrite, as it can make a black card out of summoner's pact.
other than that, speed kills!
Gold Fish total of 60 times
66.67% chance to combo-off with cards in In hand or +1 Draw
11.67% chance to combo-off with +2 or +3 Draw
21.67% Fizzle Rate
Fizzle Reasons
1. 10% chance to never draw a usable mana producing combo after 3 draws
2. 8.33% chance to never draw spy/informer after 3 draws
3. 3.33% chance to draw into 2+ narco's after 2 draws
Gold Fish total of 100 times
63% chance to combo-off with cards in hand or +1 Draw
24% chance to combo-Off with +2 or +3 Draw
13% Fizzle Rate
Fizzle Reasons
1. 11% chance to never draw a usable mana producing combo after 3 draws
2. 2% chance to never draw miller after 3 draws
3. 1% chance to draw into 2+ narco's after 2 draws
Overview:
1. Deck 1 is the cheapest cost to put together, but seems to fizzle out almost 1 of 5 games. Not something I would enjoy doing personally.
2. MY Personal favorite is Deck 2 so far, Its in the middle of the three when it comes to cost to purchase and gave pretty decent stats.
3. Deck 3 puts up the same stats as deck 2, but has a higher price tag. Also to note, Lion's Eye Diamond / Living Wish / Infernal Tutor combo doesn't seem to happen very often, and all three cards are generally not very good by themselves.
It was a nice 3 hour drive to the shop, but I had nothing else going on that day. 21 players showed up, probably average for the legacy scene most places. Five rounds of swiss with cut to top 8. I decided to make a small change to the deck, going 4-1 vice the 3-2 split on narcomeobas/dread return. Its more resilient and consistent I believe. The correct play for the opponent, when they have priority resolving the second narcomeoba, is to bolt or swords the first one, in case one (UCI) or two (BSS) get stuck in your hand, then you won't be able to dread return without playing another creature, which buys them time. The disadvantage is that you cut down on the number of black sources in the deck for chrome mox and if they counter or deathrite the dread return you are SOOL. But if they have an active deathrite they may be able to stop you anyway by eating the lab maniac or the underworld cerberus. However, it doesn't hurt as much when you draw the UCI/Narc nombo, unless you draw two narcs, which is most irritating.
Match 1: Eric, on MUD 1-0
A pretty easy matchup G1, gotta watch out for that trinisphere. Post-board I was hoping he would side in GY Hate, he did, but I didn't see any the second game and won that too. Game one was a T3 kill with UCI, Game two I risked not siding anything because I was ahead a game, it paid off when turn one I street wraithed into the card I needed to go off.
Match 2: John, on Jund 2-0
The only thing I'm worried about here is discard, but since it only slows me down and doesn't stop me, it can be pretty easily played around. Game one it took me a bit to get started, was a little mana shy, but I one it with BSS on turn 4 with no disruption. Game two I didn't bother siding again, as Jund isn't blue, plays a minimum of GY hate beyond deathrite and golgari charm kills goblin tokens real good. Didn't matter, T1 from a BSS.
Match 3: Matt, on Esper Deathblade 3-0
Game one, just not able to put anything together, not for lack of trying. Turn 5 I concede and he shows me the two dazes and a force and brainstorm. Really crappy luck on my part. Game two same thing, I waited till turn two to try to force it with manamorphosing after summoner's pacting for an ESG, I had sideboarded and needed a dark ritual or LED for the belcher in hand, or an empty the warrens. I ended up two mana short and two cards in the GY short for threshhold with the cabal rituals I was holding. Glass cannon blew up in my face. However, Matt had to drop due to family business and very kindly gave me the win.
ID to top 8. Yaaay. I love sitting around for two hours doing nothing. More than two actually, since there was a 'twenty minute' break for food between rounds 4 and 5. Who has EVER heard of such a thing? I knows its 'the south' but is it possible to go a few hours with stuffing your face? This was in addition to starting 45 minutes late, and having two rounds go 15-20 minutes late, pack a sandwich, granola bar and an apple along with a bottle of water if you need to. Embarrassing for a competitive level event.
Top 8, I'm second seed and get paired against James, with Dredge. MANALESS Dredge. Easy, right? I'm two turns faster on average, and he has no meaningful interaction. Wrong. Game one, turn three, I'm stuck waiting on mana AGAIN and I get flamekinned to death. Game two, turn one BSS like it's supposed to happen, but now, I HAVE to win game three. I side out the four pacts and side in the four G-probes for consistency, thinking he has really nothing to side in. Turn one I probe him to see a surgical extraction lying in wait. Well, shoot. If I go with it I'll be ruined the instant I try to dread return. I could wait to get one more mana and find a cabal therapy, but he might draw another one or kill me. T2 I drop a undercity informer out of my hand so it won't get cabal therapied from him, and pass the turn with a summoner's pact in hand. I realize if I had just used the pact for an ESG to activate the UCI and targetted him, I would have WON, but it's too late, he's on the attack step. I get hit for a bunch, but not lethal, so I draw, pact, activate UCI to dump HIS graveyard, and he goes Shogun with a street wraith the mirror image of my usual wincon. Remember, for the mirror and other manaless decks, you can target your opponent with UCI or BSS to win, don't forget!
Top 4 was a split, $62.5 and twelve packs or worthless M15. Seriously, is that one bad core set. We play it out for the invintational, and I'm sitting across from John on Esper Stoneblade. Game one Turn 3 I win with UCI and pact the force that came down. Game two, I've sideboared in the full monty, and he procedes to drop a meddling mage on dread return, a meddling mage on goblin charbelcher (which I was going to cast the next turn), a RIP, and when I try for empty the warrens, he has the one-of flusterstorm. What a great hand. However, he wasn't sure what I sided, as evident from the RIP and Med. Mage naming dread return, so I side back IN to the combo. I'm shooting to go off, street wraith an extra card that has to be anything, anything other than a combo piece to win and...it's a narcomeoba. Of course it is.
Props: Saw some great plays, had a blast at the first real outing with this deck, had some good discussions with my fellow players, most of them there were really cool.
Chops: Look fellas, it's a competitive level event. Show up on time. Start the event on time. No 'breaks' what is this, kindergarten? We are all adults, the youngest person there was maybe 20, it's time for Magic (especially LEGACY) players to act like it. That said, I know its the deep south in deep summer, but for god's sake, BATHE. I drove three hours and woke up at 6am to make it an hour before the posted start time and I still showered and used deodorant. The BO was RANK. One guy smelled like he straight took a dive into the piss ocean, it was rankling whenever he just walked near. Luckily we never played. Folks that make Scott Kurtz look like a neglected puppy. Dirt in neck folds. I seriously had to take trips outside between rounds just to get some fresh air. Vile.
Experienced some awful luck overall, way fewer T1 kills than is normal, overall I'm still happy with the deck and looking forward to playing it more often.
*PS I knew it was going to be one 'those' days when I walked in and saw a fedora on a tabletop. Sigh.
Quizzle, that was a very well written and thought out post, I liked it a lot. I too have given thought to running the three-two spilt of narc/bridge, most likely cutting my singleton monolith to add a fourth therapy. The storm-belcher sideboard gets around their sideboard plans nicely as empty the warrens gets around counters and belcher dodges gy hate, though they don't always work well together. The combo usually isn't as fast but that's ok since you've mostly lost the element of surprise by then, likewise top 8s are hard because by that point your secret is out. On the subject of labman, I had someone try to counter him with a reb/pyroblast but luckily I had the pact in hand.
I've been flirting with the idea of putting this deck together as an entry point into legacy. I came up with a list last night and ran out some sample hands. What do you guys think?
I chose the Angel combo because of my perception that it's more resilient to spot removal (bolt, StP, etc) than the Ghoul or Cerberus. Wasn't entirely sure what to do with the board so I just stuffed it with answers to specific hate pieces (the second combo being the answer to Surgical Extraction). I still don't know what to do about Thalia. Just hope she never hits the field?
to be honest, the best way the deck works is winning on the first turn. unless your opponent has access to blue, you should be safe going off later too (the other decks that have mainboard answers is white stax with thalia).
you shouldn't really care this much about removal, with the 3-2 configuration of narcomoeba and bridge from below you should be firing cabal therapies like candy to get rid of them.
you are tight only in the rare situation in which you have a narcomoeba and a bridge in hand, as your opponent can cast removal on their own creature to exile the bridges and leave you with 2 creatures only.
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Using the most recently list I saw scrolling back, we have the following ratio of cards in the deck:
4 Dead Cards (Chancellor of the Tangle) 6.6%
8 Burritos (Spy or Informer) 13.3%
20 Accelerators 33.3%
8 Cantrip 13.3%
9 Fixing 15%
11 Other Combo pieces 18.3%
The Chancellor of the Tangle, wasn't sure how to classify that but definitely useless to cantrip into.
So, it's definitely better to keep a hand with cantrips hoping to cycle into an accelerator than it is to hope to cycle into a Burrito (Spy or Informer).
That said I'm not a fan of this because why not just replace those cantrips with what you want? Tinder Walls and Grim Monolith's fill the role of what you want to cantrip into in a huge number of cases anyway. All the Wraith's and GitProbes have done here is made mulliganing decisions really dicey.
Leave one Street Wraith in to do the Underworld Cerberus kill with and away we go...
This combo is a little harder than it looks because it's not about generating 4, but 3B. This makes a lot of difference. You just cannot group cards like "mana" cards because there are tons of cases where you can get 4 mana but lack the black one. Black mana can only be generated by lotus petal, chrome mox pitching a black card or manamorphose/wild cantor. That's what make this deck inconsistent, if you run some grim monolith and tinder wall there will be cases where you just won't have any black card to pitch for mox or you wont have the G needed to cast the wall.
Grim monolith is probably the weakest card in the main.
I have no problem with this. Very consistent, mulls down to three even. The issue is the sideboard. Currently running a reactionary board to gy hate.
4 leyline of sanctity
4 natures claim
4 chancellor of the annex
3 gitaxian probe
Probe is for decks that I know aren't going to reliably disrupt the combo. It's pretty dead.
If I wanted to go for a board into belcher, it's 4 belcher, 4 led, and 7 other...what?
"There are no two words in the English language more harmful than 'good job'." -Terrance Fletcher, Whiplash (2014)
Care to explain?
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"There are no two words in the English language more harmful than 'good job'." -Terrance Fletcher, Whiplash (2014)
Like Squandered Resources on Facebook for updates on article releases, deck lists, and more!
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Can't an active Deathrite Shaman still nail the Cerberus in response to Dread Return? (Surgical Extraction nailing Dread Return can be cast in response to Cabal Therapy, so you'll likely need Pact of Negation for that...)
I'll post my revised list later.
4 Summoner's Pact
1 Dread Return
4 Dark Ritual
2 Cabal Therapy
4 Cabal Ritual
1 Bridge from Below
4 Pact of Negation
4 Manamorphose
1 Worldly Tutor
4 Chrome Mox
4 Undercity Informer
3 Narcomoeba
1 Laboratory Maniac
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Balustrade Spy
2 Wild Cantor
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Street Wraith
1 Underworld Cerberus
3 Goblin Charbelcher
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Empty the Warrens
4 Chancellor of the Annex
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
1 Laboratory Maniac
4 Narcomoeba
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Street Wraith
4 Undercity Informer
1 Underworld Cerberus
2 Wild Cantor
4 Cabal Ritual
2 Cabal Therapy
4 Chrome Mox
4 Dark Ritual
1 Dread Return
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Lotus Petal
2 Manamorphose
1 Pact of Negation
2 Summoner's Pact
1 Ingot Chewer
4 Leyline of Sanctity
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Nature's Claim
3 Pact of Negation
someone went 3-1 on Mtgo this week. The chancellors are interesting, good in multiples but a brick after turn 0. Especially with the 4 gprobes, I don't know how good it is. I keep mine in the side, for games 2-3 when I'm on the draw against decks with duress/thoughtsieze. And what purpose does the 4 leyline of the void serve? Surely the mirror isn't that prevalent?
this is my decklist
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Summoner's Pact
1 Wild Cantor
4 Lotus Petal
4 Chrome Mox
4 Dark Ritual
4 Cabal Ritual
3 Unmask
3 Cabal Therapy
1 deathrite shaman
4 Living Wish
3 Balustrade Spy
4 Undercity Informer
3 Narcomoeba
2 Bridge from Below
1 Dread Return
1 Underworld Cerebrus
1 Laboratory Maniac
1 Street Wraith
1 Balustrade Spy
1 City of Brass
1 swamp
1 ebon stronghold
1 Hickory Woodlot
1 cavern of souls
1 ingot chewer
1 desecration demon
3 magus of the moon
4 Xantid Swarm
from my (limited) experience, there are really few decks that have an answer to magus of the moon (especially if they sided in counters or grave hate instead of removal). any opinions?
4 Lotus Petal
4 Chrome Mox
2 Grim Monolith
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Dark Ritual
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Chancellor of the Tangle
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Summoner's Pact
1 Wild Cantor
1 Elvish Aberration
4 Land Grant
1 Bayou
4 Undercity Informer
3 Balustrade Spy
4 Living Wish
//Combo Pieces
1 Memory's Journey
1 Deep Analysis
1 Past in Flames
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Balustrade Spy
1 Swamp
1 Geothermal Crevice
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Cabal Therapy
1 Tomb of Urami
1 Magus of the Moon
as long as the opponent doesn't land hate in form of artifact or enchantment, or surgical extraction, the deck is just fine.
i'll be trying the full 4x cabal and 4x unmask, or add 2 pact of negation main to deal with instant threats, but resolved permanents are going to be trouble anyway (and my only out is to living wish for ingot chewer and cast it, for artifacts). unmask main is the only reason i keep running deathrite, as it can make a black card out of summoner's pact.
other than that, speed kills!
Deck 1: Cheap Deck
*Deck Highlights:
1. 12 free search cards (Gitaxian Probe / Street Wraith / Manamorphose) make this basically a 48 card deck.
2. This uses the Balustrade Spy or Undercity Informer targeting yourself combined with Dread Return / Underworld Cerberus / Cabal Therapy / Laboratory Maniac / Street Wraith combo to win.
4 Balustrade Spy
4 Undercity Informer
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Simian Spirit Guide
2 Wild Cantor
4 Street Wraith
4 Narcomoeba
1 Underworld Cerberus
1 Laboratory Maniac
3 Cabal Therapy
1 Dread Return
Instant (20)
4 Summoner's Pact
4 Dark Ritual
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Manamorphose
4 Gitaxian Probe
Artifact (8)
4 Chrome Mox
4 Lotus Petal
4 Chancellor of the Annex
4 Pact of Negation
4 Nature's Claim
2 Cabal Therapy
Gold Fish total of 60 times
66.67% chance to combo-off with cards in In hand or +1 Draw
11.67% chance to combo-off with +2 or +3 Draw
21.67% Fizzle Rate
Fizzle Reasons
1. 10% chance to never draw a usable mana producing combo after 3 draws
2. 8.33% chance to never draw spy/informer after 3 draws
3. 3.33% chance to draw into 2+ narco's after 2 draws
Deck 2: Mid-Cost Deck
*Deck Highlights:
1. This deck has more mana sources, but no free draw engines.
2. This deck uses 0 drop's Memnite and Ornithopter to activate Mox Opal and be sac outlets to Culling the Weak and Dread Return.
3. This uses the Balustrade Spy or Undercity Informer targeting yourself combined with Dread Return / Angel of Glory's Rise / Azami, Lady of Scrolls / Laboratory Maniac combo to win.
4 Balustrade Spy
4 Undercity Informer
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Wild Cantor
3 Narcomoeba
4 Ornithopter
4 Memnite
1 Angel of Glory's Rise
1 Laboratory Maniac
1 Azami, Lady of Scrolls
1 Dread Return
1 Cabal Therapy
Instant (12)
4 Summoner's Pact
4 Dark Ritual
4 Culling the Weak
Artifact (12)
4 Chrome Mox
4 Lotus Petal
4 Mox Opal
4 Chancellor of the Annex
4 Pact of Negation
4 Nature's Claim
3 Cabal Therapy
Gold Fish total of 60 times
63.33% chance to combo-off with cards in hand or +1 Draw
23.33% chance to combo-off with +2 or +3 Draw
13.33% Fizzle Rate
Fizzle Reasons
1. 8.33% chance to never draw spy/informer after 3 draws
2. 5% chance to never draw a usable mana producing combo after 3 draws
Deck 3: Expensive Deck
*Deck Highlights
1. This deck exploits Lion's Eye Diamond / Living Wish / Infernal Tutor combo for some interesting turn 1's.
2. Lion's Eye Diamond is a good at baiting out Force of Will.
3. This uses the Balustrade Spy or Undercity Informer targeting yourself combined with Dread Return / Angel of Glory's Rise / Azami, Lady of Scrolls / Laboratory Maniac combo to win.
4 Balustrade Spy
3 Undercity Informer
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Wild Cantor
4 Narcomoeba
1 Angel of Glory's Rise
1 Laboratory Maniac
1 Azami, Lady of Scrolls
4 Infernal Tutor
4 Living Wish
1 Dread Return
1 Cabal Therapy
Instant (12)
4 Summoner's Pact
4 Dark Ritual
4 Cabal Ritual
Artifact (12)
4 Chrome Mox
4 Lotus Petal
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Chancellor of the Annex
4 Pact of Negation
4 Nature's Claim
1 Bayou
1 Undercity Informer
1 Dread Return
Gold Fish total of 100 times
63% chance to combo-off with cards in hand or +1 Draw
24% chance to combo-Off with +2 or +3 Draw
13% Fizzle Rate
Fizzle Reasons
1. 11% chance to never draw a usable mana producing combo after 3 draws
2. 2% chance to never draw miller after 3 draws
3. 1% chance to draw into 2+ narco's after 2 draws
Overview:
1. Deck 1 is the cheapest cost to put together, but seems to fizzle out almost 1 of 5 games. Not something I would enjoy doing personally.
2. MY Personal favorite is Deck 2 so far, Its in the middle of the three when it comes to cost to purchase and gave pretty decent stats.
3. Deck 3 puts up the same stats as deck 2, but has a higher price tag. Also to note, Lion's Eye Diamond / Living Wish / Infernal Tutor combo doesn't seem to happen very often, and all three cards are generally not very good by themselves.
Any thoughts or comments?
Thanks,
I haven't played this deck a lot (very new to it), so was curious why a second wasn't added. It's probably obvious to everyone besides me lol.
Cabal Therapy naming Force of Will before casting Dread Return just in case.
Taking this bad boy to its first big tourny, an SCG Legacy IQ this weekend.
*Four LED's in the sideboard will be altered soon, all foiled except for the four ESG, which are german and signed by julie baroh.
It was a nice 3 hour drive to the shop, but I had nothing else going on that day. 21 players showed up, probably average for the legacy scene most places. Five rounds of swiss with cut to top 8. I decided to make a small change to the deck, going 4-1 vice the 3-2 split on narcomeobas/dread return. Its more resilient and consistent I believe. The correct play for the opponent, when they have priority resolving the second narcomeoba, is to bolt or swords the first one, in case one (UCI) or two (BSS) get stuck in your hand, then you won't be able to dread return without playing another creature, which buys them time. The disadvantage is that you cut down on the number of black sources in the deck for chrome mox and if they counter or deathrite the dread return you are SOOL. But if they have an active deathrite they may be able to stop you anyway by eating the lab maniac or the underworld cerberus. However, it doesn't hurt as much when you draw the UCI/Narc nombo, unless you draw two narcs, which is most irritating.
Match 1: Eric, on MUD 1-0
A pretty easy matchup G1, gotta watch out for that trinisphere. Post-board I was hoping he would side in GY Hate, he did, but I didn't see any the second game and won that too. Game one was a T3 kill with UCI, Game two I risked not siding anything because I was ahead a game, it paid off when turn one I street wraithed into the card I needed to go off.
Match 2: John, on Jund 2-0
The only thing I'm worried about here is discard, but since it only slows me down and doesn't stop me, it can be pretty easily played around. Game one it took me a bit to get started, was a little mana shy, but I one it with BSS on turn 4 with no disruption. Game two I didn't bother siding again, as Jund isn't blue, plays a minimum of GY hate beyond deathrite and golgari charm kills goblin tokens real good. Didn't matter, T1 from a BSS.
Match 3: Matt, on Esper Deathblade 3-0
Game one, just not able to put anything together, not for lack of trying. Turn 5 I concede and he shows me the two dazes and a force and brainstorm. Really crappy luck on my part. Game two same thing, I waited till turn two to try to force it with manamorphosing after summoner's pacting for an ESG, I had sideboarded and needed a dark ritual or LED for the belcher in hand, or an empty the warrens. I ended up two mana short and two cards in the GY short for threshhold with the cabal rituals I was holding. Glass cannon blew up in my face. However, Matt had to drop due to family business and very kindly gave me the win.
ID to top 8. Yaaay. I love sitting around for two hours doing nothing. More than two actually, since there was a 'twenty minute' break for food between rounds 4 and 5. Who has EVER heard of such a thing? I knows its 'the south' but is it possible to go a few hours with stuffing your face? This was in addition to starting 45 minutes late, and having two rounds go 15-20 minutes late, pack a sandwich, granola bar and an apple along with a bottle of water if you need to. Embarrassing for a competitive level event.
Top 8, I'm second seed and get paired against James, with Dredge. MANALESS Dredge. Easy, right? I'm two turns faster on average, and he has no meaningful interaction. Wrong. Game one, turn three, I'm stuck waiting on mana AGAIN and I get flamekinned to death. Game two, turn one BSS like it's supposed to happen, but now, I HAVE to win game three. I side out the four pacts and side in the four G-probes for consistency, thinking he has really nothing to side in. Turn one I probe him to see a surgical extraction lying in wait. Well, shoot. If I go with it I'll be ruined the instant I try to dread return. I could wait to get one more mana and find a cabal therapy, but he might draw another one or kill me. T2 I drop a undercity informer out of my hand so it won't get cabal therapied from him, and pass the turn with a summoner's pact in hand. I realize if I had just used the pact for an ESG to activate the UCI and targetted him, I would have WON, but it's too late, he's on the attack step. I get hit for a bunch, but not lethal, so I draw, pact, activate UCI to dump HIS graveyard, and he goes Shogun with a street wraith the mirror image of my usual wincon. Remember, for the mirror and other manaless decks, you can target your opponent with UCI or BSS to win, don't forget!
Top 4 was a split, $62.5 and twelve packs or worthless M15. Seriously, is that one bad core set. We play it out for the invintational, and I'm sitting across from John on Esper Stoneblade. Game one Turn 3 I win with UCI and pact the force that came down. Game two, I've sideboared in the full monty, and he procedes to drop a meddling mage on dread return, a meddling mage on goblin charbelcher (which I was going to cast the next turn), a RIP, and when I try for empty the warrens, he has the one-of flusterstorm. What a great hand. However, he wasn't sure what I sided, as evident from the RIP and Med. Mage naming dread return, so I side back IN to the combo. I'm shooting to go off, street wraith an extra card that has to be anything, anything other than a combo piece to win and...it's a narcomeoba. Of course it is.
Props: Saw some great plays, had a blast at the first real outing with this deck, had some good discussions with my fellow players, most of them there were really cool.
Chops: Look fellas, it's a competitive level event. Show up on time. Start the event on time. No 'breaks' what is this, kindergarten? We are all adults, the youngest person there was maybe 20, it's time for Magic (especially LEGACY) players to act like it. That said, I know its the deep south in deep summer, but for god's sake, BATHE. I drove three hours and woke up at 6am to make it an hour before the posted start time and I still showered and used deodorant. The BO was RANK. One guy smelled like he straight took a dive into the piss ocean, it was rankling whenever he just walked near. Luckily we never played. Folks that make Scott Kurtz look like a neglected puppy. Dirt in neck folds. I seriously had to take trips outside between rounds just to get some fresh air. Vile.
Experienced some awful luck overall, way fewer T1 kills than is normal, overall I'm still happy with the deck and looking forward to playing it more often.
*PS I knew it was going to be one 'those' days when I walked in and saw a fedora on a tabletop. Sigh.
4 Chrome Mox
4 Lotus Petal
//Creature (28)
1 Angel of Glory's Rise
1 Azami, Lady of Scrolls
4 Balustrade Spy
1 Chancellor of the Annex
4 Chancellor of the Tangle
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
1 Laboratory Maniac
2 Narcomoeba
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Undercity Informer
2 Wild Cantor
3 Bridge from Below
//Instant (17)
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Dark Ritual
2 Manamorphose
3 Pact of Negation
4 Summoner's Pact
//Sorcery (4)
3 Cabal Therapy
1 Dread Return
1 Dragon Breath
1 Dread Return
4 Slaughter Pact
4 Mindbreak Trap
4 Nature's Claim
1 Sutured Ghoul
I chose the Angel combo because of my perception that it's more resilient to spot removal (bolt, StP, etc) than the Ghoul or Cerberus. Wasn't entirely sure what to do with the board so I just stuffed it with answers to specific hate pieces (the second combo being the answer to Surgical Extraction). I still don't know what to do about Thalia. Just hope she never hits the field?
Pauper: Burn
Modern: Burn
Legacy: Burn
EDH: Marath, Will of the Wild - Ramp/Combo | Anafenza the Foremost - French | Uril, the Miststalker - Voltron | Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury - Goodstuff
Ghost Council of Orzhov - Tokens | Lazav, Dimir Mastermind - Control | Isamaru, Hound of Konda - Tiny Leaders
you shouldn't really care this much about removal, with the 3-2 configuration of narcomoeba and bridge from below you should be firing cabal therapies like candy to get rid of them.
you are tight only in the rare situation in which you have a narcomoeba and a bridge in hand, as your opponent can cast removal on their own creature to exile the bridges and leave you with 2 creatures only.