Hey guys. This is a semi new deck idea I have finally refined to the point of playability. I actually posted a thread asking for help with this deck a little while ago so this wouldn't be possible without you guys. Thank you.
What is Levelatory Combo?
Levelatory Combo is a deck that focuses on the interaction between the two cards Labratory Maniac and Leveler. In fact, the name of this deck is a combination of the name of those two cards. Labratory Maniac allows you to automatically win when you attempt to draw a card and there is nothing in your library. Leveler exiles your library. See where this is going? It runs some other cards to support this, like Heartless Summoning, Gitaxian Probe, and Serum Visions, all which help in their own way. I will explain why those cards in a bit.
Why Run Levelatory Combo?
Well first off, it's a fun deck to play. There's nothing like the feeling of shocking your opponent by comboing out of nowhere in one turn. Also, it's an original deck idea by me, meaning that your opponents will likely have never faced anything like it, and will misplay, as well as not have any appropriate sideboard. Lastly, it's also pretty cheap. It's only about $400, and can be made much cheaper easily by excluding the fetches/shocks.
Does this sound cool to you? Here's the basic decklist:
Now, this does not have to look like your decklist. This is just the basics. Here is a rundown of every card in the deck, it's place, and how many I recommend running.
Land:
Drowned Catacomb Because we run a lot of basics, this card typically comes into play untapped. Run 2-4, depending on how many basics you are running.
Halimar Depths: This card doesn't see very much play, which surprises me. It's basically Ponder, without the parts that make it broken. But it's stapled onto a land for your convienence. Run 2, as they ETB tapped and multiples aren't great.
Island/Swamp: This deck runs a fairly high amount of basics because well...we can. Not a whole lot of mana fixing is needed, as this deck is primarily blue, with only a few black cards. There is a lot of wiggle room when it comes to these, but I recommend running about 7-9 total.
Polluted Delta: Ahh, fetches. These are about 50 dollars a piece though, so feel free to cut these to save some moola. Run as many of these as you can afford.
Temple of Deceit: Ideally, you can get one of these out early when you don't card about it entering tapped. It's ability is very relevant for combo, however if you're not careful it can throw off your tempo. Run 2-3.
Watery Grave: You can't go wrong with shock lands. Except you can in this situation, as you want to try to hold on to as much of your life as possible so your opponent doesn't kill you before you can combo out. Run up to 3, depending on your local metagame. If you don't know it, 1-2 is a safe bet.
Creatures:
Batterskull:
In case we can't find our combo, this thing is here to provide us with a beater, gain us some life, and hold the opponent off until we find both pieces of the combo. It's situational though. Run 0-2.
Spellskite: Aside from our two combo cards, this may be the most essential card in our deck. Screws up the game plan of aura based decks like Bogle and Twin, slows down burn, and can eat removal like a pro. Often times, it's what you need to hold off your opponent enough to combo. Run 4.
Street Wraith: Technically this is a creature, but we are really only gonna use this for cycling. Basically these are extra Gitaxian Probes. Run 2.
Utility
Dig Through Time:
Lets us dig for our combo. We really don't dump that much in our graveyard, so realistically the earliest we can cast this is right around the time we would combo off. But if we are missing one piece, this is super handy. Run 1-2.
Doom Blade: Effiecient black removal that hits most things and isn't double black. Run 1-3.
Heartless Summoning:
We don't care about the stats of our creature at all, so this card is amazing. Let's you put down both parts of your combo and then cantrip your way to victory as early as turn 4. Run 4.
Inquisition of Kozilek/Thoughtseize:
These type of cards aren't great in this kind of deck, but they still can help discard removal or scary creatures. Whichever of these you run is mainly preference. Run 0-3 of these total depending on your build.
Mana Leak:
Because counterspell isn't modern legal. This ain't great, but it works, though we don't like to have to leave mana open. Run 0-2.
Mirror of Fate:
It will always cost 5 mana, but you can't run more then 4 Levelers anyway. Run 3-4.
Mizzium Skin:
One mana to protect our combo? Hell yeah! Run 2-3.
Pact of Negation:
This is pretty much only for when you're sure you're combo out this turn. But if you are, then hey, it's a 0 mana counterspell. Run 0-1.
Pentad Prism:
Because mana dorks don't come in black, this is the best we got. Run 1-3.
Since this is a new deck idea, there aren't any other deck lists to show then my own, but I hope you guys like this idea and experiment around with this yourselves. Comments and suggestions are greatly appreciated even if they are just "nice deck!" Enjoy!
should play alchemists refuge for the instant speed creature
I think I will try play testing with that. Not sure how practical it will be, but it's in my colors and only producing colorless isn't a big deal for this deck. Thanks!
I'd play Pentad Prism over Birds since it ramps you up faster (and doesn't die to all the red burn that is running rampage at the moment). Heartless Summoning is also worth considering (makes the whole combo cost 4)
Turn Aside isn't very good since it doesn't deal with Abrupt Decay. Apostle's Blessing/Mizzium Skin seems like a better fit. Or even better: Street Wraith. Your opponent Decays your Maniac, you cycle Street Wraith in response and win.
Kiora seems a bit random. Without removal/sweepers in the deck, she's probably just gonna work as an overcosted Explore most of the time. I'd replace her with 2 more Dig Through Times. This also enables you to cut green and run a even more reliable mana base or splash another color (black for Thoughtseize for instance).
Pentad Prism does ramp faster but it's 2 mana. Heartless summoning would be good, but black isn't in my colors. It would be nice but I don't feel like splashing black for another card that's not 100% necisary.
Mizzium Skin might be a better fit then Turn Aside, as Turn Aside doesn't counter Decay, but it also is more versatile. I will try with Mizzium Skin though.
Kiora is actually very nice. Back when this was more of a turbo fog deck I put her in, but she actually is still nice, as she can help neutralize an opponent's creature, for serve as a reusable explore if they have none out. I don't think I dump enough in my graveyard for more digs, but maybe I'm wrong.
I guess. I think I will try a build of this in Dimir colors. It will suck losing Kiora and Birds of Paradise, but I do gain heartless summoning, thoughtseize/inquisition and better removal. Grave Titan might be a better alt win condition then Batterskull. Thanks!
Made a massive overhaul of this deck. I find the Dimir build to be far better then the green blue one that I had before. Thank you guys so much for your suggestions!
What would you think of aether vial? You could vial in either maniac or leveler EOT then the next draw step win. Plus you could hold open mana for one of the protection spells. Maybe apostle's blessing or ranger's guile are both alternate options To go with mizzium skins.
What would you think of aether vial? You could vial in either maniac or leveler EOT then the next draw step win. Plus you could hold open mana for one of the protection spells. Maybe apostle's blessing or ranger's guile are both alternate options To go with mizzium skins.
I never even thought of that but that's a great idea. I'm gonna try testing it with vials.
And Guile is out of color. I could run Apostole's Blessing but it isn't much better then Mizzium Skin and requires some life payment.
Have you considered ways to maybe tutor for lab maniac? Maybe something with transmute like dimir machinations or perplex to tutor up maniac. It looks like you have open slots (I count 53 cards in your list posted). What are the bad matchups? Protection for maniac is important, but if opponent is twinning you're dead too. With fetches you could splash a color for something like ghostly prison, which stops twin and stalls every other aggro/tempo deck. Against blue decks you need to watch for bounce (if you've vialed in maniac) so boomerang, echoing truth, cryptic command are issues. I saw one mana leak, you might consider remand instead since it counters and forces the draw you need to win.
So if there are 7 slots...
+3 aether vial
+3 remand
+1 spell pierce/swan song
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Modern UB Tezzerator UBW Gifts B 8Rack
Legacy RB Goblins
Are there 7 slots? I may have forgotten to write some of the cards down. On the Tapped Out version of this, there are definitely 60 cards. As for tutors, I ran them for a while, but gave up on them as they are clunky, and I didn't need them that often.
I could splash something, but I like how streamlined it is colorwise right now. We already have a pretty good matchup against twin anyways, considering that we run a play set of Spellskite which wreck them. As for bad matchups, we get stomped by aggro and well...stompy decks. They out race us and kill us before we can combo off. I haven't play tested against burn but I imagine that being a bad matchup, though made better by Spellskite. Other combo is generally favorable or equal, like the aforementioned Twin and Scapeshift. Bogle is close, though I haven't done much testing against it. The Spellskites give us a huge edge, but if we don't get one out, then they smother us.
Remand was in a very early version of this deck, but I took it out as I didn't think it was very needed. We really don't like leaving mana open.
I think the 7 cards missing might be Heartless Summoning and Pentad Prism. You write about running 4 of the first and 1-3 of the latter in the text below.
I could see the deck having some issues vs. aggro as you write. Have you tried main decking 1 or 2 sweepers (Engineered Explosives, Drown in Sorrow, Damnation) and maybe a Wurmcoil to even things out?
Cavern of Souls might also be worth as a 1 or 2 of. Especially since you're only in 2 colors.
I'm not sure how I feel about main decking sweepers. I think Damnation would affect me too much, and Drown in Sorrow is only worth a damn against certain aggro decks. Maybe Engineered Explosives though? I think it's time to do some play testing with those. Though they seem like they would be better in the sideboard only.
As for Cavern of Souls...I guess. What creature type would I name? The can't be countered part would be nice against control though.
Cavern would mostly be to make Leveler uncountable since it's easier to play around Leak/Remand with the Maniac (especially with a HS out). It's also a low risk/high reward thing, since the mana base looks pretty consistent.
RE: Drown in Sorrow. In a format where Affinity and Delver are the aggro decks to beat I think it might be an ok main deck option, to give you a fighting chance game 1 (Delver is still a dominating % of the meta).
Found out about Mirror of Fate a few days ago. It definitely has a spot in this deck, though it's cost cannot be reduced which is a major bummer. Anyone have any ideas for how to utilize the extra Levelers more smoothly?
Mirror of Fate does seem interesting. If they PtE your Lab Maniac you can crack the Mirror and put him back on top which is pretty cool. Not sure if it is likely to win a ton of games but I like it nonetheless.
Also if they Surgical Extraction/Slaughter Games/Memoricide/etc you have a way to bring him back without completely scooping the game.
I like the mirror I'm just not sure if it's warranted as a 3-of.
Let us know how testing goes!
Also, what are the matchups like against control/aggro/combo?
The Mirror of Fate is primarily used for only exiling your library, so it functions just like more Levelers. It does have that extra use, but it's used less then you would think.
As for matchups, we are super weak against aggro. RDW, Stompy, etc we are crap against. Burn and Merfolk we have a little more of a chance but we still generally lose. Bogles we actually are decent against because of out Spellskites but if we don't get any out of they remove it quickly they can still win, though doe times they have to race us. I don't know about Zoo yet.
Control I haven't done that much testing against so I don't really know. But I did test against one control deck and we were decent.
Combo we can generally race pretty well. Scapeshift, a similar deck, is basically just seeing who can combo out first. Twin generally beats us on speed, however our Spellskites make it a good matchup.
Have you considered running a couple Black Sun's Zenith or maybe even Damnation? That might help against some of the faster strategies.
I could really see Fish being a problem because a few of them have islandwalk and some lists mainboard Spreading Seas.
Have you also considered running a counter suite? I could see Dimir Charm, Remand, and Cryptic Command going a long way for the deck. They provide utility while also protecting your stuff. Likewise I could see discard helping against a lot of decks. It would slow down enemy combo decks and Inquisition of Kozilek normally helps against a lot of the faster decks.
Personally I would aim to play this deck like UB control. You would just have a combo as a wincon(since it's only 8 slots that's not too bad). Right now you're looking to race against most decks and without any kind of board stalling you're really hoping for lucky topdecks. I would add more to the deck to make it controlling. You only have 2 Doom Blade in the deck to interact with the opponent. I guess you could count Gitaxian Probe but it doesn't really do much other than give you information on their hand. At most this will tell you how long you have to combo off before dying. If you ran counters however this would let you know what you can't let resolve and what isn't as important.
Just my 0.02
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What is Levelatory Combo?
Levelatory Combo is a deck that focuses on the interaction between the two cards Labratory Maniac and Leveler. In fact, the name of this deck is a combination of the name of those two cards. Labratory Maniac allows you to automatically win when you attempt to draw a card and there is nothing in your library. Leveler exiles your library. See where this is going? It runs some other cards to support this, like Heartless Summoning, Gitaxian Probe, and Serum Visions, all which help in their own way. I will explain why those cards in a bit.
Why Run Levelatory Combo?
Well first off, it's a fun deck to play. There's nothing like the feeling of shocking your opponent by comboing out of nowhere in one turn. Also, it's an original deck idea by me, meaning that your opponents will likely have never faced anything like it, and will misplay, as well as not have any appropriate sideboard. Lastly, it's also pretty cheap. It's only about $400, and can be made much cheaper easily by excluding the fetches/shocks.
Does this sound cool to you? Here's the basic decklist:
4x Drowned Catacomb
2x Halimar Depths
4x Island
4x Polluted Delta
2x Swamp
2x Temple of Deceit
2x Watery Grave
4x Leveler
4x Spellskite
2x Street Wraith
2x Dig Through Time
2x Doom Blade
4x Gitaxian Probe
4x Heartless Summoning
3x Mirror of Fate
2x Mizzium Skin
2x Pentad Prism
4x Serum Visions
Now, this does not have to look like your decklist. This is just the basics. Here is a rundown of every card in the deck, it's place, and how many I recommend running.
Land:
Drowned Catacomb Because we run a lot of basics, this card typically comes into play untapped. Run 2-4, depending on how many basics you are running.
Halimar Depths: This card doesn't see very much play, which surprises me. It's basically Ponder, without the parts that make it broken. But it's stapled onto a land for your convienence. Run 2, as they ETB tapped and multiples aren't great.
Island/Swamp: This deck runs a fairly high amount of basics because well...we can. Not a whole lot of mana fixing is needed, as this deck is primarily blue, with only a few black cards. There is a lot of wiggle room when it comes to these, but I recommend running about 7-9 total.
Polluted Delta: Ahh, fetches. These are about 50 dollars a piece though, so feel free to cut these to save some moola. Run as many of these as you can afford.
Temple of Deceit: Ideally, you can get one of these out early when you don't card about it entering tapped. It's ability is very relevant for combo, however if you're not careful it can throw off your tempo. Run 2-3.
Watery Grave: You can't go wrong with shock lands. Except you can in this situation, as you want to try to hold on to as much of your life as possible so your opponent doesn't kill you before you can combo out. Run up to 3, depending on your local metagame. If you don't know it, 1-2 is a safe bet.
Creatures:
Batterskull:
In case we can't find our combo, this thing is here to provide us with a beater, gain us some life, and hold the opponent off until we find both pieces of the combo. It's situational though. Run 0-2.
Laboratory Maniac: Part one of our combo. Run 4.
Leveler:
Part two of our combo. Run 4.
Spellskite: Aside from our two combo cards, this may be the most essential card in our deck. Screws up the game plan of aura based decks like Bogle and Twin, slows down burn, and can eat removal like a pro. Often times, it's what you need to hold off your opponent enough to combo. Run 4.
Street Wraith: Technically this is a creature, but we are really only gonna use this for cycling. Basically these are extra Gitaxian Probes. Run 2.
Utility
Dig Through Time:
Lets us dig for our combo. We really don't dump that much in our graveyard, so realistically the earliest we can cast this is right around the time we would combo off. But if we are missing one piece, this is super handy. Run 1-2.
Doom Blade: Effiecient black removal that hits most things and isn't double black. Run 1-3.
Gitaxian Probe:
Like Street Wraith, but with a bonus. Run 4.
Heartless Summoning:
We don't care about the stats of our creature at all, so this card is amazing. Let's you put down both parts of your combo and then cantrip your way to victory as early as turn 4. Run 4.
Inquisition of Kozilek/Thoughtseize:
These type of cards aren't great in this kind of deck, but they still can help discard removal or scary creatures. Whichever of these you run is mainly preference. Run 0-3 of these total depending on your build.
Mana Leak:
Because counterspell isn't modern legal. This ain't great, but it works, though we don't like to have to leave mana open. Run 0-2.
Mirror of Fate:
It will always cost 5 mana, but you can't run more then 4 Levelers anyway. Run 3-4.
Mizzium Skin:
One mana to protect our combo? Hell yeah! Run 2-3.
Pact of Negation:
This is pretty much only for when you're sure you're combo out this turn. But if you are, then hey, it's a 0 mana counterspell. Run 0-1.
Pentad Prism:
Because mana dorks don't come in black, this is the best we got. Run 1-3.
Serum Visions:
Well, we can't run Brainstorm. Or Ponder. Or Preordain. That being said, this is still insanely good. Run 4.
Sideboard:
Coming soon.
Since this is a new deck idea, there aren't any other deck lists to show then my own, but I hope you guys like this idea and experiment around with this yourselves. Comments and suggestions are greatly appreciated even if they are just "nice deck!" Enjoy!
Modern
UBR Grixis Control
U Merfolk
Pauper
U Mono U Delver
Ancestral Visions is freed
I think I will try play testing with that. Not sure how practical it will be, but it's in my colors and only producing colorless isn't a big deal for this deck. Thanks!
Modern
UBR Grixis Control
U Merfolk
Pauper
U Mono U Delver
Ancestral Visions is freed
Turn Aside isn't very good since it doesn't deal with Abrupt Decay. Apostle's Blessing/Mizzium Skin seems like a better fit. Or even better: Street Wraith. Your opponent Decays your Maniac, you cycle Street Wraith in response and win.
Kiora seems a bit random. Without removal/sweepers in the deck, she's probably just gonna work as an overcosted Explore most of the time. I'd replace her with 2 more Dig Through Times. This also enables you to cut green and run a even more reliable mana base or splash another color (black for Thoughtseize for instance).
Mizzium Skin might be a better fit then Turn Aside, as Turn Aside doesn't counter Decay, but it also is more versatile. I will try with Mizzium Skin though.
Kiora is actually very nice. Back when this was more of a turbo fog deck I put her in, but she actually is still nice, as she can help neutralize an opponent's creature, for serve as a reusable explore if they have none out. I don't think I dump enough in my graveyard for more digs, but maybe I'm wrong.
Thanks!
Modern
UBR Grixis Control
U Merfolk
Pauper
U Mono U Delver
Ancestral Visions is freed
Modern
UBR Grixis Control
U Merfolk
Pauper
U Mono U Delver
Ancestral Visions is freed
Made a massive overhaul of this deck. I find the Dimir build to be far better then the green blue one that I had before. Thank you guys so much for your suggestions!
Modern
UBR Grixis Control
U Merfolk
Pauper
U Mono U Delver
Ancestral Visions is freed
UB Tezzerator
UBW Gifts
B 8Rack
Legacy
RB Goblins
I never even thought of that but that's a great idea. I'm gonna try testing it with vials.
And Guile is out of color. I could run Apostole's Blessing but it isn't much better then Mizzium Skin and requires some life payment.
Modern
UBR Grixis Control
U Merfolk
Pauper
U Mono U Delver
Ancestral Visions is freed
So if there are 7 slots...
+3 aether vial
+3 remand
+1 spell pierce/swan song
UB Tezzerator
UBW Gifts
B 8Rack
Legacy
RB Goblins
I could splash something, but I like how streamlined it is colorwise right now. We already have a pretty good matchup against twin anyways, considering that we run a play set of Spellskite which wreck them. As for bad matchups, we get stomped by aggro and well...stompy decks. They out race us and kill us before we can combo off. I haven't play tested against burn but I imagine that being a bad matchup, though made better by Spellskite. Other combo is generally favorable or equal, like the aforementioned Twin and Scapeshift. Bogle is close, though I haven't done much testing against it. The Spellskites give us a huge edge, but if we don't get one out, then they smother us.
Remand was in a very early version of this deck, but I took it out as I didn't think it was very needed. We really don't like leaving mana open.
Modern
UBR Grixis Control
U Merfolk
Pauper
U Mono U Delver
Ancestral Visions is freed
I could see the deck having some issues vs. aggro as you write. Have you tried main decking 1 or 2 sweepers (Engineered Explosives, Drown in Sorrow, Damnation) and maybe a Wurmcoil to even things out?
Cavern of Souls might also be worth as a 1 or 2 of. Especially since you're only in 2 colors.
As for Cavern of Souls...I guess. What creature type would I name? The can't be countered part would be nice against control though.
Modern
UBR Grixis Control
U Merfolk
Pauper
U Mono U Delver
Ancestral Visions is freed
RE: Drown in Sorrow. In a format where Affinity and Delver are the aggro decks to beat I think it might be an ok main deck option, to give you a fighting chance game 1 (Delver is still a dominating % of the meta).
And I just tested against Delver, which is indeed a very weak matchup. I think a couple DiSs might be necisary for that.
Modern
UBR Grixis Control
U Merfolk
Pauper
U Mono U Delver
Ancestral Visions is freed
Aside from that the deck looks like it is coming along well.
And thanks!
Modern
UBR Grixis Control
U Merfolk
Pauper
U Mono U Delver
Ancestral Visions is freed
Found out about Mirror of Fate a few days ago. It definitely has a spot in this deck, though it's cost cannot be reduced which is a major bummer. Anyone have any ideas for how to utilize the extra Levelers more smoothly?
Thanks.
Modern
UBR Grixis Control
U Merfolk
Pauper
U Mono U Delver
Ancestral Visions is freed
Also if they Surgical Extraction/Slaughter Games/Memoricide/etc you have a way to bring him back without completely scooping the game.
I like the mirror I'm just not sure if it's warranted as a 3-of.
Let us know how testing goes!
Also, what are the matchups like against control/aggro/combo?
As for matchups, we are super weak against aggro. RDW, Stompy, etc we are crap against. Burn and Merfolk we have a little more of a chance but we still generally lose. Bogles we actually are decent against because of out Spellskites but if we don't get any out of they remove it quickly they can still win, though doe times they have to race us. I don't know about Zoo yet.
Control I haven't done that much testing against so I don't really know. But I did test against one control deck and we were decent.
Combo we can generally race pretty well. Scapeshift, a similar deck, is basically just seeing who can combo out first. Twin generally beats us on speed, however our Spellskites make it a good matchup.
Modern
UBR Grixis Control
U Merfolk
Pauper
U Mono U Delver
Ancestral Visions is freed
I could really see Fish being a problem because a few of them have islandwalk and some lists mainboard Spreading Seas.
Have you also considered running a counter suite? I could see Dimir Charm, Remand, and Cryptic Command going a long way for the deck. They provide utility while also protecting your stuff. Likewise I could see discard helping against a lot of decks. It would slow down enemy combo decks and Inquisition of Kozilek normally helps against a lot of the faster decks.
Personally I would aim to play this deck like UB control. You would just have a combo as a wincon(since it's only 8 slots that's not too bad). Right now you're looking to race against most decks and without any kind of board stalling you're really hoping for lucky topdecks. I would add more to the deck to make it controlling. You only have 2 Doom Blade in the deck to interact with the opponent. I guess you could count Gitaxian Probe but it doesn't really do much other than give you information on their hand. At most this will tell you how long you have to combo off before dying. If you ran counters however this would let you know what you can't let resolve and what isn't as important.
Just my 0.02