After winning my local Zendikar Game Day with a Jund deck, I felt a little dirty so I decided to see if I could make something totally unexpected that could still be competitive. As a result I stumbled onto this deck, which went about 50/50 with my Jund deck, I call it Vault of Sphinxes:
The idea behind this deck is to play like a typical Esper Control deck for a while, eventually laying down an unkicked Sphinx of Lost Truths to draw answers/digging/etc. and throwing away artifact bombs like Inkwell Leviathan and Sphinx of the Steel Wind. After tossing those cards, you play Open the Vaults to bring them into the battlefield and win with them.
I'll discuss some of the reasons for the cards that I've included in here:
Filigree Angel - This card may seem questionable as it's not exactly an awesome finisher like some of the other high-cost artifacts. However, the Angel has provided me with countless comebacks through massive lifegain (e.g. I won against a Boros Bushwacker deck after being brought down to 1 thanks to this card). The Angel shouldn't be underestimated here.
Magister Sphinx - This card doesn't make a bad finisher. It's out of the range of nearly all burn removal and he's an evasive 5/5. But, this card really shines as a tech card. It can bring you back from a dangerously low life total, or it can set your opponent up for a kill. This card won me one game by bringing my opponent down from 34 to 10 instantly.
Courier's Capsule - Perhaps not the greatest card draw in the game, but in this deck it's nice. It gains you extra life with Filigree Angel and makes for a recurring and cheap draw engine all due to it's artifact status.
Jund (50/50) - As always, Jund is a tough deck to beat. If you can put out some early stalling and draw into Open the Vaults with some finishers in the grave, you win. Jund absolutely can't answer Sphinx of the Steel Wind. Very few of them even run Deathmark in the sideboard (which is the only card in Jund colors that can answer it). The beauty in this matchup is that often times Blightning removes your need for Sphinx of Lost Truths to pitch finishers to the graveyard.
Red Deck Wins (40/60) - This is a harder matchup. Something this fast is a bit of a pain to deal with. Wall of Denial is the star here, basically stopping Ball Lightning, Elemental Appeal, and Hell's Thunder dead. Post-board it's a little easier with Celestial Purge. I've considered replacing a board card with Deft Duelist for this matchup.
Boros Bushwacker (40/60) - Virtually the same as Red Deck Wins, except a little rougher as they also maintain a more serious board position. Same considerations for RDW apply here.
I've also played some more FNM-level decks: GW Soldiers, Luminarch Control, etc. The matchups there are pretty good, but I haven't playtested those quite as much. I'd appreciate any helpful thoughts and suggestions for this deck as I feel it has some good potential.
No kidding, huh? I suggest cutting black out of your mana base altogether, then. Take out the Scullers and add another Day of Judgement or Scourglass. Cyclers like Sanctum Plowbeast and Esper Sojourners fill up your graveyard and help out early game. Vedalken Outlander in the sideboard? I'm sure he'd help solve your red deck wins woes.
I think this is a really cool list, especially in the low counterspell metagame.
Silence does seem underwhelming - did you consider Meddling Mage or Ethersworn Canonist instead?
With all the fatties, I'd be tempted to run Master Transmuter as well.
I think Master Transmuter will suffer from the same problem Tidehollow Sculler suffered from: it dies too easily. Meddling Mage isn't too bad of an idea, but I don't think this is artifact dedicated enough to merit Ethersworn Canonist
No kidding, huh? I suggest cutting black out of your mana base altogether, then. Take out the Scullers and add another Day of Judgement or Scourglass. Cyclers like Sanctum Plowbeast and Esper Sojourners fill up your graveyard and help out early game.
Vedalken Outlander in the sideboard? I'm sure he'd help solve your red deck wins woes.
Hmm, I don't think that we can really afford to totally remove black. We need to be able to hard cast the big guys if necessary. A Thought Hemorrhage on Open the Vaults without black in the manabase is devastating.
I like the idea of cycling. I think, out of the options available, Architects of Will would be the best option. (Acts as cheap cycling/artifact in the graveyard or deck stacking if hard casted.)
The card I've been thinking about for RDW problems has been Deft Duelist. It's not an artifact, but since we aren't really trying for artifact swarm, not everything needs to be. The Duelist totally shuts down all the Ball Lightning variants and can only be killed by sweeping effects (which RDW rarely maindecks and it would slow them down a lot). Outlander can't be killed by them at all but they have so much trample it still gives me pause. Still, it's worth trying out.
I think Master Transmuter will suffer from the same problem Tidehollow Sculler suffered from: it dies too easily. Meddling Mage isn't too bad of an idea, but I don't think this is artifact dedicated enough to merit Ethersworn Canonist
Your list doesn't look like it really plays multiple spells a turn anyhow and canonist hoses cascade until they kill it.
Your list doesn't look like it really plays multiple spells a turn anyhow and canonist hoses cascade until they kill it.
That's a good point, it still seems difficult to keep it alive without any maindeck counter magic and finding a spot for that too would be hard. Any suggestions?
That's a good point, it still seems difficult to keep it alive without any maindeck counter magic and finding a spot for that too would be hard. Any suggestions?
Brave the Elements. Seriously, practically every creature in your deck is white, save Inkwell, who can keep himself alive just fine.
I also agree with the cycling Esper creatures to help fill the graveyard. Though I like the Sojourners better than the Plowbeast.
And the guy who said take black out? I sort of agree, but leave in the big heavy-hitting Sphinxes who have Bin their mana cost, plus a few Arcane Sanctum in case you need to hardcast them. Operating as mainly just a UW deck seems like the way to go. Of course, all that really costs you is the Sculler...
Those decks play a more Dredge style with self-mill using Sharuum as the recursion engine. Sharuum doesn't fit as well here because most of the time it'd be coming into play off of Open the Vaults in which case it doesn't have a target for it's ability making nothing more than a vanilla flying beatstick. This deck is meant to have a more reanimator-like feel.
I like Glassdust Hulk when it comes to artifacts with cycle. It's out of the range of a bolt and if it's out when you cast the Vaults, it becomes a huge, unblockable beast and if you don't need it out, you can cycle it. I kind of agree with the others about removing the black, though I think you'd do fine with one swamp instead of two, JUST in case you don't get ONE of the FOUR Sanctums out or the FOUR Catacombs (because you only NEED one black mana in case you need to hard-cast something).
Those decks play a more Dredge style with self-mill using Sharuum as the recursion engine. Sharuum doesn't fit as well here because most of the time it'd be coming into play off of Open the Vaults in which case it doesn't have a target for it's ability making nothing more than a vanilla flying beatstick. This deck is meant to have a more reanimator-like feel.
I know the decks you're referring to, but the one I was talking about doesn't self-mill. It also has sphinx as the only way of discarding things to reanimate.
Anyways, you could also just cast Sharuum. It does reanimate, only just one instead of all. I'm not sure how often you draw into your open the vaults, so it's just another option. Call it your 5th mini-open the vaults.
I just stumbled upon this thread and was intrigued as I have been working on a similar idea. I have been focusing on using Open the Vaults to get a Where Ancients Tread and Sharuum the Hegemon instant win. There is also the side combo of and infinite p/t Glassdust Hulk I like some of the ideas you have presented in your version and figured I would post mine for discussion. Keep in mind that it is pretty rough right now.
I run a few fetches and one basic mountain. The few tests I have done showed that an occasional hardcast of WAT was necessary. It doesn't always combo off of vaults but it has pulled some nice wins. I like your early game much better than my own however. Jace has been proving less than ideal as a three drop.
EDIT: I also run the fetches and a couple arcane sanctum to be able to cast sharuum.
I like Sharuum combos, but it might be easier on your manabase to use either Soul Warden or Deathgreeter to gain infinite life than add red for WAT. Of course, then it can't "go off" with a simple Open The Vaults, but double Sharuum + Where Ancients Tread is a pretty specific combination of graveyard cards to add a whole new color for.
I vote for Architects of Will over Glassdust Hulk for cycling tech. When you hit Vaults, it will make sure that your opponent doesn't topdeck the one thing he needs to kill you.
I also agree that Rotting Rats is a vastly underrated card in decks like these. If there was a card that said "2B: Each opponent discards two cards, you discard one card" I bet it could get played. So why not a card that hits your opponent's hand, let's you discard a bomb, and gives you a body to block with all for 1 less?
I like Courier's Capsule, but I think Esper Charm might be more versatile. If you are worried about getting enough artifacts for Filigree Angel, I second borderposts.
I think you need more control / less huge creature drops. There is no point in dropping one of your many Sphinxes ASAP if you can't protect it. Sphinxes are in NO WAY an aggro deck and you best not play them as such. Control the board, control your opponent, then drop your Sphinx, control the board, protect your Sphinx, win.
People have mentioned control cards and they have mentioned them for a reason. Play them.
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what are your thoughts on safe passage? Also, it seems with only one real discard engine (solt) that you are really dependent on hitting him, what about adding something like Merfolk Looter?
i built a deck of similar concept that never really did well, im happy to see other people are working on this
There's a japanese list that went this route. I believe he had two Mind Controls mainboard... that makes for a neat little OtV trick as well. Remember artifacts AND enchantments. =P
I think you need more control / less huge creature drops. There is no point in dropping one of your many Sphinxes ASAP if you can't protect it. Sphinxes are in NO WAY an aggro deck and you best not play them as such. Control the board, control your opponent, then drop your Sphinx, control the board, protect your Sphinx, win.
People have mentioned control cards and they have mentioned them for a reason. Play them.
The problem is, you need to be able to have bombs in hand to make use of Sphinx of Lost Truths. With only a few sphinxes, that becomes highly unlikely. If the deck was intended as a pure Esper control, it would be. The control aspect is like the control in most combo decks: to survive the early turns until you can "combo off."
what are your thoughts on safe passage? Also, it seems with only one real discard engine (solt) that you are really dependent on hitting him, what about adding something like Merfolk Looter?
i built a deck of similar concept that never really did well, im happy to see other people are working on this
Hmm Safe Passage seems like it would work better as Angelsong since it's cheaper and has cycling.
As far as dependency on Sphinx of Lost Truths: generally there's enough draw in here to look for him. If we don't get him, we are usually hitting more control cards and so we can delay for longer until we do.
It's great to see more people interested in this idea. I'm currently testing a deck running Ponder along with some more tweaks (e.g. adjusted manabase). When I get a more stable list, I'll be posting it.
The problem is, you need to be able to have bombs in hand to make use of Sphinx of Lost Truths.
Oh wow. I'm not quite sure, but I totally spaced out for a second and forgot this was an Open the Vaults deck hahaha. I've been posting all over the place and got confused =P.
No yeah, I totally catch your drift now. I actually tried building a deck like this except it was U/W control, discard Iona and Emeria her back. I would suggest running Obelisk of Alara then. Good discard, creature control and life gain. True it gives you are *relatively* dead turn, but it does pay off. Just a thought.
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4 Wall of Denial
4 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Sphinx of Lost Truths
2 Filigree Angel
3 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
1 Magister Sphinx
1 Sphinx Sovereign
2 Inkwell Leviathan
Spells (15):
4 Path to Exile
3 Day of Judgement
4 Courier's Capsule
4 Open the Vaults
4 Arcane Sanctum
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Drowned Catacomb
2 Marsh Flats
5 Island
3 Plains
2 Swamp
4 Celestial Purge
4 Negate
4 Silence
3 Oblivion Ring
The idea behind this deck is to play like a typical Esper Control deck for a while, eventually laying down an unkicked Sphinx of Lost Truths to draw answers/digging/etc. and throwing away artifact bombs like Inkwell Leviathan and Sphinx of the Steel Wind. After tossing those cards, you play Open the Vaults to bring them into the battlefield and win with them.
I'll discuss some of the reasons for the cards that I've included in here:
Filigree Angel - This card may seem questionable as it's not exactly an awesome finisher like some of the other high-cost artifacts. However, the Angel has provided me with countless comebacks through massive lifegain (e.g. I won against a Boros Bushwacker deck after being brought down to 1 thanks to this card). The Angel shouldn't be underestimated here.
Magister Sphinx - This card doesn't make a bad finisher. It's out of the range of nearly all burn removal and he's an evasive 5/5. But, this card really shines as a tech card. It can bring you back from a dangerously low life total, or it can set your opponent up for a kill. This card won me one game by bringing my opponent down from 34 to 10 instantly.
Courier's Capsule - Perhaps not the greatest card draw in the game, but in this deck it's nice. It gains you extra life with Filigree Angel and makes for a recurring and cheap draw engine all due to it's artifact status.
Cards I was underwhelmed with include Tidehollow Sculler, Sphinx Sovereign, Negate, and Silence. I'm currently testing various other cards in those slots.
It's matchups aren't too bad in the current meta:
Jund (50/50) - As always, Jund is a tough deck to beat. If you can put out some early stalling and draw into Open the Vaults with some finishers in the grave, you win. Jund absolutely can't answer Sphinx of the Steel Wind. Very few of them even run Deathmark in the sideboard (which is the only card in Jund colors that can answer it). The beauty in this matchup is that often times Blightning removes your need for Sphinx of Lost Truths to pitch finishers to the graveyard.
Red Deck Wins (40/60) - This is a harder matchup. Something this fast is a bit of a pain to deal with. Wall of Denial is the star here, basically stopping Ball Lightning, Elemental Appeal, and Hell's Thunder dead. Post-board it's a little easier with Celestial Purge. I've considered replacing a board card with Deft Duelist for this matchup.
Boros Bushwacker (40/60) - Virtually the same as Red Deck Wins, except a little rougher as they also maintain a more serious board position. Same considerations for RDW apply here.
I've also played some more FNM-level decks: GW Soldiers, Luminarch Control, etc. The matchups there are pretty good, but I haven't playtested those quite as much. I'd appreciate any helpful thoughts and suggestions for this deck as I feel it has some good potential.
Silence does seem underwhelming - did you consider Meddling Mage or Ethersworn Canonist instead?
With all the fatties, I'd be tempted to run Master Transmuter as well.
No kidding, huh? I suggest cutting black out of your mana base altogether, then. Take out the Scullers and add another Day of Judgement or Scourglass. Cyclers like Sanctum Plowbeast and Esper Sojourners fill up your graveyard and help out early game.
Vedalken Outlander in the sideboard? I'm sure he'd help solve your red deck wins woes.
I think Master Transmuter will suffer from the same problem Tidehollow Sculler suffered from: it dies too easily. Meddling Mage isn't too bad of an idea, but I don't think this is artifact dedicated enough to merit Ethersworn Canonist
Hmm, I don't think that we can really afford to totally remove black. We need to be able to hard cast the big guys if necessary. A Thought Hemorrhage on Open the Vaults without black in the manabase is devastating.
I like the idea of cycling. I think, out of the options available, Architects of Will would be the best option. (Acts as cheap cycling/artifact in the graveyard or deck stacking if hard casted.)
The card I've been thinking about for RDW problems has been Deft Duelist. It's not an artifact, but since we aren't really trying for artifact swarm, not everything needs to be. The Duelist totally shuts down all the Ball Lightning variants and can only be killed by sweeping effects (which RDW rarely maindecks and it would slow them down a lot). Outlander can't be killed by them at all but they have so much trample it still gives me pause. Still, it's worth trying out.
Temporarily retired from the game
Thanks a bunch to Rivenor from Miraculous Recovery Signatures for the awesome sigpic!
Rage quit reason of the moment:
Your list doesn't look like it really plays multiple spells a turn anyhow and canonist hoses cascade until they kill it.
That's a good point, it still seems difficult to keep it alive without any maindeck counter magic and finding a spot for that too would be hard. Any suggestions?
Brave the Elements. Seriously, practically every creature in your deck is white, save Inkwell, who can keep himself alive just fine.
I also agree with the cycling Esper creatures to help fill the graveyard. Though I like the Sojourners better than the Plowbeast.
And the guy who said take black out? I sort of agree, but leave in the big heavy-hitting Sphinxes who have Bin their mana cost, plus a few Arcane Sanctum in case you need to hardcast them. Operating as mainly just a UW deck seems like the way to go. Of course, all that really costs you is the Sculler...
Those decks play a more Dredge style with self-mill using Sharuum as the recursion engine. Sharuum doesn't fit as well here because most of the time it'd be coming into play off of Open the Vaults in which case it doesn't have a target for it's ability making nothing more than a vanilla flying beatstick. This deck is meant to have a more reanimator-like feel.
I know the decks you're referring to, but the one I was talking about doesn't self-mill. It also has sphinx as the only way of discarding things to reanimate.
Anyways, you could also just cast Sharuum. It does reanimate, only just one instead of all. I'm not sure how often you draw into your open the vaults, so it's just another option. Call it your 5th mini-open the vaults.
It's your deck, I'm just offering a suggestion.
Agony Warp, Sharuum the Hegemon, Esper Charm, Pithing Needle, and Borderposts (more life from Filigree, and accel when you hardcast them).
Only spiderboy4 at High~Light could do it like this! Thanks spidey!
3x Negate
4x Angelsong
3x Jace Beleren
4x Day of Judgement
2x Where Ancients Tread
4x Glassdust Hulk
4x Sharuum the Hegemon
3x Open the Vaults
I run a few fetches and one basic mountain. The few tests I have done showed that an occasional hardcast of WAT was necessary. It doesn't always combo off of vaults but it has pulled some nice wins. I like your early game much better than my own however. Jace has been proving less than ideal as a three drop.
EDIT: I also run the fetches and a couple arcane sanctum to be able to cast sharuum.
I vote for Architects of Will over Glassdust Hulk for cycling tech. When you hit Vaults, it will make sure that your opponent doesn't topdeck the one thing he needs to kill you.
I also agree that Rotting Rats is a vastly underrated card in decks like these. If there was a card that said "2B: Each opponent discards two cards, you discard one card" I bet it could get played. So why not a card that hits your opponent's hand, let's you discard a bomb, and gives you a body to block with all for 1 less?
I like Courier's Capsule, but I think Esper Charm might be more versatile. If you are worried about getting enough artifacts for Filigree Angel, I second borderposts.
People have mentioned control cards and they have mentioned them for a reason. Play them.
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i built a deck of similar concept that never really did well, im happy to see other people are working on this
________________STANDARD________________
UBW Soorani Esper Control UBW
UBW Nicholas Spagnolo's Drownyard Control UBW
___________________EDH___________________
UB Wydwen, the Biting Gale UB
W Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker W
The problem is, you need to be able to have bombs in hand to make use of Sphinx of Lost Truths. With only a few sphinxes, that becomes highly unlikely. If the deck was intended as a pure Esper control, it would be. The control aspect is like the control in most combo decks: to survive the early turns until you can "combo off."
Hmm Safe Passage seems like it would work better as Angelsong since it's cheaper and has cycling.
As far as dependency on Sphinx of Lost Truths: generally there's enough draw in here to look for him. If we don't get him, we are usually hitting more control cards and so we can delay for longer until we do.
It's great to see more people interested in this idea. I'm currently testing a deck running Ponder along with some more tweaks (e.g. adjusted manabase). When I get a more stable list, I'll be posting it.
Oh wow. I'm not quite sure, but I totally spaced out for a second and forgot this was an Open the Vaults deck hahaha. I've been posting all over the place and got confused =P.
No yeah, I totally catch your drift now. I actually tried building a deck like this except it was U/W control, discard Iona and Emeria her back. I would suggest running Obelisk of Alara then. Good discard, creature control and life gain. True it gives you are *relatively* dead turn, but it does pay off. Just a thought.
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3 Sphinx of the Steelwind
2 Inkwell leviathans
2 Darksteel collosos
4 Cunning Lethamancer
3 Rotting rats
4 tidehollow sculler
3 Path to Exile
4 Open the vaults
3 Day of judgement
3 Negate
3 Couriers Capsuel
3 Hindering light
2 Jace Beleren
You have no idea how many times I'ved dropped a late game Doj followed quickly by Open the vaults lol.
Standard: In Transition
Modern: RG Urzatron
Legacy: W Mighty Quinn
UW Stoneblade
Vintage: GWU "Classic" Angel Oath
GW Enchantress
What's your plan to get Darksteel out on the board?