Note: This deck is semi-budget on MTGO (about a thousand dollars powered, contrasted to powered Death and Taxes which runs around $1500 without a Goyf splash and $2000 with). In paper, it is not budget at all, it's probably over twelve grand.
Been messing around with some ideas here as to a list I might consider building toward.
I'm building around MTGO budgetary concerns - I plan to buy all the Power while they are presently quite affordable, which will leave me unable to afford other cards that happen to be expensive online, such as Wasteland, Polluted Delta, Misdirection, Mox Opal, Liliana of the Veil, City of Traitors, Hurkyl's Recall and the like.
If you want to build a variant of this but spend less, the Lotus, Pearl and Emerald are the first things I'd drop (but I have no idea what I'd replace them with, maybe Lotus Petal and 2 2cc mana rocks). While Ancestral, Time Walk and the on-colour Moxen are not cheap, they aren't ridiculous either - at the time of writing, each is less than a Polluted Delta.
* - Not sure if these should be Thoughtseizes or not. This is not a budget issue, I have no issue acquiring 4 Thoughtseize.
** - This is a budgetary concern, should be Polluted Deltas and Scalding Tarns but I'm including the fetches I actually own
Gameplan revolves around the PWs. Each of them (except Ral) can win the game on its own - Seeker gets Time Vault, Jace is Jace, Agent of Bolas provides card advantage and search (and is better at that than Jace) until a lethal ultimate, and while Ral is underwhelming on his own, he is the surest win possible with Time Vault, allowing you to not just untap the Vault, but also systematically tap everything your opponent controls. He may be a wrong call but I want to try him.
Mana Drain provides the prospect for ridiculous plays, like hardcasting Leviathan, or dropping Seeker and Ral in one turn and winning on the spot, or whatever. In hands with a draw 7, I'm fully willing to FoW an opponent's spell, then Drain my own Force to make my draw 7 effectively cost negative 2 mana. The draw 7s may be a wrong call, but they are just so inherently overpowered that I want to try them.
Anyways, interested in thoughts that do not involve adding 30+ ticket cards I do not own to the deck.
Thanks for the suggestions. My justification for including Strix was the synergy with little Tezz (which makes a serious threat, 5/5 flying deathtouch) but I'll likely follow your suggestions here.
The MTGO metagame is probably 40% Workshop-fuelled prison variants, 20% Oath into Griselbrand, 10% Ritual combo, 5% hybrids of Ritual combo and Storm, and a small amount of Mana Drain.
Am I correct that Key is included as both a somewhat OK card to naturally draw, and a Tinker target for situations where you have naturally drawn Time Vault?
Also, how do you feel about the Sol lands? Ancient Tomb is within my budget (and I actually own them as well), City of Traitors is not budget but I could acquire them in future if they are needed. My gut thoughts were that the coloured mana requriements of the deck are too high but I'm open to looking into them.
Key is not a great card but gives Tinker another target, another artifact to discard to Thirst, allows you to untap Moxen to get turn colorless mana into colored, works well with both Tezzes, hypes up Academy, allows multiple draws off Sensei's Divining Top, turns Mana Vault into 5 mana and has some general utilty. If you were running Blightsteel over Inkwell, it would allow your Blightsteel to have pseudo vigilance. If you keep a Strix, it allows it to attack and play defense.
Ancient Tomb is fine but you have decent non-colored/off color acceleration, you are playing a 3 color deck with some double colored costs (Inkwell, Drain, Tez, Jace and Force when hardcast).
I actually think you want to have the Duress be Thoughtseizes. I'm not sure if you want to run 4 of them though, 2 might be sufficient. Maybe a 2/2 split would work. You definitely have many threats that Duress does not hit.
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"An immense river of oblivion is sweeping us away into a nameless abyss." —Ernest Renan, Souvenirs d'Enfance et de Jeunesse
You know a card belongs in the deck when it is a regular Demonic Tutor target and occasional Tinker target - any time I naturally draw Time Vault, I am DT-ing for Key.
I will experiment with Thoughtseize. I've only ever once had a Duress miss where a Thoughtseize would have got a good card (Dark Confidant) but I can see a preemptive answer to Trygon Predator being good.
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Been messing around with some ideas here as to a list I might consider building toward.
I'm building around MTGO budgetary concerns - I plan to buy all the Power while they are presently quite affordable, which will leave me unable to afford other cards that happen to be expensive online, such as Wasteland, Polluted Delta, Misdirection, Mox Opal, Liliana of the Veil, City of Traitors, Hurkyl's Recall and the like.
If you want to build a variant of this but spend less, the Lotus, Pearl and Emerald are the first things I'd drop (but I have no idea what I'd replace them with, maybe Lotus Petal and 2 2cc mana rocks). While Ancestral, Time Walk and the on-colour Moxen are not cheap, they aren't ridiculous either - at the time of writing, each is less than a Polluted Delta.
PWs: (6)
2 Tezzeret the Seeker
2 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Ral Zarek
Restricted stuff: (21)
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
1 Time Vault
5 Moxen
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
1 Brainstorm
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Timetwister
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Imperial Seal
Disruption (15):
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
4 Duress*
3 Baleful Strix (disruptive to creature strategies)
Tinker target (1):
1 Inkwell Leviathan
Land (17):
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Library of Alexandria
4 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island
1 Badlands
3 Bloodstained Mire**
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Island
* - Not sure if these should be Thoughtseizes or not. This is not a budget issue, I have no issue acquiring 4 Thoughtseize.
** - This is a budgetary concern, should be Polluted Deltas and Scalding Tarns but I'm including the fetches I actually own
Gameplan revolves around the PWs. Each of them (except Ral) can win the game on its own - Seeker gets Time Vault, Jace is Jace, Agent of Bolas provides card advantage and search (and is better at that than Jace) until a lethal ultimate, and while Ral is underwhelming on his own, he is the surest win possible with Time Vault, allowing you to not just untap the Vault, but also systematically tap everything your opponent controls. He may be a wrong call but I want to try him.
Mana Drain provides the prospect for ridiculous plays, like hardcasting Leviathan, or dropping Seeker and Ral in one turn and winning on the spot, or whatever. In hands with a draw 7, I'm fully willing to FoW an opponent's spell, then Drain my own Force to make my draw 7 effectively cost negative 2 mana. The draw 7s may be a wrong call, but they are just so inherently overpowered that I want to try them.
Anyways, interested in thoughts that do not involve adding 30+ ticket cards I do not own to the deck.
Consideration could be given to things like Memory Jar, Preordain and Ponder too.
Thanks for the suggestions. My justification for including Strix was the synergy with little Tezz (which makes a serious threat, 5/5 flying deathtouch) but I'll likely follow your suggestions here.
The MTGO metagame is probably 40% Workshop-fuelled prison variants, 20% Oath into Griselbrand, 10% Ritual combo, 5% hybrids of Ritual combo and Storm, and a small amount of Mana Drain.
Am I correct that Key is included as both a somewhat OK card to naturally draw, and a Tinker target for situations where you have naturally drawn Time Vault?
Also, how do you feel about the Sol lands? Ancient Tomb is within my budget (and I actually own them as well), City of Traitors is not budget but I could acquire them in future if they are needed. My gut thoughts were that the coloured mana requriements of the deck are too high but I'm open to looking into them.
Ancient Tomb is fine but you have decent non-colored/off color acceleration, you are playing a 3 color deck with some double colored costs (Inkwell, Drain, Tez, Jace and Force when hardcast).
You know a card belongs in the deck when it is a regular Demonic Tutor target and occasional Tinker target - any time I naturally draw Time Vault, I am DT-ing for Key.
I will experiment with Thoughtseize. I've only ever once had a Duress miss where a Thoughtseize would have got a good card (Dark Confidant) but I can see a preemptive answer to Trygon Predator being good.