So I don't normally create expensive decks like this. Original Duals, Fetches, Ravnica Duals...expensive tutors and Mythics to boot. I stick with my 25cent rares and Pain-Lands, but this was an exception. When I was making my deck for the Casual Deck Construction Contest, I realized how many of my theoretical deck ideas could be fully fleshed out if I just used a better mana-base, and better tutors. So while I won't be creating this deck in real life (probably proxy), I'd still like to hear your criticisms/suggestions.
This is All-In-Poison, a homage to the All-In-Red decks from Extended 2 years ago (http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=137799). Typically Poison/Infect decks use Infect Weenies + Cheap Targeted Pump like Vines of Vastwood or the All-Star Invigorate. That approach means none of the expensive Infect creatures like Phyrexian Hydra get used, and that makes me a very sad Johnny :frown:. To my own surprise, this buid is actually quite consistent and just as explosive, if not more than Infect Stompy.
In Depth Deck Explanations:
The deck's goal is simple yet complex. It runs on an incredible mana-boost engine with Metamorphosis and Energy Tap, combined with free creatures like Skyshroud Cutter and Vine Dryad. Metamorphosis/Skyshroud Cutter means you get access to 5 mana of any 1 color on turn 1.
Now, that idea is nothing new, but I believe that until Mirrodin Besieged was released, this combo had no potential, since there simply weren't many good 5CMC creatures to play on turn 1. Especially not ones that requires such a card disadvntage and life disadvantage.
However, with the new Infect cards, the life-gain drawback from Skyshroud Cutter is now null. Additionally, Poison puts your opponent on a clock that goes twice as fast. I believe these factors combined help push this deck over the edge - it is very possible to get a turn 3 kill out of this.
Card Choice Explanations: Warning! Wall of Text Ahead, not for the Fainthearted.
Phyrexian Hydra - Quite possibly the most underrated Infect creature is now the star of the deck. It's really difficult to stop a Turn 1 Hydra, especially since Infect means it doubles as creature removal if they block. In a meta not filled with 1-mana removal, this is absolutely ridiculous.
Deus of Calamity - The other 5mana star card, directly from All-In-Red. Play on turn 1, proceed to win automatically.
Phyrexian Juggernaut - The Hydra and Deus can be played turn 1, this can be played on turn 2 with Metamorphosis. Has a lesser drawback than the Hydra, and the colorless supports Energy Tap.
Clone Shell - If you look up playable 5CMC creatures, you'll find that there aren't many that are worth the cost of going through Metamorphosis/Skyshroud Cutter. This one is barely passable, but only because the Colorless helps Energy Tap, and because it is a way to cheat in Blightsteel Colossus.
Blightsteel Colossus - sometimes, this deck can't set up properly until turn 3. At that point, playing Phyrexian Hydra is not as effective. Blightsteel however, just cannot be stopped, so from turn 3 onward, I try to setup the Clone Shell/Colossus combo instead. The Spells: Mystical Tutor - yeah, I know it's restricted/banned now, but really, this is a super-jank deck, and it needs this to win. The ideal opening hand is Tropical Island, Skyshroud Cutter or Vine Dryad, Metamorphosis and Phyrexian Hydra. That's a 3-card combination, and while it is possible to open that hand because there are lots of functionally same cards in here, it's still unlikely. Mystical Tutor sets up a Turn 2 Metamorphosis combo, and that's good enough for me.
Land Grant - This fetches the crucial Forest that we need for Skyshroud Cutter's free ability. I lowered the land count and put this in also because Vine Dryad needs Green cards to exile to be played for free. Also provides free shuffle for Brainstorm, and the reveal hand thing doesn't matter since we'll be emptying our entire hand anyway. In short - an All-Star card.
Brainstorm - When I was goldfishing, I realized how important draw effects were for this deck. Oftentimes this deck is missing one key component to combo out, whether it's a land drop, or a Green card to exile for Vine Dryad. This card improved the consistency quite a bit. Also sets up the top of the library for Clone Shell + Blightsteel Colossus.
Living Wish sideboard. This too adds a layer of consistency. Fetchable via Mystical Tutor, this card literally paves the way to victory, via a land-toolbox. Phyrexian Hydra can be chump blocked if you're unlucky, and cards like Soaring Seacliff, Sejiri Steppe avoid that. Teetering Peaks can push that extra piece of damage in - in this deck it's essentially a +4/+0 pumper.
Deck Fixes/Suggestions/Comments:
Believe it or not, this deck is fairly consistent in setting up. It's sorta like the classic Dark Ritual, Hypnotic Specter combo, but with lots of support added. During Goldfishing, I've managed the Turn 1 Metamorphosis/Cutter/Hydra combo quite a few times, although Turn 2 combos were far more frequent, and Turn 3 is almost a definite.
The deck has already gone through a lot of revision - it originally had Putrefax as another 5CMC Infect creature - though it was very subpar. Another option was Allosaurus Rider with 8CMC cards like Woodfall Primus and the Eldrazi. Even Scornful Egotist was an option. Still, they all had problems and I had to cut them.
Right now, I'd do anything to improve the consistency of the deck even more, and since I'm not going to buy this deck in real life, no budget concerns. Suggestions for other good creatures to be played off Metamorphosis/Energy Tap would be appreciated as well. Thanks for reading!
If you're truly looking for max consistency, the more 'stompy' route has it.
I don't see how this could compete with that. 3-colors vs 1, or 2. You've just got so many moving parts and many stars need to align. Seems like, anyway..
Try cheap Infect creatures like Plague Stinger, cheap/free pump (Invigorate, Bounty of the Hunt, Rouse, Might of Old Krosa, Rancor, Seal of Strength), Vines of Vastwood, and the game-winner: Berserk.
If you're truly looking for max consistency, the more 'stompy' route has it.
I don't see how this could compete with that. 3-colors vs 1, or 2. You've just got so many moving parts and many stars need to align. Seems like, anyway..
I really don't appreciate comments like this. While I did say "I'd do anything to improve the consistency of the deck", that doesn't mean I'll go play something completely different. I said I wanted to improve the consistency of THE DECK, as in this deck, not change it to Infect Stompy. To each to his own, but I hate building something that a lot of people have built already. Almost every variant of Infect that appears on these boards is some derivative of Infect Stompy - at the very least I built something unique.
And it's a 2 Color Deck. It's technically 3 if you really want to count the Red Mana symbols on Deus of Calamity, but that's irrelevant since I'm only playing Blue/Green lands. And it has the best possible manabase to support it at that - I don't find myself being color-screwed.
And yes, it has many moving parts, and many stars need to align. However, there are many ways of fetching these stars - 8 tutors! The breakdown of drawing a good hand is like this: (Statistics is by far my worst math subject, so please correct me if I'm wrong)
Sac-Fodder:
4 Vine Dryad
4 Skyshroud Cutter
+ Fetchable with 4 Wordly Tutor.
So I'll need 1 of those 12 in my starting hand. 81% of drawing 1 of them in my opening hand.
Big Creatures:
4 Phyrexian Hydra
3 Phyrexian Juggernaut
3 Deus of Calamity
3 Clone Shell (I won't count this since this is conditional)
+ Fetchable with 4 Wordly Tutor +1 Living Wish.
So I'll need 1 of those 15 in my starting hand. 88% of drawing 1 of them in my opening hand. (Not sure how the overlap from above with Worldly Tutor factors in here)
Mana Source:
4 Metamorphosis
2 Energy Tap (I won't include this either since colorless is conditional as well)
+ Fetchable with 4 Mystical Tutor.
So I'll need 1 of those 8 in my starting hand. 65% of drawing 1 of them in my opening hand.
Land:
16 Land
+ 4 Land Grant
So I'll ideally need 2 of those 20 in my starting hand. 75% of drawing 2 of them in my opening hand.
I believe the correct way of determining percentage of opening with all of these combined is by multiplying them together?
So: 0.81 * 0.88 * 0.65 * 0.75 = 0.35...or 35%.
If I drop the land requirement to 1 which is often passable with Brainstorm and Halimar Depths, then the 75% becomes 95%, so: 0.81 * 0.88 * 0.75 * 0.95 = 0.44...or 44%.
While I'm sure there's an error in here somewhere, 44% isn't half bad. Considering you can mulligan, the chances should improve even more (if your group plays with lax mulligan rules, like 1 or 2 for free). One can also gamble with Halimar Depths and Brainstorm to see if they smooth out the draws and improve the chances.
Now the real question is - how to improve upon these chances without changing the deck substantially?
I've re-read your OP and I think honestly, you've tweaked it about as much as you possibly could. I mean, all your cards support some other card(s) in the deck and I think you've done some good work here.
If I were to design a crazy 'Rube Goldberg' Johnny poison deck that doesn't feature Proliferate, this would be it. And in all honesty, I wouldn't ever come up with all of this..you're obviously better at this than anyone I play with.
About the only thing I could see that would speed it up would be Moxen or something. I'm not even sure it'd help all that much. What would you cut?
Which leads to the other difficulty in making suggestions: With so much interdependency, if we cut one card, half the other cards in the deck become more iffy. This is a rather 'tight' list, even for a combo deck.
Sorry if I came across as dismissive. Wasn't really my intent.
Kudos to you for being so original! This is a pretty wild deck.
Part of the problem might be the thread title. "All-in Infect" might be a bit misleading..I'd call it "Johnny Infect" or something. You might've gotten different response entirely. (or maybe I should just give OP's a bit more consideration before posting a reasponse. My bad on that.)
Part of the problem might be the thread title. "All-in Infect" might be a bit misleading..I'd call it "Johnny Infect" or something. You might've gotten different response entirely. (or maybe I should just give OP's a bit more consideration before posting a reasponse. My bad on that.)
I actually did consider naming it Johnny Poison, but thought All-In-Poison was a cooler thread title. I mean the All-In-Red Archtype does practically the same thing - straight from their Primer:
"...on the first turn to completely lock the opponent out of the game. The deck is known as "All-In" because it depends on a high-risk, high-reward strategy (that is somewhat reminiscent of going "all-in" in poker): if the opponent has an answer for the locking card, then the deck will be left with significant card disadvantage; making up for that, though, is that this deck can often get a concession from an opponent in just one or two turns, if they have no answers."
About the only thing I could see that would speed it up would be Moxen or something. I'm not even sure it'd help all that much. What would you cut?
Which leads to the other difficulty in making suggestions: With so much interdependency, if we cut one card, half the other cards in the deck become more iffy. This is a rather 'tight' list, even for a combo deck.
It is rather a tight list, but I felt that there could be at least some improvements, even if they are marginal. Here's a list of cards that didn't make it in, but were considered for the deck:
Other options for big creatures were the X-spell creatures, like Feral Hydra and Ivy Elemental to smooth out some poor draws in terms of creatures, but they didn't seem worthwhile.
In Mana, Cathodion and Su-Chi are interesting options, since they too, can provide tons of mana with Metamorphosis. 7 for Cathodion, 9 with Su-Chi. The colorless helps with Energy Tap, but getting them out by casting them regularly @ 3 and 4 respectively didn't seem fast enough. With something like Mishra's Workshop it would be possible, but that's just a broken archtype, with or without Metamorphosis.
The last improvement I can think of is the removal of Energy Tap. It only provides colorless mana, and one less mana than Metamorphosis too. The one good thing is that it doesn't require me to sacrifice the creature, which can be important. For example, I once used Energy Tap on Phyrexian Hydra, then used Metamorphosis on it for 11 mana total, and then tapped another land to hardcast Blightsteel Colossus. It's not a scenario that would happen regularly at all, but it was interesting.
Still, I wonder if this deck is possible to go alone on Metamorphosis alone. Perhaps if I added something like Personal Tutor on top of the Mystical Tutors. By doing this I think I can safely delve into other colors and their 5-mana creatures, like World Queller, or Baneslayer Angel.
I post this stuff because I want to hear your opinions on these alternatives. Perhaps find an interaction I've overlooked or missed completely.
However, I haven't figured a way around the interraction between Metamorphosis and Clone Shell... Since food chain is exile and not sac.
Anywho... there's my take on it for a consistent outlook.
Because Food Chain is a combo card for long-term combo, not short-term. Getting to 3 mana in this deck is very difficult, and I can't get that turn 1 Phyrexian Hydra with Food Chain either.
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Tropical Island
4 Breeding Pool
4 Halimar Depths
Creatures 22
4 Skyshroud Cutter
4 Vine Dryad
4 Phyrexian Hydra
3 Deus of Calamity
3 Clone Shell
3 Phyrexian Juggernaut
1 Blightsteel Colossus
4 Metamorphosis
2 Energy Tap
4 Mystical Tutor
4 Worldly Tutor
3 Brainstorm
4 Land Grant
1 Living Wish
4 Saprazzan Legate
4 Rushwood Legate
1 Sejiri Steppe
1 Soaring Seacliff
1 Teetering Peaks
1 Smoldering Spires
1 Phyrexian Tower
1 Allosaurus Rider
1 Phyrexian Juggernaut
This is All-In-Poison, a homage to the All-In-Red decks from Extended 2 years ago (http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=137799). Typically Poison/Infect decks use Infect Weenies + Cheap Targeted Pump like Vines of Vastwood or the All-Star Invigorate. That approach means none of the expensive Infect creatures like Phyrexian Hydra get used, and that makes me a very sad Johnny :frown:. To my own surprise, this buid is actually quite consistent and just as explosive, if not more than Infect Stompy.
In Depth Deck Explanations:
Now, that idea is nothing new, but I believe that until Mirrodin Besieged was released, this combo had no potential, since there simply weren't many good 5CMC creatures to play on turn 1. Especially not ones that requires such a card disadvntage and life disadvantage.
However, with the new Infect cards, the life-gain drawback from Skyshroud Cutter is now null. Additionally, Poison puts your opponent on a clock that goes twice as fast. I believe these factors combined help push this deck over the edge - it is very possible to get a turn 3 kill out of this.
Skyshroud Cutter and Vine Dryad - sacrifice fodder for Metamorphosis and Energy Tap. With Metamorphosis, this gives us 5 mana, allowing a 1st turn Phyrexian Hydra or Deus of Calamity.
Phyrexian Hydra - Quite possibly the most underrated Infect creature is now the star of the deck. It's really difficult to stop a Turn 1 Hydra, especially since Infect means it doubles as creature removal if they block. In a meta not filled with 1-mana removal, this is absolutely ridiculous.
Deus of Calamity - The other 5mana star card, directly from All-In-Red. Play on turn 1, proceed to win automatically.
Phyrexian Juggernaut - The Hydra and Deus can be played turn 1, this can be played on turn 2 with Metamorphosis. Has a lesser drawback than the Hydra, and the colorless supports Energy Tap.
Clone Shell - If you look up playable 5CMC creatures, you'll find that there aren't many that are worth the cost of going through Metamorphosis/Skyshroud Cutter. This one is barely passable, but only because the Colorless helps Energy Tap, and because it is a way to cheat in Blightsteel Colossus.
Blightsteel Colossus - sometimes, this deck can't set up properly until turn 3. At that point, playing Phyrexian Hydra is not as effective. Blightsteel however, just cannot be stopped, so from turn 3 onward, I try to setup the Clone Shell/Colossus combo instead.
The Spells:
Mystical Tutor - yeah, I know it's restricted/banned now, but really, this is a super-jank deck, and it needs this to win. The ideal opening hand is Tropical Island, Skyshroud Cutter or Vine Dryad, Metamorphosis and Phyrexian Hydra. That's a 3-card combination, and while it is possible to open that hand because there are lots of functionally same cards in here, it's still unlikely. Mystical Tutor sets up a Turn 2 Metamorphosis combo, and that's good enough for me.
Worldly Tutor - same deal as Mystical Tutor. It is card disadvantage, but it does fetch Skyshroud Cutter/Vine Dryad. Or if we're missing the big creature combo piece, it fetches Phyrexian Hydra/Deus of Calamity/Phyrexian Juggernaut. Also sets up Blightsteel Colossus on top for Clone Shell.
Land Grant - This fetches the crucial Forest that we need for Skyshroud Cutter's free ability. I lowered the land count and put this in also because Vine Dryad needs Green cards to exile to be played for free. Also provides free shuffle for Brainstorm, and the reveal hand thing doesn't matter since we'll be emptying our entire hand anyway. In short - an All-Star card.
Brainstorm - When I was goldfishing, I realized how important draw effects were for this deck. Oftentimes this deck is missing one key component to combo out, whether it's a land drop, or a Green card to exile for Vine Dryad. This card improved the consistency quite a bit. Also sets up the top of the library for Clone Shell + Blightsteel Colossus.
Living Wish sideboard. This too adds a layer of consistency. Fetchable via Mystical Tutor, this card literally paves the way to victory, via a land-toolbox. Phyrexian Hydra can be chump blocked if you're unlucky, and cards like Soaring Seacliff, Sejiri Steppe avoid that. Teetering Peaks can push that extra piece of damage in - in this deck it's essentially a +4/+0 pumper.
Regarding the Legates: Saprazzan Legate is superior to Vine Dryad if one is playing against Mountains. Same with Rushwood Legate, although this costs only 3 mana.
Believe it or not, this deck is fairly consistent in setting up. It's sorta like the classic Dark Ritual, Hypnotic Specter combo, but with lots of support added. During Goldfishing, I've managed the Turn 1 Metamorphosis/Cutter/Hydra combo quite a few times, although Turn 2 combos were far more frequent, and Turn 3 is almost a definite.
The deck has already gone through a lot of revision - it originally had Putrefax as another 5CMC Infect creature - though it was very subpar. Another option was Allosaurus Rider with 8CMC cards like Woodfall Primus and the Eldrazi. Even Scornful Egotist was an option. Still, they all had problems and I had to cut them.
Right now, I'd do anything to improve the consistency of the deck even more, and since I'm not going to buy this deck in real life, no budget concerns. Suggestions for other good creatures to be played off Metamorphosis/Energy Tap would be appreciated as well. Thanks for reading!
R: Copypasta Sauce {Browbeat}
UR: Mana Cache , One Spell to Bind them All {Magnetic Theft}
UG: Epic Struggle , All-In-Poison {Metamorphosis}
UW: Planar Overlay , Decree of the Bailiff {Saprazzan Bailiff}
BG: Thought Gorger , Dark Chroma {Umbra Stalker}
UBR: Dwarven Shrine
WUBRG: Dissipation Field , Maelstrom Nexus
I don't see how this could compete with that. 3-colors vs 1, or 2. You've just got so many moving parts and many stars need to align. Seems like, anyway..
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Try cheap Infect creatures like Plague Stinger, cheap/free pump (Invigorate, Bounty of the Hunt, Rouse, Might of Old Krosa, Rancor, Seal of Strength), Vines of Vastwood, and the game-winner: Berserk.
Legacy Gobbyboogers R
I really don't appreciate comments like this. While I did say "I'd do anything to improve the consistency of the deck", that doesn't mean I'll go play something completely different. I said I wanted to improve the consistency of THE DECK, as in this deck, not change it to Infect Stompy. To each to his own, but I hate building something that a lot of people have built already. Almost every variant of Infect that appears on these boards is some derivative of Infect Stompy - at the very least I built something unique.
And it's a 2 Color Deck. It's technically 3 if you really want to count the Red Mana symbols on Deus of Calamity, but that's irrelevant since I'm only playing Blue/Green lands. And it has the best possible manabase to support it at that - I don't find myself being color-screwed.
And yes, it has many moving parts, and many stars need to align. However, there are many ways of fetching these stars - 8 tutors! The breakdown of drawing a good hand is like this: (Statistics is by far my worst math subject, so please correct me if I'm wrong)
Sac-Fodder:
4 Vine Dryad
4 Skyshroud Cutter
+ Fetchable with 4 Wordly Tutor.
So I'll need 1 of those 12 in my starting hand. 81% of drawing 1 of them in my opening hand.
Big Creatures:
4 Phyrexian Hydra
3 Phyrexian Juggernaut
3 Deus of Calamity
3 Clone Shell (I won't count this since this is conditional)
+ Fetchable with 4 Wordly Tutor +1 Living Wish.
So I'll need 1 of those 15 in my starting hand. 88% of drawing 1 of them in my opening hand. (Not sure how the overlap from above with Worldly Tutor factors in here)
Mana Source:
4 Metamorphosis
2 Energy Tap (I won't include this either since colorless is conditional as well)
+ Fetchable with 4 Mystical Tutor.
So I'll need 1 of those 8 in my starting hand. 65% of drawing 1 of them in my opening hand.
Land:
16 Land
+ 4 Land Grant
So I'll ideally need 2 of those 20 in my starting hand. 75% of drawing 2 of them in my opening hand.
I believe the correct way of determining percentage of opening with all of these combined is by multiplying them together?
So: 0.81 * 0.88 * 0.65 * 0.75 = 0.35...or 35%.
If I drop the land requirement to 1 which is often passable with Brainstorm and Halimar Depths, then the 75% becomes 95%, so: 0.81 * 0.88 * 0.75 * 0.95 = 0.44...or 44%.
While I'm sure there's an error in here somewhere, 44% isn't half bad. Considering you can mulligan, the chances should improve even more (if your group plays with lax mulligan rules, like 1 or 2 for free). One can also gamble with Halimar Depths and Brainstorm to see if they smooth out the draws and improve the chances.
Now the real question is - how to improve upon these chances without changing the deck substantially?
R: Copypasta Sauce {Browbeat}
UR: Mana Cache , One Spell to Bind them All {Magnetic Theft}
UG: Epic Struggle , All-In-Poison {Metamorphosis}
UW: Planar Overlay , Decree of the Bailiff {Saprazzan Bailiff}
BG: Thought Gorger , Dark Chroma {Umbra Stalker}
UBR: Dwarven Shrine
WUBRG: Dissipation Field , Maelstrom Nexus
I've re-read your OP and I think honestly, you've tweaked it about as much as you possibly could. I mean, all your cards support some other card(s) in the deck and I think you've done some good work here.
If I were to design a crazy 'Rube Goldberg' Johnny poison deck that doesn't feature Proliferate, this would be it. And in all honesty, I wouldn't ever come up with all of this..you're obviously better at this than anyone I play with.
About the only thing I could see that would speed it up would be Moxen or something. I'm not even sure it'd help all that much. What would you cut?
Which leads to the other difficulty in making suggestions: With so much interdependency, if we cut one card, half the other cards in the deck become more iffy. This is a rather 'tight' list, even for a combo deck.
Sorry if I came across as dismissive. Wasn't really my intent.
Kudos to you for being so original! This is a pretty wild deck.
Part of the problem might be the thread title. "All-in Infect" might be a bit misleading..I'd call it "Johnny Infect" or something. You might've gotten different response entirely. (or maybe I should just give OP's a bit more consideration before posting a reasponse. My bad on that.)
Fully-powered 600-Card "Dream Cube" https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/dreamcube
450-Card "Artificer's Cube" https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/artificer
Cubing in Indianapolis...send me a PM!!
Then you coud play with things like Lotus Cobra, more fetches and things like Khalni Garden.
However, I haven't figured a way around the interraction between Metamorphosis and Clone Shell... Since food chain is exile and not sac.
Anywho... there's my take on it for a consistent outlook.
I actually did consider naming it Johnny Poison, but thought All-In-Poison was a cooler thread title. I mean the All-In-Red Archtype does practically the same thing - straight from their Primer:
"...on the first turn to completely lock the opponent out of the game. The deck is known as "All-In" because it depends on a high-risk, high-reward strategy (that is somewhat reminiscent of going "all-in" in poker): if the opponent has an answer for the locking card, then the deck will be left with significant card disadvantage; making up for that, though, is that this deck can often get a concession from an opponent in just one or two turns, if they have no answers."
It is rather a tight list, but I felt that there could be at least some improvements, even if they are marginal. Here's a list of cards that didn't make it in, but were considered for the deck:
Allosaurus Rider - this is basically a double Vine Dryad. It can give you access to 8 mana on turn 1 with Metamorphosis, or 7 with Energy Tap. Turn 1 Sundering Titan? Woodfall Primus? Terastodon? Myr Battlesphere? All crazy and insane plays, but I really questioned the possibility of Allosaurus Rider, since casting Vine Dryad was sometimes a problem. I'm not sure if a tweak can fix this.
Other options for big creatures were the X-spell creatures, like Feral Hydra and Ivy Elemental to smooth out some poor draws in terms of creatures, but they didn't seem worthwhile.
In Mana, Cathodion and Su-Chi are interesting options, since they too, can provide tons of mana with Metamorphosis. 7 for Cathodion, 9 with Su-Chi. The colorless helps with Energy Tap, but getting them out by casting them regularly @ 3 and 4 respectively didn't seem fast enough. With something like Mishra's Workshop it would be possible, but that's just a broken archtype, with or without Metamorphosis.
The last improvement I can think of is the removal of Energy Tap. It only provides colorless mana, and one less mana than Metamorphosis too. The one good thing is that it doesn't require me to sacrifice the creature, which can be important. For example, I once used Energy Tap on Phyrexian Hydra, then used Metamorphosis on it for 11 mana total, and then tapped another land to hardcast Blightsteel Colossus. It's not a scenario that would happen regularly at all, but it was interesting.
Still, I wonder if this deck is possible to go alone on Metamorphosis alone. Perhaps if I added something like Personal Tutor on top of the Mystical Tutors. By doing this I think I can safely delve into other colors and their 5-mana creatures, like World Queller, or Baneslayer Angel.
I post this stuff because I want to hear your opinions on these alternatives. Perhaps find an interaction I've overlooked or missed completely.
Because Food Chain is a combo card for long-term combo, not short-term. Getting to 3 mana in this deck is very difficult, and I can't get that turn 1 Phyrexian Hydra with Food Chain either.
R: Copypasta Sauce {Browbeat}
UR: Mana Cache , One Spell to Bind them All {Magnetic Theft}
UG: Epic Struggle , All-In-Poison {Metamorphosis}
UW: Planar Overlay , Decree of the Bailiff {Saprazzan Bailiff}
BG: Thought Gorger , Dark Chroma {Umbra Stalker}
UBR: Dwarven Shrine
WUBRG: Dissipation Field , Maelstrom Nexus