Another SB card I play vs Tireless Tribe is Seal of Removal. Both can do a number on them, even through Gigadrowse. But Seal of Removal can also survive Piracy Charm or Serrated Arrows, if they're counter-sideboarding vs. you in the 3rd game. My local game store has tons of Tireless Tribe combo, and both Piracy Charm and Serrated Arrows are frequently in their sideboard. Sometimes there's Disenchant effects, but that seems less common. Maybe a mix is best.
Another trick for getting through Gigadrowse: Dispel/Counter one of the Gigadrowse copies targeting a forest, keeping the mana open for Fog. Sure, they probably have a Circular Logic, but it's at least something and might catch them if they were greedy and trying to swing in without enough protection.
Lignify is also a possible sideboard cards vs. Tireless Tribe. Both again can be countered with a Circular Logic, but you can try to win the counter war. And they're immune to Dispel, which in my experience is usually the first counter they'll have after Circular Logic.
Gutshot or Snapback are also free disruption that get past a Gigadrowse. I think the stuff above is mostly better, but they're worth consideration.
Thank you so much for your great insight into the matchup, Einhorn! I will definitely add your suggestions and advice to the Primer.
I think Seal of Removal seems like the most promising tool to fight Tribe, since it's so hard to play around once it's on the battlefield and can be cast preemptively. Lignify comes in as a close second and may be better since it can be tutored for.
IMHO, the most important skill with the deck is "not getting paired against tempo decks with counterspells." I knew one of the regulars who played Mono-U Delver was coming back from a summer vacation the next week, so I thought it was a good timing for the deck. For local stores at the right time, it can be incredibly powerful.
hi peace lovers! it's been a long while since the last time i visited my turbo fog deck (paper), may i ask if this new pauper cards are viable in our deck? devious cover-up: to have a chance to reuse some of our spells in the graveyard. foil: because it's pauper's fore of will.
what you guys think? thanks!
hi peace lovers! it's been a long while since the last time i visited my turbo fog deck (paper), may i ask if this new pauper cards are viable in our deck? devious cover-up: to have a chance to reuse some of our spells in the graveyard. foil: because it's pauper's fore of will.
what you guys think? thanks!
Hi killer_eye! Welcome to the Pauper forums!
I personally don't think Devious Cover-up is playable because of it's mana cost. 4 is just too much mana to leave up, and it gets even more problematic when you have to hold up fogs as well.
Foil is on the other spectrum entirely and is likely to see play in many Pauper decks, Turbo Fog included. I think this will cement this deck into a "Gush" deck. I will definitely be trying out a build with more basic islands and 3-4 Gush and 2-3 Foils. A free hard-counter is extremely powerful, even if the card disadvantage can be brutal. I think it will be a great way to discard things like Deep Analysis, Think Twice and the first copy of Accumulated Knowledge for huge benefits from the graveyard.
As a side note, I think Laboratory Maniac could be an interesting win condition for Peasant lists out there. Having it as a singleton copy, then jamming just a bunch of card draw, fogs and Isochron Scepter seems good. There have been a few winning Pauper lists doing something similar with battlefield Scrounger and Pulse of Murasa.
Uhh, Growth Spiral looks pretty awesome for turbofog. We love to draw and loves to put lands into play. This card does both, and at instant speed. I certainly want to try this out!
I've also been thinking recently about how the meta shift from UR to UB Delver dominance might make UG Turbofog a bit more competitive. A lesser chance of running into Spellstutter Sprite is a huge boon, IMHO. Also, UB Delver has more black removal that can't go to your face ala Lightning Bolt.
Plus, if they want to cycle through their Thought Scours, they have to mill themselves. On one hand, you're feeding they're Delve with your milling, but on the other hand UB Delver can already mostly assume it can cast all the Gurmag Anglers it can draw.
Uhh, Growth Spiral looks pretty awesome for turbofog. We love to draw and loves to put lands into play. This card does both, and at instant speed. I certainly want to try this out!
I think it's okay. Not sure if it will be worth playing. It only draws one, but it does have the advantage of technically being a 1 mana spell by letting you play a land. I can see a lot of scenarios where this would only be a draw 1 for 2, which is terrible. I think it would be a little too inconsistent to be good in our deck. More testing required!
I've also been thinking recently about how the meta shift from UR to UB Delver dominance might make UG Turbofog a bit more competitive. A lesser chance of running into Spellstutter Sprite is a huge boon, IMHO. Also, UB Delver has more black removal that can't go to your face ala Lightning Bolt.
Plus, if they want to cycle through their Thought Scours, they have to mill themselves. On one hand, you're feeding they're Delve with your milling, but on the other hand UB Delver can already mostly assume it can cast all the Gurmag Anglers it can draw.
Isn't it great? UB decks are such a walk in the park usually, I can't imagine that Foil pushes them into a favourable position against us, especially considering we also play it.
With these Dimir decks running rampant and a bunch of aggro decks coming in to try to stop them, this seems like a good time to play Turbo Fog.
I'm still worried about Burn and am trying to find ways to improve the matchup. Here's where my list is so far.
I've stripped down to 18 lands, which feels alright. I'm still a little concerned about opening hands, but I have to trust the deck. It does make room for more goodies!
3 Gush and 3 Foil has been feeling pretty good. There have been a few scenarios where Foil was just bad, though. The draw package has been super synergistic, however. Deep Analysis has been a really powerful addition, and feels quite at home with Foil and Gush, since both make me discard cards, either to pay for the cost or to discard down to hand size. I've also been feeling comfortable hard-casting it for 4 occasionally.
I put Quiet Disrepair back in the deck, but only as a 2-of. I think that against Burn, my plan is to bring in Relic of Progenitus and Lignify so that I have a total of 9 other artifacts and enchantments in the deck, which makes casting Quiet Disrepair pretty realistic, especially considering that I'll also be facing the odd Curse of the Pierced Heart. This gets around having to play artifact lands, which would be difficult with the current setup. I could see myself playing a single Tree of Tales, though. Lignify should be pretty strong against them, so only Relic feels like a wasted slot in that matchup. Worth it? We'll see.
I took a new post-UMA version of my Turbo Fog list to my local store night, and ended up going 3-0-1 (technically 2-0-2 due to an intentional draw in the last round, but we still played it out and I won that one). The deck used to play artifact lands and Quiet Disrepair (1 maindeck, 3 sideboard) but my new list basically just treats Burn as an unwinnable match-up, to better focus on other ones. This might be a brief window in which Turbo Fog can really shine, as I think Burn's poised to rise in the meta with Skewer the Critics, but it was a fun night!
I won vs. Boros Monarch, Gruul Cascade Aggro, and UG Delver. My tied game was against Boros Bully.
You'd think Gush + Foil would be a bigger include in this deck, but I think the deck can only support 1 of each. The thing is, winning the Delver match-up is all about matching their counters with your own counters + extra Fogs. You need to keep a huge amount of mana up each turn so they can't overload you and get in with that lethal swing. Thus, setting your land count back 2 isn't something you can do on the regular...the list just has 1 Gush for late-game haymaker plays. This "cheap interaction war" is also why I think being able to go up to 4 Dispels post-sideboarding is huge for the Delver matchups.
Another interesting strategic quirk: against many decks that roll out pressure slowly (like Boros Monarch), I actually sideboard lands out. 1 Forest first, then maybe 1 Island. Against those decks you don't need the green mana early since you probably won't be fogging until turns 5-6. Against Boros Monarch, I'm OK with being a bit mana screwed early if it means I have more Dispels to fight through their Galvanic Blasts + Pyroblasts.
My favorite "evil mastermind" moment in Pauper is Portent'ing you opponent with Jace's Erasure in play. "Oh, so that's what you sideboarded in? Too bad you won't get a chance to use it, mwa ha ha..."
Other changes I'd make to the deck: This deck needs some way to beat Aura Fracture vs. Boros Bully. Maybe 1-2 Echoing Truth in the SB. Repulse didn't really help in the SB, and will get cut. I thought it might be good vs UB Delver if they're beating down with 1 Gurmag Angler, but didn't face the deck, so who knows.
EDIT: After thinking about it, green enchantment removal is a better answer to resolved Aura Fractures than bounce. Ideally, I just counter it, but there are turns when they attack and I have to fog, then they play Aura Fracture with Pyroblast backup vs the one counterspell I can cast. After searching gatherer for green cards with "Enchantment" + "Destroy" in the text, I'm planning on going with eith 2 copies of either Nullmage Advocate, Rending Vines, or Nature's Claim. Also keeps Torex from recurring Crypt Rats.
I've honestly felt pretty good about the 3 Gush in my deck, mostly because it feeds Foil and Deep Analysis. While my Delver matchup is still unfavourable, I am almost always winning at least one game in the match now, which means that the deck is fairly competitive against the top deck in the format.
I think we have an even more serious question on our hands now: Does Turbo Fog even need to play Jace's Erasure anymore? Clear the Mind, when played in multiples, prevents us from ever running out of cards. We could literally let the opponent draw themselves to death.
Pros:
It would require less deck space. You only need two copies of Clear the Mind in the mainbord, which leaves more space for card draw or counters or something.
It is even more difficult to interact with. Non-Blue decks will have no other way of killing us other than by using graveyard hate, and even that isn't completely reliable. We wouldn't have to worry about enchantment destruction anymore.
It replaces itself in your hand.
Cons:
We no longer have a clock. The opponent will literally be able to draw their entire deck. If they have an answer for it, we are screwed.
Games will go long all the time. Like, really, really long.
It is one more mana to cast.
I'm seriously considering playing this card and foregoing Erasure completely, or relegating a single copy to the sideboard to speed up kills versus aggro decks.
I'm not sure how I feel about this yet. I've played three matches so far and won one.
The first match was against Boros. I won the first match and then lost the next two to burn spells. It happens.
The second match was frustrating. I played against Slivers and timed out when the opponent had two cards left in their library in game two with a Preordain on the stack and another draw spell revealed along with Jace's Erasure, which would have been lethal.
The third match was against a Mono-Green Ramp deck and I won with 5 minutes to spare. I was finally starting to feel a bit more comfortable with the drastic change in play style and having to play at a much faster pace.
Lots of notes about the deck already:
The switch to Azorius was motivated by the fact that Moment's Peace doesn't interact well with Clear the Mind. Flashback cards aren't shuffled back into the library since they are exiled, so it effectively reduces our chances of drawing one over the course of the two or three times we have to shuffle. Same goes for cards like Think Twice and Deep Analysis.
The White fogs are so much better than the green ones. Other than Moment's Peace (which I already mentioned), Dawn Charm and Riot Control are much more versatile and powerful compared to the best green fogs. Even Moment of Silence has many advantages over Fog, since it stops Annihilator triggers from Ulamog's Crusher and doesn't care about Flaring Pain.
Being Azorius should improve my Burn matchup significantly. The White fogs prevent all damage or can be counters. On top of COP and countermagic, this matchup no longer feels hopeless. We'll have to find out.
The deck does not want to have lands being shuffled back into the deck. Therefore cards like Terramorphic Expanse are pretty bad, since they get shuffled in and are dead draws in the future when we already have 8-12 lands in play.
In the same vein, with fewer ways to fetch, Brainstorm is no longer very effective. I've replaced it with more efficient cantrips.
Another reason to take out Brainstorm is the fact that we no longer care about "draw" triggers for Jace's Erasure. This opens up the opportunity to play Impulse, an enormously powerful card. Being able to look at the top 4 at instant speed and take anything is incredibly good.
Aggro decks take forever to beat. They don't draw, so we have to cycle for a long time just to kill them. I think putting more Thought Scours in the deck would help with that. The cost for this card is quite low, so I will probably look at making this switch soon.
I think Palace Sentinels is going to be worth playing as a 2-of. Being the Monarch can equate to a ton of card advantage for free. The other upside is that against Aggro decks, we can theoretically let an attack through to give them the monarchy and have them lose faster.
The Circles of Protection are too time-consuming to use properly. They feel like a safety net that we don't really need when the deck is playing right, especially in the deep late game. The Green one in particular is probably not worth playing, especially not as a 2-of.
Definitely an interesting take. I've been watching the videos you posted and it seems time is your main enemy, other than Bojuka Bogs. The deck should be called Turtle Fog now! Lol!
Riot Control can get out of control for your aggro opponents. That coupled with Moment of Silence makes Flaring Pain useless considering that you don't mind if it resolves once or even twice with the amount of life you can gain.
Running a single copy of Curse of the Bloody Tome might help with time if you can find the space for it.
It was a bit jarring to see you switch over to this new build since you got so used to piloting the old turbo fog. I look forward to seeing where you take this new build though!
Obviously the 1 Gush has to go, and quite likely the Foil. Not entirely sure about Deep Analysis, as part of it's strength was combo'ing well with Foil, but it can be a good haymaker if it's the last turn and you have 1-3 Erasure's on the board. The 1 MD Dispel might also be worth taking out if Delver really does fall back in the meta.
I've been able to hold my own against Delver for a while now. I wouldn't consider it a good matchup, but I feel like beating Delver is more feasible now than it was 3-4 years ago. That being said, not having to worry about Daze and Gush is certainly nice. It will really help us against decks like Tribe Combo, who's main recourse against us was mainly Gush.
That being said, I'll have to back-track a bit on my own versions of the deck that have been running Gush to facilitate using Foil. This combo gave us a lot of security in the late game and I'm sad to lose it, but we can still run some number of Foils, though it will require us to hold lands in hand, which is not great.
I'm pretty pumped about Stream of Thought. Every line of text on it is relevant to our game plan. It mills out the opponent (albeit slowly), it prevents us from dying to overdraw, it shuffles back useful cards for the matchup, and it has lategame potential as a mana sink to finish off the game that is hard to counter thanks to replicate. Shuffling 8 and milling 8 is a huge swing and paying 5 mana is not too much on turn 12 or so against most decks. I could see myself running a split of these with Jace's Erasure, maybe 2:2... I'll have to test it out.
I usually find that paying 3 mana for a counter is a bit too much when we usually want to also Fog and draw cards.
Will burn go back to a more spell-heavy version with Gitaxian Probe banned? The combination of the 12 creatures and all their spells is what made the matchup much more difficult than it used to be. Without the probe, I wonder if people will still be as inclined to play Ghitu Lavarunner.
I'm also still worried about Murasa Tron. It can be beat, but it's not a great matchup, honestly. Has anyone had any tricks to fight it in the long game?
I'm also still worried about Murasa Tron. It can be beat, but it's not a great matchup, honestly. Has anyone had any tricks to fight it in the long game?
I wish I could get more games in vs. Tron. It's very under-represented in my store's meta.
Right now I have 2x Exclude, 2x Dispel, and 2x Negate in the SB which add to 4x Arcane Denial and 1x Counterspell, and my plan vs. Tron is to just try burning through their Mnemonic Walls/Pulse of Murasas with counterspells. BW Pestilence Control is big in my store too, so the Negates are key in that match (I absolutely can't let a Pestilence resolve). Maybe Faerie Macabre will be worth it,too.
I was doing some goldfishing with Whirlpool Rider as a "final turn haymaker" card, replacing Gush. I liked it but ended up trying Flux in it's place. Whirlpool Rider can give some decks a chance to use the Exclude they've been holding in their hand G1 before boarding it out, while Flux dodges this and Dispel. I think I like it a bit more than Tolarian Winds, since you usually have enough mana on the final turn and the +1 draw for 1 mana seems worth it. And it's a very cool old card, with Richard Kane-Ferguson.
i'm also excited with weather the storm as a sideboard tech against burn.
Yes, I think this card might be the very best answer to burn we've seen so far. I imagine it will be quite easy to play for 9 life or more, considering how many spells they play on their turn on top of whatever we're able to play. Should be sweet!
I've been brewing for a bit, but I haven't found a list I'm totally happy with yet since the banning of Gush. I wasn't planning on publishing any Turbo Fog videos in the near future, but since there is some interest, than I probably will! Thank you!
sharing my decklist post MH1, sideboard is still under construction buty primary concern for it are delver decks + their new anthem effect in sunken, goblin with grenades and as always burn decks.
MH1 is great and all, but changing the legality of over 400 cards has changed the game quite a bit for me. I'll be playing maindeck Deserts for years to come. This card is broken and will be the demise of Delvers and Faeries for years to come.
Merchant Scroll will also be making a splash for me. I think it's a great way to fetch up our card draw or countermagic.
good catch on desert, it's really a good police against faeries, sadly it already spike in paper commanding a $7 price tag
edit: imagining the lines of play using your decklist
- i'd like the inclusion of weather the storm maindeck (i'll also adopt this strategy instead of quiet disrepair mb)
- 2 stream of thought for the alternate wincon without relying with jace.
- 3 desert, this is really a big inclusion for us
thoughts:
- the increase of colorless land might cause some mana problem, is ash barren would still be playable? eot landcyling? (though it would increase a chance for mulligan due to coloreless land in opening hand).
- the list looks weak against graveyard hate (atm no gravehate is used against fog deck but once this list gets popular then we might see them), i think minimum of 2-Erasure is the correct number to prevent this from happening.
last: after thinking for while, it seems desert is too strong for pauper though the disadvantage of running colorless is there.
Upkeep! I'm a long time Pauper player and occasional forum lurker who started watching Spell Slam's videos on YouTube and I just had to create a MTG Salvation account so I could post on the primer.
I was testing your UW Clear the Mind version of Turbo Fog and, as things go, ended up with a UG version without Clear the Mind that isn't really the UG version we're all used to, so I figured I'd share. If you want to read how I got there, see the spoiler below. Otherwise here's the deck list:
The Clear the Mind version seems so much better than the Jace's Erasure version because 1) it's not weak to enchantment removal or turn one discard, 2) you don't need to tutor, and, most importantly, 3) you don't need to rely on draw triggers. Without a focus on draw triggers we can add Pieces of the Puzzle. The addition of white allows us to add 2x Palace Sentinels for Monarch. I also added 2x Stream of Thought and 2x Devious Cover-Up (replacing Foil). To make sure I could cast the more expensive cards, I upped the land count to 20.
I worked with that for a while and, sadly, dropped Clear the Mind. You just don't need it with Stream of Thought and Devious Cover-Up. Sometimes it was actively bad by shuffling in lands and unneeded cantrips (though, I did add 1x Logic Knot to exile graveyard cards... was king of cool, you could cast Clear the Mind, Logic Knot it exiling whatever you didn't want, and then Arcane Denial the Logic Knot and draw 3 cards, haha). Left me a free spot for Renewed Faith. Good against Burn or just cycles.
Deck was still super slow, though. That's the downside of UW over the traditional UG. Humble brag... I'm a pretty fast MTGO player and I was still running into issues. Or my opponent would time out which is an abusive wincon. I also play paper, and there are a few methodical players at my LGS (not to mention all the shuffling, cutting, scrying and socializing) so this wouldn't do. I upped Stream of Thought to 3 and that helped a lot. With the extra lands I could easily replicate twice in the last game.
Is anyone talking about Rust? Let's talk about Rust! Stifle for artifacts? It's the reason to go green. Okay, okay, sure, Weather the Storm, but, come on, Rust! Yes, it's not on MTGO yet but hopefully they'll add it soon.
So, I switched all the fogs to green and added Weather the Storm and here's the list I'm running:
4 Stream of Thought might seem weird, but I want to finish the game without going to time in paper. Besides, every time you cast it, you're improving the quality of your deck in a way that feels better than Clear the Mind. It's also a hedge against Bojuka Bog (the more you shuffle cards in, the less you lose when you get bogged). If time wasn't a factor I'd go with 2 or 3 but 4 seems like the right number.
When putting cards back with Stream of Thought, I've been following this general priority, adjusting with how low I am on fogs: #1 Stream of Thought and Devious Cover-Up, #2 Fogs and relevant sideboard cards, #3, Pieces of the Puzzle and 1 or 2 Accumulate Knowledge. After that I return nothing so the deck is only wincons, fogs, and the best draw spells. I wouldn't return a Preordain unless I was going to deck or my other spells had been exiled.
One last note on Stream of Thought: early on it's the best card to self-counter with Arcane Denial, especially if you don't want to mill them into a combo piece or delve.
Moving to green lost Palace Sentinels and that's sad. Monarch seemed good in UW. Entourage of Trest might work but it just seems too expensive (and I don't own any for testing).
Speaking of flashback, Moment's Peace. Sure, it's not synergistic, but this is the way I see it: in most cases, it's a Dawn Charm that you could flashback if you're about to die. I try not to flash it back.
Desert, obvious, it's good. I prefer 2. 3 seems like asking for trouble, especially with Devious Cover-Up. Depending on the meta this could go up, down, or be a split with Radiant Fountain.
Few notes about the sideboard:
Rust, mentioned in my How I got there... section above. Fights Relic of Progenitus, Nihil Spellbomb andTormod's Crypt. Might be stupid but I think it's exactly what this deck needs. Not on MTGO yet, though, so I don't know if it's worse than Annul.
Faerie Macabre, you've got to have this against Ghostly Flicker. Pieces of the Puzzle doesn't hit it but it's uncounterable. 100% needs to be in the sideboard, regardless of the version of Turbo Fog you play.
Return to Nature, another reason to be green. The exile clause is relevant over similar cards in white.
Whew, there you go. Is it good? Well, it's Turbo Fog, haha. I like this version, though. I'll post some results soon. Let me know what you all think. Hopefully some of these thoughts are at least helpful.
wow! welcome to mtgs! i like your list and notes you've shared about the card choices, not needing to look for jace's erasure as a wincon free up the slot for muddle the mixture opening so many slot in the deck.
now for my thoughts: pieces of the puzzle/hieroglyphic illumination, this cards cost a lot and we need to open up extra mana for fog and if against blue we also need an extra mana for the counterwar. incase we reach a point wherein we are able to cast them with extra mana for fog then that means we are "somehow" in a comfortable position to win, i think the critical period for turbo fog is in the early turn (T3~T5) in which we are setting up and ensuring we have fog protection so i think brainstorm is still needed here for the cheap card draw manipulation.
that's just my thought, thanks for sharing your list! with this i'm more convince to go the stream of thought route rather than jace's erasure, but i would still like to have atleast 2 copies of jace's erasure in my 75 so as not to fold against gravehate. (i bet i'll be having a hardtime finding a copy of rust in paper).
... Fantastic! Thank you so much for the detailed post. I learned a lot by reading it! I'm especially impressed at your formatting, given that this is your first post on MTGSalvation (which is unfortunately closing in 6 days )
First off, Is your username the same as your name on MTGO? If so, I think I've watched you play a couple games or maybe we've actually played each other. Your name is very familiar. Maybe some 5-0s in the leagues?
Okay, the deck: I'm glad I took the time to read all of your explanations for each card, because some of it really wasn't obvious to me at first. Thanks again for taking the time to write this up!
Overall, I think the proportions of the deck are pretty decent and follow along with how I like to play my versions of the deck.
The only thing I think you definitely should reconsider is your land count. I've recently dropped to 18 and have felt pretty good about it. I even run 3 Deserts! I'm a pretty greedy guy, though... This makes room for more card draw, which helps you make land drops in the early game and also fuel you in the late game. It's an adjustment, but one well worth it.
1 Weather the Storm in the maindeck is very much worth it. Even after only a couple games, this is a card I want to see and shuffle back into the deck frequently. It's extremely easy to gain 9-12 life with it, and it becomes game-winning with more copies. I'm wondering if it might not be worth including more of them in the maindeck in exchange for actual fogs. This is matchup and meta dependent, however.
I like your comment on Stream of Thought. It seems we have to make some choices in terms of actual playability of our win conditions at this point. I'll post my updated list after this, but I'm now at a 2:2 split between it and jace's Erasure, but I'm starting to think that maybe 3:1 in favour of Stream is probably better. Erasure certainly helps provide faster wins and only having one copy means we don't rely on it.
An idea I've been toying with in my mind because of Stream of Thought has been to run Take Inventory in the place of cards like Deep Analysis. Shuffling copies 3 and 4 back into the deck is just so good with Accumulated Knowledge that maybe having an extra set of similar cards would be worth it. What do you think?
Otherwise, I think I will replace my Deep Analysis for two copies of Pieces of the Puzzle This card definitely seems strong enough, though it doesn't help with land drops. 4 copies seems like a lot because of that reason.
The sideboard is where things get really interesting for me. I had not heard of Rust. Rust seems like a great card, when you explain it the way you did. I will have to try Rust. Rust will certainly catch people off-guard. Rust is also only 30 cents.
I did not consider No Escape in Turbo Fog. I am not totally convinced that it should be played over Faerie Trickery, if you're looking for that kind of effect. The mana cost certainly helps its case. Have you tried Faerie Trickery instead?
I tried Faerie Macabre for a while, if I remember correctly. It never seemed to be enough to stop the Tron deck. It's a decent answer, but doesn't really solve the problem. I'll have to take another swing at it sometime.
Dispel v. Counterspell is always a tough call for me. I tend to miss the classic answer in matchups where I wouldn't bring in Dispels, like MBC and Elves. I'll stick with my split for now just for the flexibility of Counterspell.
What artifacts and enchantments do you need to deal with using Return to Nature?
With the new meta currently being shaped, I am expecting the death of Delver as an archetype. Desert is being bought out and will be seeing regular in any manabase that can afford it (and some that can't). That being said, I still am running 2 Aerial Volley and 2 Penumbra Spider, which is taking up a lot of room in my sideboard that maybe isn't necessary anymore. Maybe Aerial Volley could go, but Penumbra Spider is still a decent answer to fliers and is a great blocker in general. I'm a bit torn here. You don't seem to have a sideboard plan versus Delver aside from Dispels. How do you manage?
I feel the need to thank you a third time for your writeup. It's not every day that I get such a great, well-researched contribution like this in the forum, which makes me even more melancholic that it's being shut down.
With my small amount of testing so far and with your writeup, here's how I'm seeing my current deck:
Long time lurker here, just wondering why Accumulated Knowledge is the preferred card choice over Think Twice?
Here are some of my observations:
- I pretty much prefer running 4 Stream of Thought over Jace's Erasure. If I have Stream of Thought early on, I often cast it on myself in hopes of dumping out Moment's Peace and/or Think Twice. I've already dropped off Muddle the Mixture.
- I've been running 4 Weather the Storm main board with mixed results. I often gain 9 life off of it which is pretty much almost equivalent to a fog early to mid game. It gets tricky late game where I have to build storm count independent of my opponent's spell. I still use Brainstorm to help build storm count.
- I run 4 Land Grant for the potential storm count and shuffle effect. Sorcery speed makes it iffier that it already is and backfires half of the time but I don't mind losing to my play group, LOL.
Disclaimer: My play group aren't the most competitive people out there.
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Another trick for getting through Gigadrowse: Dispel/Counter one of the Gigadrowse copies targeting a forest, keeping the mana open for Fog. Sure, they probably have a Circular Logic, but it's at least something and might catch them if they were greedy and trying to swing in without enough protection.
Lignify is also a possible sideboard cards vs. Tireless Tribe. Both again can be countered with a Circular Logic, but you can try to win the counter war. And they're immune to Dispel, which in my experience is usually the first counter they'll have after Circular Logic.
Gutshot or Snapback are also free disruption that get past a Gigadrowse. I think the stuff above is mostly better, but they're worth consideration.
Corrupt Control B | Burn R | UG Turbofog UG | White Weenie W | GW Tethmos WG | BG Cycling Combo BG
Enchantress GBW | Colorless Tron C | Red Deck Wins R | UG Madness UG | Mono-G Tron G | UR Puzzlehorns UR
Rhystic Tron WU| WU Prowess WU | BR Reanimator BR | Mono-R Control R | Stompy G | Temur Tron URG
Mardu Infinite Priest WBR | 85-Card Dredge BRG | Elves GU | Boros Bully RW | Jeskai Familiars RWU
I think Seal of Removal seems like the most promising tool to fight Tribe, since it's so hard to play around once it's on the battlefield and can be cast preemptively. Lignify comes in as a close second and may be better since it can be tutored for.
I've been boarding in Relic of Progenitus to help counter Circular Logic, which has helped in a few instances.
Right now my list is looking like this:
3 Fog
4 Tangle
4 Moment's Peace
Draw (19)
4 Brainstorm
4 Preordain
2 Think Twice
4 Accumulated Knowledge
3 Tragic Lesson
2 Gush
3 Arcane Denial
4 Muddle the Mixture
Enchantments (4)
4 Jace's Erasure
Lands (19)
2 Forest
7 Island
4 Terramorphic Expanse
2 Thornwood Falls
2 Radiant Fountain
2 Simic Growth Chamber
2 Counterspell
3 Dispel
4 Jaddi Offshoot
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Aerial Volley
2 Penumbra Spider
UGTurboFogGU
BRSacrificial AggroBR
16The Paper Pauper Battle Bag16
EDH
BRRakdos, Lord of PingersBR
GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
UB Ramses OverdarkUB
Sig by Ace5301 of Ace of Spades Studio
IMHO, the most important skill with the deck is "not getting paired against tempo decks with counterspells." I knew one of the regulars who played Mono-U Delver was coming back from a summer vacation the next week, so I thought it was a good timing for the deck. For local stores at the right time, it can be incredibly powerful.
Corrupt Control B | Burn R | UG Turbofog UG | White Weenie W | GW Tethmos WG | BG Cycling Combo BG
Enchantress GBW | Colorless Tron C | Red Deck Wins R | UG Madness UG | Mono-G Tron G | UR Puzzlehorns UR
Rhystic Tron WU| WU Prowess WU | BR Reanimator BR | Mono-R Control R | Stompy G | Temur Tron URG
Mardu Infinite Priest WBR | 85-Card Dredge BRG | Elves GU | Boros Bully RW | Jeskai Familiars RWU
devious cover-up: to have a chance to reuse some of our spells in the graveyard.
foil: because it's pauper's fore of will.
what you guys think? thanks!
Hi killer_eye! Welcome to the Pauper forums!
I personally don't think Devious Cover-up is playable because of it's mana cost. 4 is just too much mana to leave up, and it gets even more problematic when you have to hold up fogs as well.
Foil is on the other spectrum entirely and is likely to see play in many Pauper decks, Turbo Fog included. I think this will cement this deck into a "Gush" deck. I will definitely be trying out a build with more basic islands and 3-4 Gush and 2-3 Foils. A free hard-counter is extremely powerful, even if the card disadvantage can be brutal. I think it will be a great way to discard things like Deep Analysis, Think Twice and the first copy of Accumulated Knowledge for huge benefits from the graveyard.
Something along these lines seems decent:
3 Fog
4 Tangle
4 Moment's Peace
Draw (19)
4 Brainstorm
4 Preordain
3 Think Twice
4 Accumulated Knowledge
2 Deep Analysis
3 Gush
3 Foil
4 Muddle the Mixture
Enchantments (4)
4 Jace's Erasure
Lands (19)
2 Forest
8 Island
4 Terramorphic Expanse
2 Thornwood Falls
3 Simic Growth Chamber
3 Counterspell
3 Dispel
3 Lignify
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Aerial Volley
2 Penumbra Spider
As a side note, I think Laboratory Maniac could be an interesting win condition for Peasant lists out there. Having it as a singleton copy, then jamming just a bunch of card draw, fogs and Isochron Scepter seems good. There have been a few winning Pauper lists doing something similar with battlefield Scrounger and Pulse of Murasa.
UGTurboFogGU
BRSacrificial AggroBR
16The Paper Pauper Battle Bag16
EDH
BRRakdos, Lord of PingersBR
GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
UB Ramses OverdarkUB
Sig by Ace5301 of Ace of Spades Studio
Plus, if they want to cycle through their Thought Scours, they have to mill themselves. On one hand, you're feeding they're Delve with your milling, but on the other hand UB Delver can already mostly assume it can cast all the Gurmag Anglers it can draw.
Corrupt Control B | Burn R | UG Turbofog UG | White Weenie W | GW Tethmos WG | BG Cycling Combo BG
Enchantress GBW | Colorless Tron C | Red Deck Wins R | UG Madness UG | Mono-G Tron G | UR Puzzlehorns UR
Rhystic Tron WU| WU Prowess WU | BR Reanimator BR | Mono-R Control R | Stompy G | Temur Tron URG
Mardu Infinite Priest WBR | 85-Card Dredge BRG | Elves GU | Boros Bully RW | Jeskai Familiars RWU
I think it's okay. Not sure if it will be worth playing. It only draws one, but it does have the advantage of technically being a 1 mana spell by letting you play a land. I can see a lot of scenarios where this would only be a draw 1 for 2, which is terrible. I think it would be a little too inconsistent to be good in our deck. More testing required!
Isn't it great? UB decks are such a walk in the park usually, I can't imagine that Foil pushes them into a favourable position against us, especially considering we also play it.
With these Dimir decks running rampant and a bunch of aggro decks coming in to try to stop them, this seems like a good time to play Turbo Fog.
I'm still worried about Burn and am trying to find ways to improve the matchup. Here's where my list is so far.
3 Fog
4 Tangle
4 Moment's Peace
Draw (20)
4 Brainstorm
4 Preordain
3 Think Twice
4 Accumulated Knowledge
2 Deep Analysis
3 Gush
3 Foil
4 Muddle the Mixture
Enchantments (4)
4 Jace's Erasure
Lands (18)
3 Forest
9 Island
4 Terramorphic Expanse
2 Thornwood Falls
2 Counterspell
2 Dispel
3 Lignify
2 Quiet Disrepair
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Aerial Volley
2 Penumbra Spider
I've stripped down to 18 lands, which feels alright. I'm still a little concerned about opening hands, but I have to trust the deck. It does make room for more goodies!
3 Gush and 3 Foil has been feeling pretty good. There have been a few scenarios where Foil was just bad, though. The draw package has been super synergistic, however. Deep Analysis has been a really powerful addition, and feels quite at home with Foil and Gush, since both make me discard cards, either to pay for the cost or to discard down to hand size. I've also been feeling comfortable hard-casting it for 4 occasionally.
I put Quiet Disrepair back in the deck, but only as a 2-of. I think that against Burn, my plan is to bring in Relic of Progenitus and Lignify so that I have a total of 9 other artifacts and enchantments in the deck, which makes casting Quiet Disrepair pretty realistic, especially considering that I'll also be facing the odd Curse of the Pierced Heart. This gets around having to play artifact lands, which would be difficult with the current setup. I could see myself playing a single Tree of Tales, though. Lignify should be pretty strong against them, so only Relic feels like a wasted slot in that matchup. Worth it? We'll see.
UGTurboFogGU
BRSacrificial AggroBR
16The Paper Pauper Battle Bag16
EDH
BRRakdos, Lord of PingersBR
GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
UB Ramses OverdarkUB
Sig by Ace5301 of Ace of Spades Studio
I won vs. Boros Monarch, Gruul Cascade Aggro, and UG Delver. My tied game was against Boros Bully.
Here's the list: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1564259#paper
You'd think Gush + Foil would be a bigger include in this deck, but I think the deck can only support 1 of each. The thing is, winning the Delver match-up is all about matching their counters with your own counters + extra Fogs. You need to keep a huge amount of mana up each turn so they can't overload you and get in with that lethal swing. Thus, setting your land count back 2 isn't something you can do on the regular...the list just has 1 Gush for late-game haymaker plays. This "cheap interaction war" is also why I think being able to go up to 4 Dispels post-sideboarding is huge for the Delver matchups.
Another interesting strategic quirk: against many decks that roll out pressure slowly (like Boros Monarch), I actually sideboard lands out. 1 Forest first, then maybe 1 Island. Against those decks you don't need the green mana early since you probably won't be fogging until turns 5-6. Against Boros Monarch, I'm OK with being a bit mana screwed early if it means I have more Dispels to fight through their Galvanic Blasts + Pyroblasts.
My favorite "evil mastermind" moment in Pauper is Portent'ing you opponent with Jace's Erasure in play. "Oh, so that's what you sideboarded in? Too bad you won't get a chance to use it, mwa ha ha..."
Other changes I'd make to the deck: This deck needs some way to beat Aura Fracture vs. Boros Bully. Maybe 1-2 Echoing Truth in the SB. Repulse didn't really help in the SB, and will get cut. I thought it might be good vs UB Delver if they're beating down with 1 Gurmag Angler, but didn't face the deck, so who knows.
EDIT: After thinking about it, green enchantment removal is a better answer to resolved Aura Fractures than bounce. Ideally, I just counter it, but there are turns when they attack and I have to fog, then they play Aura Fracture with Pyroblast backup vs the one counterspell I can cast. After searching gatherer for green cards with "Enchantment" + "Destroy" in the text, I'm planning on going with eith 2 copies of either Nullmage Advocate, Rending Vines, or Nature's Claim. Also keeps Torex from recurring Crypt Rats.
Corrupt Control B | Burn R | UG Turbofog UG | White Weenie W | GW Tethmos WG | BG Cycling Combo BG
Enchantress GBW | Colorless Tron C | Red Deck Wins R | UG Madness UG | Mono-G Tron G | UR Puzzlehorns UR
Rhystic Tron WU| WU Prowess WU | BR Reanimator BR | Mono-R Control R | Stompy G | Temur Tron URG
Mardu Infinite Priest WBR | 85-Card Dredge BRG | Elves GU | Boros Bully RW | Jeskai Familiars RWU
I've honestly felt pretty good about the 3 Gush in my deck, mostly because it feeds Foil and Deep Analysis. While my Delver matchup is still unfavourable, I am almost always winning at least one game in the match now, which means that the deck is fairly competitive against the top deck in the format.
I think we have an even more serious question on our hands now: Does Turbo Fog even need to play Jace's Erasure anymore? Clear the Mind, when played in multiples, prevents us from ever running out of cards. We could literally let the opponent draw themselves to death.
Pros:
Cons:
I'm seriously considering playing this card and foregoing Erasure completely, or relegating a single copy to the sideboard to speed up kills versus aggro decks.
EDIT: Alright. I've done it.
4 Moment of Silence
4 Dawn Charm
4 Riot Control
Draw (19)
4 Ponder
4 Preordain
4 Accumulated Knowledge
4 Impulse
3 Gush
2 Clear the Mind
2 Thought Scour
Counters (7)
4 Arcane Denial
3 Foil
Lands (18)
3 Azorius Chancery
4 Tranquil Cove
8 Island
3 Plains
1 Circle of Protection: Blue
2 Circle of Protection: Green
2 Circle of Protection: Red
2 Dispel
1 Negate
1 Devious Cover-Up
1 Jace's Erasure
2 Dismantling Blow
3 Journey to Nowhere
I'm not sure how I feel about this yet. I've played three matches so far and won one.
The first match was against Boros. I won the first match and then lost the next two to burn spells. It happens.
The second match was frustrating. I played against Slivers and timed out when the opponent had two cards left in their library in game two with a Preordain on the stack and another draw spell revealed along with Jace's Erasure, which would have been lethal.
The third match was against a Mono-Green Ramp deck and I won with 5 minutes to spare. I was finally starting to feel a bit more comfortable with the drastic change in play style and having to play at a much faster pace.
Lots of notes about the deck already:
UGTurboFogGU
BRSacrificial AggroBR
16The Paper Pauper Battle Bag16
EDH
BRRakdos, Lord of PingersBR
GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
UB Ramses OverdarkUB
Sig by Ace5301 of Ace of Spades Studio
Riot Control can get out of control for your aggro opponents. That coupled with Moment of Silence makes Flaring Pain useless considering that you don't mind if it resolves once or even twice with the amount of life you can gain.
Running a single copy of Curse of the Bloody Tome might help with time if you can find the space for it.
It was a bit jarring to see you switch over to this new build since you got so used to piloting the old turbo fog. I look forward to seeing where you take this new build though!
This is my current list:
4 Tangle
4 Moment's Peace
4 Brainstorm
4 Portent
4 Accumulated Knowledge
1 Deep Analysis
1 Gush
4 Muddle the Mixture
1 Dispel
1 Foil
4 Jace's Erasure
5 Forest
2 Evolving Wilds
4 Ash Barrens
9 Island
2 Dispel
2 Lignify
1 Seal of Primordium
1 Plains
2 Exclude
2 Aerial Volley
1 Rofellos's Gift
2 Circle of Protection: Red
1 Circle of Protection: Black
1 Circle of Protection: Blue
Obviously the 1 Gush has to go, and quite likely the Foil. Not entirely sure about Deep Analysis, as part of it's strength was combo'ing well with Foil, but it can be a good haymaker if it's the last turn and you have 1-3 Erasure's on the board. The 1 MD Dispel might also be worth taking out if Delver really does fall back in the meta.
For replacing these 4 flex slots, quite a few things I'm thinking of. Probably need at least 1 hard counter, to deal with troublesome stuff like Gray Merchant of Asphodel, Cuombajj Witches, Thermo-Alchemist, etc. Counterspell is most likely, thought I'm also kinda interested in other options: Countervailing Winds, Negate, Scatter Arc, Memory Lapse, Thought Collapse.
The new Stream of Thought is a real interesting possibility. Might go back to Words of Wisdom, or try Thought Scour.
That being said, I'll have to back-track a bit on my own versions of the deck that have been running Gush to facilitate using Foil. This combo gave us a lot of security in the late game and I'm sad to lose it, but we can still run some number of Foils, though it will require us to hold lands in hand, which is not great.
I'm pretty pumped about Stream of Thought. Every line of text on it is relevant to our game plan. It mills out the opponent (albeit slowly), it prevents us from dying to overdraw, it shuffles back useful cards for the matchup, and it has lategame potential as a mana sink to finish off the game that is hard to counter thanks to replicate. Shuffling 8 and milling 8 is a huge swing and paying 5 mana is not too much on turn 12 or so against most decks. I could see myself running a split of these with Jace's Erasure, maybe 2:2... I'll have to test it out.
I usually find that paying 3 mana for a counter is a bit too much when we usually want to also Fog and draw cards.
Will burn go back to a more spell-heavy version with Gitaxian Probe banned? The combination of the 12 creatures and all their spells is what made the matchup much more difficult than it used to be. Without the probe, I wonder if people will still be as inclined to play Ghitu Lavarunner.
I'm also still worried about Murasa Tron. It can be beat, but it's not a great matchup, honestly. Has anyone had any tricks to fight it in the long game?
UGTurboFogGU
BRSacrificial AggroBR
16The Paper Pauper Battle Bag16
EDH
BRRakdos, Lord of PingersBR
GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
UB Ramses OverdarkUB
Sig by Ace5301 of Ace of Spades Studio
I wish I could get more games in vs. Tron. It's very under-represented in my store's meta.
Right now I have 2x Exclude, 2x Dispel, and 2x Negate in the SB which add to 4x Arcane Denial and 1x Counterspell, and my plan vs. Tron is to just try burning through their Mnemonic Walls/Pulse of Murasas with counterspells. BW Pestilence Control is big in my store too, so the Negates are key in that match (I absolutely can't let a Pestilence resolve). Maybe Faerie Macabre will be worth it,too.
I was doing some goldfishing with Whirlpool Rider as a "final turn haymaker" card, replacing Gush. I liked it but ended up trying Flux in it's place. Whirlpool Rider can give some decks a chance to use the Exclude they've been holding in their hand G1 before boarding it out, while Flux dodges this and Dispel. I think I like it a bit more than Tolarian Winds, since you usually have enough mana on the final turn and the +1 draw for 1 mana seems worth it. And it's a very cool old card, with Richard Kane-Ferguson.
i'm also excited with weather the storm as a sideboard tech against burn.
Yes, I think this card might be the very best answer to burn we've seen so far. I imagine it will be quite easy to play for 9 life or more, considering how many spells they play on their turn on top of whatever we're able to play. Should be sweet!
UGTurboFogGU
BRSacrificial AggroBR
16The Paper Pauper Battle Bag16
EDH
BRRakdos, Lord of PingersBR
GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
UB Ramses OverdarkUB
Sig by Ace5301 of Ace of Spades Studio
UGTurboFogGU
BRSacrificial AggroBR
16The Paper Pauper Battle Bag16
EDH
BRRakdos, Lord of PingersBR
GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
UB Ramses OverdarkUB
Sig by Ace5301 of Ace of Spades Studio
2x Ash Barrens
3x Evolving Wilds
3x Forest
5x Island
1x Lonely Sandbar
2x Seat of the Synod
3x Thornwood Falls
4x Fog
4x Moment's Peace
4x Tangle
2x Respite
Counterspell (8)
4x Arcane Denial
4x Muddle the Mixture
1x Flux
4x Accumulated Knowledge
4x Brainstorm
4x Preordain
Others (6)
4x Jace's Erasure
1x Quiet Disrepair
1x Stream of Thought
Merchant Scroll will also be making a splash for me. I think it's a great way to fetch up our card draw or countermagic.
3 Fog
4 Tangle
4 Moment's Peace
1 Weather the Storm
Countermagic (7)
4 Arcane Denial
2 Muddle the Mixture
1 Foil
Card Draw (20)
4 Brainstorm
4 Preordain
3 Impulse
4 Accumulated Knowledge
3 Think Twice
2 Deep Analysis
2 Stream of Thought
1 Jace's Erasure
Lands (18)
3 Desert
2 Thornwood Falls
4 Terramorphic Expanse
7 Island
2 Forest
2 Counterspell
2 Dispel
3 Weather the Storm
2 Penumbra Spider
2 Aerial Volley
3 Lignify
1 Relic of Progenitus
UGTurboFogGU
BRSacrificial AggroBR
16The Paper Pauper Battle Bag16
EDH
BRRakdos, Lord of PingersBR
GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
UB Ramses OverdarkUB
Sig by Ace5301 of Ace of Spades Studio
edit: imagining the lines of play using your decklist
- i'd like the inclusion of weather the storm maindeck (i'll also adopt this strategy instead of quiet disrepair mb)
- 2 stream of thought for the alternate wincon without relying with jace.
- 3 desert, this is really a big inclusion for us
thoughts:
- the increase of colorless land might cause some mana problem, is ash barren would still be playable? eot landcyling? (though it would increase a chance for mulligan due to coloreless land in opening hand).
- the list looks weak against graveyard hate (atm no gravehate is used against fog deck but once this list gets popular then we might see them), i think minimum of 2-Erasure is the correct number to prevent this from happening.
last: after thinking for while, it seems desert is too strong for pauper though the disadvantage of running colorless is there.
I was testing your UW Clear the Mind version of Turbo Fog and, as things go, ended up with a UG version without Clear the Mind that isn't really the UG version we're all used to, so I figured I'd share. If you want to read how I got there, see the spoiler below. Otherwise here's the deck list:
I worked with that for a while and, sadly, dropped Clear the Mind. You just don't need it with Stream of Thought and Devious Cover-Up. Sometimes it was actively bad by shuffling in lands and unneeded cantrips (though, I did add 1x Logic Knot to exile graveyard cards... was king of cool, you could cast Clear the Mind, Logic Knot it exiling whatever you didn't want, and then Arcane Denial the Logic Knot and draw 3 cards, haha). Left me a free spot for Renewed Faith. Good against Burn or just cycles.
Deck was still super slow, though. That's the downside of UW over the traditional UG. Humble brag... I'm a pretty fast MTGO player and I was still running into issues. Or my opponent would time out which is an abusive wincon. I also play paper, and there are a few methodical players at my LGS (not to mention all the shuffling, cutting, scrying and socializing) so this wouldn't do. I upped Stream of Thought to 3 and that helped a lot. With the extra lands I could easily replicate twice in the last game.
Biggest issues were Bojuka Bog, Relic of Progenitus, and Nihil Spellbomb (Tormod's Crypt, too, eventually). Not much you can do about Bojuka Bog (I mean, you can Impulse and counter Impulse with Devious Cover-Up but...). Annul or Arcane Denial gets the artifacts sometimes if it comes down late. Artifact destruction isn't fast enough. I was kind of sad but then I found... Rust.
Is anyone talking about Rust? Let's talk about Rust! Stifle for artifacts? It's the reason to go green. Okay, okay, sure, Weather the Storm, but, come on, Rust! Yes, it's not on MTGO yet but hopefully they'll add it soon.
So, I switched all the fogs to green and added Weather the Storm and here's the list I'm running:
Updated list here.
4 Tangle
4 Moment's Peace
4 Fog
1 Weather the Storm
Card Draw
4 Pieces of the Puzzle
4 Accumulated Knowledge
4 Impulse
1 Hieroglyphic Illumination
4 Preordain
4 Stream of Thought
Denial
2 Devious Cover-Up
4 Arcane Denial
Land
9 Island
2 Forest
3 Simic Growth Chamber
4 Thornwood Falls
2 Desert
2 Return to Nature
2 No Escape
3 Dispel
1 Echoing Truth
2 Faerie Macabre
3 Weather the Storm
2 Rust
Few notes about the main deck:
Few notes about the sideboard:
Whew, there you go. Is it good? Well, it's Turbo Fog, haha. I like this version, though. I'll post some results soon. Let me know what you all think. Hopefully some of these thoughts are at least helpful.
now for my thoughts: pieces of the puzzle/hieroglyphic illumination, this cards cost a lot and we need to open up extra mana for fog and if against blue we also need an extra mana for the counterwar. incase we reach a point wherein we are able to cast them with extra mana for fog then that means we are "somehow" in a comfortable position to win, i think the critical period for turbo fog is in the early turn (T3~T5) in which we are setting up and ensuring we have fog protection so i think brainstorm is still needed here for the cheap card draw manipulation.
that's just my thought, thanks for sharing your list! with this i'm more convince to go the stream of thought route rather than jace's erasure, but i would still like to have atleast 2 copies of jace's erasure in my 75 so as not to fold against gravehate. (i bet i'll be having a hardtime finding a copy of rust in paper).
First off, Is your username the same as your name on MTGO? If so, I think I've watched you play a couple games or maybe we've actually played each other. Your name is very familiar. Maybe some 5-0s in the leagues?
Okay, the deck: I'm glad I took the time to read all of your explanations for each card, because some of it really wasn't obvious to me at first. Thanks again for taking the time to write this up!
Overall, I think the proportions of the deck are pretty decent and follow along with how I like to play my versions of the deck.
The only thing I think you definitely should reconsider is your land count. I've recently dropped to 18 and have felt pretty good about it. I even run 3 Deserts! I'm a pretty greedy guy, though... This makes room for more card draw, which helps you make land drops in the early game and also fuel you in the late game. It's an adjustment, but one well worth it.
1 Weather the Storm in the maindeck is very much worth it. Even after only a couple games, this is a card I want to see and shuffle back into the deck frequently. It's extremely easy to gain 9-12 life with it, and it becomes game-winning with more copies. I'm wondering if it might not be worth including more of them in the maindeck in exchange for actual fogs. This is matchup and meta dependent, however.
I like your comment on Stream of Thought. It seems we have to make some choices in terms of actual playability of our win conditions at this point. I'll post my updated list after this, but I'm now at a 2:2 split between it and jace's Erasure, but I'm starting to think that maybe 3:1 in favour of Stream is probably better. Erasure certainly helps provide faster wins and only having one copy means we don't rely on it.
An idea I've been toying with in my mind because of Stream of Thought has been to run Take Inventory in the place of cards like Deep Analysis. Shuffling copies 3 and 4 back into the deck is just so good with Accumulated Knowledge that maybe having an extra set of similar cards would be worth it. What do you think?
Otherwise, I think I will replace my Deep Analysis for two copies of Pieces of the Puzzle This card definitely seems strong enough, though it doesn't help with land drops. 4 copies seems like a lot because of that reason.
The sideboard is where things get really interesting for me. I had not heard of Rust. Rust seems like a great card, when you explain it the way you did. I will have to try Rust. Rust will certainly catch people off-guard. Rust is also only 30 cents.
Rust.
I did not consider No Escape in Turbo Fog. I am not totally convinced that it should be played over Faerie Trickery, if you're looking for that kind of effect. The mana cost certainly helps its case. Have you tried Faerie Trickery instead?
I tried Faerie Macabre for a while, if I remember correctly. It never seemed to be enough to stop the Tron deck. It's a decent answer, but doesn't really solve the problem. I'll have to take another swing at it sometime.
Dispel v. Counterspell is always a tough call for me. I tend to miss the classic answer in matchups where I wouldn't bring in Dispels, like MBC and Elves. I'll stick with my split for now just for the flexibility of Counterspell.
What artifacts and enchantments do you need to deal with using Return to Nature?
With the new meta currently being shaped, I am expecting the death of Delver as an archetype. Desert is being bought out and will be seeing regular in any manabase that can afford it (and some that can't). That being said, I still am running 2 Aerial Volley and 2 Penumbra Spider, which is taking up a lot of room in my sideboard that maybe isn't necessary anymore. Maybe Aerial Volley could go, but Penumbra Spider is still a decent answer to fliers and is a great blocker in general. I'm a bit torn here. You don't seem to have a sideboard plan versus Delver aside from Dispels. How do you manage?
I feel the need to thank you a third time for your writeup. It's not every day that I get such a great, well-researched contribution like this in the forum, which makes me even more melancholic that it's being shut down.
With my small amount of testing so far and with your writeup, here's how I'm seeing my current deck:
3 Fog
4 Tangle
4 Moment's Peace
1 Weather the Storm
Countermagic (6)
4 Arcane Denial
2 Muddle the Mixture
Card Draw (20)
4 Brainstorm
4 Preordain
3 Impulse
4 Accumulated Knowledge
3 Think Twice
2 Pieces of the Puzzle
3 Stream of Thought
1 Jace's Erasure
Lands (18)
3 Desert
2 Thornwood Falls
4 Terramorphic Expanse
7 Island
2 Forest
1 Counterspell
1 Faerie Trickery
2 Dispel
3 Weather the Storm
2 Penumbra Spider
2 Rust
2 Lignify
2 Faerie Macabre
UGTurboFogGU
BRSacrificial AggroBR
16The Paper Pauper Battle Bag16
EDH
BRRakdos, Lord of PingersBR
GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
UB Ramses OverdarkUB
Sig by Ace5301 of Ace of Spades Studio
Here are some of my observations:
- I pretty much prefer running 4 Stream of Thought over Jace's Erasure. If I have Stream of Thought early on, I often cast it on myself in hopes of dumping out Moment's Peace and/or Think Twice. I've already dropped off Muddle the Mixture.
- I've been running 4 Weather the Storm main board with mixed results. I often gain 9 life off of it which is pretty much almost equivalent to a fog early to mid game. It gets tricky late game where I have to build storm count independent of my opponent's spell. I still use Brainstorm to help build storm count.
- I run 4 Land Grant for the potential storm count and shuffle effect. Sorcery speed makes it iffier that it already is and backfires half of the time but I don't mind losing to my play group, LOL.
Disclaimer: My play group aren't the most competitive people out there.