Let me preface by saying: I wish this deck was worse than it is. It bothers me a great deal that any of these cards would ever be within a hundred miles of a vintage deck.
I had this idea a year or two ago, inspired by one of our hazy, laugh-filled joke sessions (i.e., "What if he drops Black Lotus and I use [terrible card that actually interacts somehow]?", followed by hysterics in the group). This time in particular, it was:
"So what do you do against Demonic Tutor?"
"Oh, obviously the answer is Archive Trap."
Then I said something I wish I never had said.
"You even have Trapmaker's Snare to search it up and Ravenous Trap and Mindbreak Trap for Dredge and Storm!"
Cue present day. I've picked the list back up on and off, but I could never figure out what to do with it. Do I use a Storm shell? Which traps are best? What numbers should they be in? What do I do with all the non-trap slots?
Yesterday, I reread every trap there is. And I saw Ricochet Trap. I saw it clearly for the first time. I kept looking around. Well, the baseline list has 4 Archive Traps, so....Visions of Beyond? Well, I'm milling, so....Wheel of Fortune/Windfall/Memory Jar? Well, I'm forcing them to draw cards, so...Runeflare Trap?
Thought Scour and Archive Trap both splash hate against tutor-to-top cards. Vampiric Tutor-->Archive Trap happens, and people get upset. They also both enable your 5 Ancestral Recalls to draw you ridiculous cards.
Obviously Mindbreak is perfect against Storm decks. Is that all? No. It also punishes opening hands of Mox, Mox, business spell. Want to play Mox into Sol Ring into Sphere of Resistance? Sorry.
Baloth beats have a surprising tendency to get there. Out of burn range, strong blockers against common Vintage beatsticks, etc.
Ravenous Trap can be anti-synergystic with Visions, but other than that, I like having a couple maindeck.
Having an instant speed Demonic Tutor is bonkers good. You can almost always find an answer.
You hardcast Traps like nobody's business.
Ricochet Trap wins counter wars, but it does something even cooler. It's yet another copy of Recall. But better. It literally reads: "Counter target spell named Ancestral Recall, then draw 3 cards for a single red mana." Meanwhile you still beat back people's Force of Wills and Mana Drains for cheap.
Runeflare Trap is more anti-Storm tech. Remember that Bob and AN don't draw cards, but you can still usually kill them, or come close, once they start casting their actual draw spells. You can also chain D7's into Runeflare.
Depending on how much Oath you expect, the Spell Pierces can be Beast Withins. I prefer Pierce because you have little turn 1 interaction.
Playtesting against my buddy and mine's MUD deck (undefeated at a local Mox Ruby tourney), I mulled to 3 and came very close to beating his full hand of 7, until he topdecked a Lodestone Golem the turn before I swung lethal.
Anyways, I hope you find this amusing and maybe try it out. It's nowhere near done, so expect many updates as I tweak it.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Slowly breaking.
Any more of this, and Team Troll will be more than just a name.
what's baloth cage trap for? doesn't seem like it is that reliable against stax since it only trades with lodestone and they could have other answers to it. i also feel as though runeflare is kind of odd at 2, i think it should be 1 but i guess you're more reliant on storm doing a crazier play.
Baloth is there for MUD, and it does better than you expect. They can't swing into it with Golem because they weaken their lock and give me a foothold to start recovering. They can't swing into with Factories, Revokers, etc. obviously. And they don't have a high creature count anyway, so you tend to just swing freely.
Runeflare could probably be a one-of. I haven't been super impressed with it.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Slowly breaking.
Any more of this, and Team Troll will be more than just a name.
So the plan is to deck them with your archive traps? You'll have to explain how you're getting there to me, because this deck seems a little light on kill conditions in a world where Hex/Depths with Leyline/Helm is a second tier deck.
If you're looking to mill them out by drawing and tutoring for all your archive traps, can you beat a force of will?
If you're looking to kill them with runeflare trap to the dome, and random 4/4 baloths... can you beat a force of will?
I feel like you could move this away from being so "trap theme deck" and push it towards having a win condition of some sort. Archive trap in response to a search is cute, but then what? Glimpse the Unthinkable? Mind Funeral?
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I'll be sad if people don't start calling The Chain Veil "Fleetwood Mac."
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I had this idea a year or two ago, inspired by one of our hazy, laugh-filled joke sessions (i.e., "What if he drops Black Lotus and I use [terrible card that actually interacts somehow]?", followed by hysterics in the group). This time in particular, it was:
"So what do you do against Demonic Tutor?"
"Oh, obviously the answer is Archive Trap."
Then I said something I wish I never had said.
"You even have Trapmaker's Snare to search it up and Ravenous Trap and Mindbreak Trap for Dredge and Storm!"
Cue present day. I've picked the list back up on and off, but I could never figure out what to do with it. Do I use a Storm shell? Which traps are best? What numbers should they be in? What do I do with all the non-trap slots?
Yesterday, I reread every trap there is. And I saw Ricochet Trap. I saw it clearly for the first time. I kept looking around. Well, the baseline list has 4 Archive Traps, so....Visions of Beyond? Well, I'm milling, so....Wheel of Fortune/Windfall/Memory Jar? Well, I'm forcing them to draw cards, so...Runeflare Trap?
Anyways, enough anticipation. The list.
4 Archive Trap
3 Baloth Cage Trap
3 Mindbreak Trap
3 Ricochet Trap
2 Ravenous Trap
2 Runeflare Trap
1 Pitfall Trap
4 Visions of Beyond
4 Thought Scour
1 Ancestral Recall
3 Spell Pierce
1 Memory Jar
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Windfall
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
1 Lotus Petal
3 Scalding Tarn
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Tropical Island
1 Tundra
1 Volcanic Island
2 Island
2 Mountain
1 Forest
Now for the juicy tech.
Thought Scour and Archive Trap both splash hate against tutor-to-top cards. Vampiric Tutor-->Archive Trap happens, and people get upset. They also both enable your 5 Ancestral Recalls to draw you ridiculous cards.
Obviously Mindbreak is perfect against Storm decks. Is that all? No. It also punishes opening hands of Mox, Mox, business spell. Want to play Mox into Sol Ring into Sphere of Resistance? Sorry.
Baloth beats have a surprising tendency to get there. Out of burn range, strong blockers against common Vintage beatsticks, etc.
Ravenous Trap can be anti-synergystic with Visions, but other than that, I like having a couple maindeck.
Having an instant speed Demonic Tutor is bonkers good. You can almost always find an answer.
You hardcast Traps like nobody's business.
Ricochet Trap wins counter wars, but it does something even cooler. It's yet another copy of Recall. But better. It literally reads: "Counter target spell named Ancestral Recall, then draw 3 cards for a single red mana." Meanwhile you still beat back people's Force of Wills and Mana Drains for cheap.
Runeflare Trap is more anti-Storm tech. Remember that Bob and AN don't draw cards, but you can still usually kill them, or come close, once they start casting their actual draw spells. You can also chain D7's into Runeflare.
Depending on how much Oath you expect, the Spell Pierces can be Beast Withins. I prefer Pierce because you have little turn 1 interaction.
Playtesting against my buddy and mine's MUD deck (undefeated at a local Mox Ruby tourney), I mulled to 3 and came very close to beating his full hand of 7, until he topdecked a Lodestone Golem the turn before I swung lethal.
Anyways, I hope you find this amusing and maybe try it out. It's nowhere near done, so expect many updates as I tweak it.
Any more of this, and Team Troll will be more than just a name.
I know where you post.
what's baloth cage trap for? doesn't seem like it is that reliable against stax since it only trades with lodestone and they could have other answers to it. i also feel as though runeflare is kind of odd at 2, i think it should be 1 but i guess you're more reliant on storm doing a crazier play.
Runeflare could probably be a one-of. I haven't been super impressed with it.
Any more of this, and Team Troll will be more than just a name.
I know where you post.
If you're looking to mill them out by drawing and tutoring for all your archive traps, can you beat a force of will?
If you're looking to kill them with runeflare trap to the dome, and random 4/4 baloths... can you beat a force of will?
I feel like you could move this away from being so "trap theme deck" and push it towards having a win condition of some sort. Archive trap in response to a search is cute, but then what? Glimpse the Unthinkable? Mind Funeral?