I didn't maindeck bounce because I was using Mike Bomholt's list that was listed in the SCG article. I knew there was something dodgy about the life totals of that goblin match up. I apologize for that, bad note taking really screws up the article.
Also I never said I was the best Iggy Player around, if you feel that the entire piece was a waste of time, feel free to write your own. I did give reference to the SCG article in the beginning so its up to them if they wanna read it.
Figured I should try to revive the deck since I've been playing it for over a year. Please feel free to comment etc, it is my first primer and I'm sure I got things wrong as it was written between many beers and distractions.
Please remember this primer is for those who are new to the deck and format. If you feel you are more than capable of piloting this deck without any additional input, feel free to comment below and add to the primer.
IGGY POP a tendrils based combo deck that relies on the recursion effect from Ill-gotten Gains to build up a lethal storm count and killing the opponent with a Tendrils of Agony.
Many versions of this deck exist but to keep things simple, I’ll be focusing entirely on its creator’s list (Michael Bomholt) which was featured in Steven Menendian’s primer (Available at http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/14122.html).
Let’s start with this deck’s most appealing factor. You can win on TURN 1! (ahem) now on to the more serious stuff.
Iggy Pop beat aggro decks with ease. You can easily win turn 3 /4 which is about a turn faster than your average Goblins, 9-land Stompy etc.
You can survive Heavy Discard. Decks like Dead-Guy Ale which packs 4xDuress, and 4xHymm to Tourach. These may seem like impossible decks to beat, but it can be done.
Because they use their early turns disrupting your hand, they aren’t putting you on any pressure. You can just calmly play your lands, and your artifact mana sources like Lion’s Eye Diamond, Lotus Petal and simply wait till you top deck an Ill-gotten Gains or an Infernal Tutor. Another thing to remember is that their heavy discard also gets you to Threshold faster, making those Cabal Ritual’s more useful.
Iggy Pop is certainly one of the most stable Tendrils based combo decks in Legacy at the moment. Decks like SI (which focus on a turn 1 Kill) are very draw dependant and sometimes can just die on its own.
The Epic Storm uses only Non-basic lands and therefore is susceptible to non basic land hate in the form of Wasteland.
I am not saying Iggy is superior to these other decks. I’m just stating the differences. So let’s move on to the combos.
The Combos
There are many ways you can combo off but one of the easiest ways is a combination of
In response to Infernal Tutor you must crack your two LED’s. This will empty your hand and transform your Infernal Tutor into a Demonic Tutor allowing you to search for Ill-gotten Gains and cast it leaving you with 2 mana left in the pool.
After Ill-gotten Gain resolves, you return 2x LED’s and 1x Infernal Tutor and do it all over again. When you have built up a sufficient storm count, search for Tendrils of Agony and go for the kill.
Another way you can combo off is via 2xCabal Ritual. This is only possible if you have Threshold. Assuming you only have 2x Cabal Ritual and 1x Infernal Tutor in your hand, the combo plays out like this.
Cast Cabal Ritual Number 1 with Threshold, BBBBB in the pool
Cast Cabal Ritual Number 2 with Threshold, BBBB BBBB in the pool.
Cast Infernal Tutor with Hellbent searching for and casting Ill-gotten Gains will leave you with BB in the pool. This is just enough for you to recast those Cabal Rituals.
Continuing the Loop
The two examples given above are self sustainable, which means that once you’ve pulled it off once with those 2 combinations of cards, you don’t need to add any more mana into the pool. But as well all know, the game we love doesn’t always go to plan so sometimes you’ll have to combo off differently. Below are two combinations of which you will need to remember.
Continuing the loop with:
1x LED, 1x Dark Ritual, 1x Infernal Tutor
Now let’s play out this hand. (We’ll assume we only have one Undergound Sea in play.
Tap Underground Sea for B and play Dark Ritual. BBB in the Pool.
Play LED, and then Play Infernal Tutor. B in the Pool
You crack LED in response to Infernal Tutor, you have BBBB in the pool
You search for Ill-gotten Gains. 0 mana left in the pool.
So in order for you to continue the loop and get lethal Tendrils you’ll need at least BB extra.
The same goes for 1x Cabal Ritual (with Threshold), 1x Dark Ritual, 1x Infernal Tutor.
As long as you remember this you will not be caught with your pants down so to speak.
The Empty the Warrens Kill
This common from Time Spiral has given Iggy a very useful alternate win condition. When playing Iggy Pop, you’ll sometimes find that you cannot rise the storm count to a lethal level (IE because your facing counter magic or just don’t have enough mana to get there). This is where Empty the warrens comes in. You don’t need to get to 10 storm counts to kill. If you can cast this early enough in the game say for a storm count of 4, you’ll have 8 1/1’s on the board giving your opponent a 3 turn clock to find an answer.
In your hand you have 2 Pieces of the ideal combo LED, and Infernal Tutor, but you lack the mana for a turn 1 kill via Tendrils. Let’s assume that you know your opponent has had disruption and therefore its in your best interest to combo off first.
The ideal set of plays will be:
Play Swamp, 2x Lotus Petal, LED (Storm count 3)
Crack the 2x Petals for BB and tap the Swamp for B (BBB in the Pool)
Play Infernal Tutor and Crack the LED in response for R mana (BRRR) in the Pool (Storm count 4)
Search for Empty the Warrens for (Storm count 5) 10 tokens. Giving your opponent a 2 turn clock to find an answer.
Double Tendrils Kill
In the face of heavy permission spells, you’ll sometimes find it near impossible to set up a traditional kill via Ill-gotten Gains recursions. Another way is to just set up a Double Tendrils of Agony Kill. This assumes that you have 2x Tendrils of Agony or at least managed to search for 2 of them. The idea is to ramp up to 8 mana via the rituals cards and cast both the Tendrils consecutively.
So a play of
Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Lotus Petal, with BBB in the pool
2x Tendrils of Agony will cause a total of 18 life lost to your opponent (in most cases its lethal)
This sort of play takes time to set up but if you’re facing counter heavy decks like Threshold, it is one play you cannot afford to miss.
Secondary Combo – Turn 1 Mind Twist
Although this combo will not kill your opponent, it will in most cases cripple him so badly allowing you to just walk over him. The combo is
Turn 0 Leyline of the Void
Turn 1 Polluted Delta (Crack search for Underground Sea – No worries about wasteland if your opponent has no hand).
Play Lotus Petal. Crack for B
Tap Underground Sea for B, play Dark Ritual. BBBB in the Pool
Play Ill-gotten Gains – and remove your opponent’s entire hand from the game. You on the other hand will still keep 3 cards from your graveyard. May I suggest Polluted Delta, Brainstorm and Mystical Tutor? J
This will essentially buy you 2 free turns without any form of disruption (assuming your opponent doesn’t top deck everything he needs) easily allowing you to win.
Although the deck is quite tight, you can change a few things around. One thing I won’t change is the amount of Leyline of the Void.
Leyline of the Void is absolutely vital in this deck. Most importantly it stops your opponents from recurring cards from Ill-gotten Gains, but it does so much more. It slows your opponents clocks (IE: Threshold, 42 land) and helps kill your opponent’s combo (Ichorid). Another minor point is that is slows Affinity decks quite badly. Disiple of the Vault and Arcbound Ravanger aren’t so hot when their effects don’t work the way they used to.
Match Ups
Legacy is a very diverse format so it is nearly impossible to write down an analysis for every deck you will encounter. The one match up you can always expect to face and win is Goblins. Goblins is the premier aggro deck of the format. Even during the days of Hulk Flash, Goblins managed to put up a top 8 (certainly a sign of how good they are especially since they changed very little to their main deck). Even though we have a good match up against them, you mustn’t underestimate the explosive power of Goblins.
My opponent is a very competent goblin player and has been playing it for the past 2 years. I win the die roll and choose to go first
My Starting hand: 2x Mytical Tutor, Polluted Delta, Bloodstained Mire (These would be Flooded Strands but they were in another deck), Dark Ritual, 2x Lotus Petal.
Just by looking at this hand we know we’re going to win on turn 3 assuming there is no disruption from our opponent. (Try to work out the sequence before looking at the play by play)
Play by Play
Turn 1 – I play Polluted Delta. End my turn.
Goblins Turn 1 – Mountain , Goblin Lackey (probably one of the best starts)
End of Goblin player’s turn I crack Polluted Delta for an Island (no reason to get UndergroundSea when he could be holding a Wasteland) and play Mystical Tutor fetching Dark Ritual.
Turn 2 – I draw the Dark Ritual off the top play a Bloodstained Mire. End my turn.
Goblins Turn 2 – He swing with Goblin Lackey and puts a Goblin Warchief Into play. Plays a mountain and cast 2x Goblin Piledriver meaning I’m dead next turn.
End of Goblin Player’s turn 2, I play Mystical Tutor for Infernal Tutor Turn 3 – Time to combo off.
Play 2x Lotus Petal and crack the Bloodstained Mire for a Swamp
Play 2x Dark Ritual off the Swamp, BBBBB in the pool
Play Infernal Tutor cracking 2x Lotus Petal leaving BBBBB in the Pool searching for Ill-gotten Gains.
I tap the Island leaving me to pay for Ill-gotten Gains leaving me with BB in the pool
Recur 2x Dark Ritual and an Infernal Tutor
Play the 2x Dark Ritual giving you BBBBBB in the pool
Play Infernal Tutor to get Tendrils of Agony leaving you with BBBB
Play Tendrils for 20 and win.
Game 2 – Sideboard
This is when things get really bad for you because they can bring in a number of hate. Tormod’s Crypt is bad when you’re trying to combo off with Ill gotten Gains, Pyrostatic Pillar one of the most common forms of hate is hard to deal with, and Chalice are quite bad as well.
Because I don’t know what my opponent will side in, I decide to play without changing anything. No use compromising my speed for unnecessary sideboard cards.
This is one very misleading hand. Its good because it has Dark Ritual and Infernal Tutor. The 2x Brainstorms also help make this hand much better than it seems but you might just draw into crap. Since my opponent mulliganed to 5 I decide to take the risk.
Turn 1 Goblins – He plays Mountain and passes the turn (this is a good sign) he has no lackey meaning his clock is considerably slower.
Turn 1 Iggy – We draw a Bloodstained Mire, how nice … We play Polluted Delta and end the turn. You may be wondering why we don’t just play Brainstorm? Well because if we waited another turn, we can play the Bloodstained mire and look at another fresh batch of cards. Its all about maximizing the effects of Brainstorm. I’m certainly not saying you should do this all the time, if your hand looks like a turn 2 kill by all means go for it but under this circumstances we have time.
No wonder he kept that hand. Putting it out on turn 2 before we have developed anything is a really good play. We have to end it soon otherwise we’ll just lose too much life from his creatures to combo off.
THEREFORE IN RESPONSE – I crack the Polluted Delta for an Island and play Brainstorm. It’s better to take 1 damage rather than 3.
I see Ill-gotten gains, Leyline of the Void, Lotus Petal. Bah Nothing good at all. I take the Lotus Petal. At least I can up the storm count with that.
Turn 2, Iggy – I play Bloodstained Mire and say go. Best just to wait it out as there are no creature on the table.
Turn 3 Goblins – He plays Mountain and Goblin Warchief which brings me down to 17 Life. This isn’t good and its only going to get worse with that on the board. I Brainstorm end of turn into
In play are 1x Swamp, 1x Island . Our life is at 14 and our opponents life is at 18. Can you win?
Well I can tell you that I didn’t win. I tried a variety of ways but still I failed to kill him. The best I could do is just lower his life so he can’t afford to cast another creature letting me top deck into another tendrils or iggy … Anything really.
So this is the sequence
Play Dark Ritual , Infernal Tutor revealing Lion’s Eye Diamond, play 2x Lion’s Eye diamond, tap Island for U and play Infernal Tutor cracking 2x Lion’s Eye Diamond in response
So now we’re down to 4 life, we search for Tendrils of Agony and tendrils them for 12 dmg and going up to 15 life.
Our opponent is now at 6
Turn 4 Goblins – he plays Goblin Ringleader and reveals Goblin Lackey, Goblin Matron, Goblin Piledriver.
I scoop.
Game 3
Ok so we finally know his packing Pyrostatic Pillars, I therefore swap one Intuition and a Ill-gotten Gains for 2x Echoing Truth. These are cheaper than Wipe Away and deals with Multiple Pillars. They can be searched via Mystical tutor so you essentially have 6 copies in your deck. But then again if your meta is filled with control, Wipe Away might be a better choice.
Game 3 – Iggy Starts
Our opening hand:
1xPolluted Delta, 2x Bloodstained Mire, Brainstorm, Leyline of the Void, Infernal Tutor, Dark Ritual.
This isn’t a great hand but its better than the other one. At least this time you know you have 2 parts of the Combo (enough mana in terms of Dark Ritual and fetchlands, and the All important Infernal tutor). Not a great hand but would a 6 hander be better? I doubt it. Remember you only run 16 lands so your bound to find some sort of fuel in Brainstorm. So I keep.
Turn 1 Iggy – Leyline of the Void, Polluted Delta. End my turn
Cabal Ritual, Dark Ritual, 2x Bloodstained Mire, Brainstorm, Infernal Tutor
Comboing off now is a lot more easier. So I try Brainstorm.
Crack polluted Delta for Island, Brainstorm into
Intuition, VolcanicIsland, Lion’s Eye Diamond
Can you work out how to win this turn?
Play by play
Put back VolcanicIsland and Bloodstained Mire back on top of the library.
Play Bloodstained Mire for an UndergroundSea (no use holding back)
Play Dark Ritual , Cabal Ritual BBBB in the pool
Play Lion’s Eye Diamond
Play Infernal Tutor and in response Crack the LED giving you BBBBB in the pool
Play your freshly tutored Ill-gotten gains leaving you with B in the Pool Return Dark Ritual, Lion’s Eye Diamond , Infernal Tutor
Play Dark Ritual , Lion’s Eye Diamond and Infernal Tutor and crack Lion’s Eye Diamond in response giving you BBBB in the pool
Tendrils of Agony you win.
If you are confused, remember you cast a Brainstorm as well J
(Additional note) This primer is by no means complete. I'll write a match up against Threshold and other Control and combo decks when i have the time. But till then, comment away.
Sigh, there goes my chances for buying a cheap set of Flooded Strand. Still its a good thing because most decks will survive keeping the format as fun as it is now.
Just wanted to know if you could play Sins of the Past targeting Plunge into Darkness. I was told that you cannot do this because the life lost past of Plunge into Darkness is part of its cost but I just wanted to double check.
[quote=Jhoira;/comments/3943690]Lol. I personally find the two statements made above to be rather ironic.
Well fair enough I didn't make top 8, and I presume 'flawlessly' is a term I shouldn't use so lightly. Still its my 4th PTQ and certainly the first I've ever been in contention for the top 8 so gimme a break dude! *Lepak sikit and chill man. |Teh Ice is all you need*
Also I said my deck is good because it "suits my playstyle", but hey i'm not interested in a flamewar.
My losses were to Affinity (Plunged for 10 into no wishes or tendrils) and Desire for 8 revealing 5 lands and 3 rituals. By no means am I blaming the deck its a risk everyone takes when playing TEPS and I accept it.
Aggro loam. Reccuring Ghost Quarters sealed the game. I did win one round against him turn 4 with only a Bloom and two spheres
I'd personally go for more Stars, as I think Ancient Grudge and Deed would be more common than people siding LLotV against you.
Nah London, UK. As for the LLOTV, yes I had the same idea as you guys. Although I never did face LLOTV the entire tournament, I did see Peter's point whilst I was at the top tables. In my matches against Deathcloud and Aggro Loam, they only way I could have won was if I top decked a Wish / Sins of the Past and used it recur Mind's Desire. This would not be an option if they have LLOTV. I don't think its a huge problem though and if you switch the stars/sphere around they should be the same.
I just missed out on the top 8 at PTQ Dundee with my own unique take at the TEPS deck. I played flawlessly. But bad desire flips and Plunge in to (nothingness) caused me the few games I needed to get in. But I'm still happy with the deck and if given the chance will play the same thing again.
Lands
4x Sulfur Vent
4x Ancient Spring
3x Irrigation Ditch
1x Geothermal Crevice
3x Gemstone Mine
Artifacts
4x Lotus Bloom
4x Chromatic Sphere (You have more spheres because they are not affected by Leyline of the Void - a tip I got from PTQ London winner Peter)
2x Chromatic Star
Instant
4x Cabal Ritual
4x Seething Song
3x Fire//Ice (MPV) Won me several games
2x Plunge into Darkness
4x Orim's Chant
Sorcery
4x Burning Wish
2x Death Wish
4x Rite of Flame
3x Channel the Suns
3x Mind's Desire
1x Tendrils of Agony
1x Sins of the Past
Sideboard
1x Mind's Desire
3x Tormod's Crypt
1x Cabal Therapy
3x Duress
1x Sins of the past
1x Deathmark
1x Hull Breach
1x Channel the Suns
1x Morning Tide
1x Tendrils of Agony
1x Pyroclasm
I went into the tournament know that there will be a lot of Doran and Zoo decks both of which are capable of casting a Teeg. Therefore I wanted at least 10 main deck answers to it. This build has 11 (4x Burning Wish, 2x Death Wish, 2x Plunge, 3x Fire//Ice).
Orim's chant is used aggressively. Because most of these decks can only hurt you with Sorcery based spells (casting Teeg, Cabal Therapy, Duress, Thoughtseize, Meddling Mage), Orim's Chant is Time walk. Sometimes that extra turn is all you need for Bloom to resolve and win the game.
Fire//Ice is also never a dead card against non aggro / teeg decks. Against control you can tap their coloured land during their up keep. You can kill Putrid Imp before they have threshold. You can even stop massively fast aggro decks. I was on 10 life facing RDW and he had a goyf in play and 2 cards in hand. I tapped his Goyf during declare attackers step using Ice and breaking 2x Chromatic Sphere/ Star and Ancestral Recall myself. Won during the next turn.
I personally think this deck is as good as it can be but then again its only because it suits my play style. Lemme know what you guys think.
Thats the list we got from Matt. Who knows what it could be. But from the looks of things it could be a 4th Serum Visions. According to him its a personal preferance.
I also liked it, but i would love to have comments instead of text, although that it will be maybe to mutch efford.
The reason text was chosen is so that newer players can get a grasp on the format. At least with text they can refer to the cards easier (the podcast is mainly designed as a introduction to competitive MTG) but glad you guys liked it
[quote=Apocalypser;/comments/3899305]I'm sorry for being so direct lepakboy but when one asks questions like those you asked, he cant certainly play the deck right, so getting beat at the ptq should be pretty expectable.
Well I did say I was going there for fun :). Besides I was too excited about covering the event that I wasn't even paying full attention. Footage of the top 8 can be seen at www.deckconstruct.com if anyone is interested.
Well the decks I faced were
Game 1 -Doran in which he barely won game 1 but I got mana screwed Game 2
Game 2 -Faced slide. Imprinted Helix on scepter both games and won quite easily
Game 3- Faced Teps, Lost game 1 , won game with with sideboard Teeg and lost Game 3 because after a Desire for 7, he needed one more Red ritual to cast the Burning Wish in his hand. He Cracks Chromatic Sphere and mises a Rite of flame and wins shortly after. After 2 losses I dropped and started to cover the event
Also I never said I was the best Iggy Player around, if you feel that the entire piece was a waste of time, feel free to write your own. I did give reference to the SCG article in the beginning so its up to them if they wanna read it.
Please remember this primer is for those who are new to the deck and format. If you feel you are more than capable of piloting this deck without any additional input, feel free to comment below and add to the primer.
IGGY POP a tendrils based combo deck that relies on the recursion effect from Ill-gotten Gains to build up a lethal storm count and killing the opponent with a Tendrils of Agony.
Many versions of this deck exist but to keep things simple, I’ll be focusing entirely on its creator’s list (Michael Bomholt) which was featured in Steven Menendian’s primer (Available at http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/14122.html).
Iggy Pop Decklist.
Artifacts
4xLion’s Eye Diamond
4xLotus Petal
Enchantments
4xLeyline of the Void
Instants
4xDark Ritual
4xCabal Ritual
4xIntuition
4xBrainstorm
4xMystical Tutor
Sorceries
4xInfernal Tutor
4xIll-gotten Gains
3xTendrils of Agony
1xEmpty the Warrens
Basic Lands
2xSwamp
1xIsland
Non Basic Lands
4xFlooded Strand
2xUnderground Sea
1xVolcanic Island
1xTundra
1xScrubland
Sideboard
2xHurkyl's Recall" target="blank">Hurkyl's Recall
2xEchoing Truth
3xChain of Vapor
4xOrim’s Chant
3xEmpty the Warrens
1xWipe Away
Why should you play this deck?
Let’s start with this deck’s most appealing factor. You can win on TURN 1! (ahem) now on to the more serious stuff.
Iggy Pop beat aggro decks with ease. You can easily win turn 3 /4 which is about a turn faster than your average Goblins, 9-land Stompy etc.
You can survive Heavy Discard. Decks like Dead-Guy Ale which packs 4xDuress, and 4xHymm to Tourach. These may seem like impossible decks to beat, but it can be done.
Because they use their early turns disrupting your hand, they aren’t putting you on any pressure. You can just calmly play your lands, and your artifact mana sources like Lion’s Eye Diamond, Lotus Petal and simply wait till you top deck an Ill-gotten Gains or an Infernal Tutor. Another thing to remember is that their heavy discard also gets you to Threshold faster, making those Cabal Ritual’s more useful.
Iggy Pop is certainly one of the most stable Tendrils based combo decks in Legacy at the moment. Decks like SI (which focus on a turn 1 Kill) are very draw dependant and sometimes can just die on its own.
The Epic Storm uses only Non-basic lands and therefore is susceptible to non basic land hate in the form of Wasteland.
I am not saying Iggy is superior to these other decks. I’m just stating the differences. So let’s move on to the combos.
The Combos
There are many ways you can combo off but one of the easiest ways is a combination of
2xLion’s Eye Diamond + 1xInfernal Tutor + 1B in the pool to cast Infernal Tutor.
You first play the 2x Lion’s Eye Diamond (Hence forth know as LED) and then put Infernal Tutor on the stack.
In response to Infernal Tutor you must crack your two LED’s. This will empty your hand and transform your Infernal Tutor into a Demonic Tutor allowing you to search for Ill-gotten Gains and cast it leaving you with 2 mana left in the pool.
After Ill-gotten Gain resolves, you return 2x LED’s and 1x Infernal Tutor and do it all over again. When you have built up a sufficient storm count, search for Tendrils of Agony and go for the kill.
Another way you can combo off is via 2xCabal Ritual. This is only possible if you have Threshold. Assuming you only have 2x Cabal Ritual and 1x Infernal Tutor in your hand, the combo plays out like this.
Cast Cabal Ritual Number 1 with Threshold, BBBBB in the pool
Cast Cabal Ritual Number 2 with Threshold, BBBB BBBB in the pool.
Cast Infernal Tutor with Hellbent searching for and casting Ill-gotten Gains will leave you with BB in the pool. This is just enough for you to recast those Cabal Rituals.
Continuing the Loop
The two examples given above are self sustainable, which means that once you’ve pulled it off once with those 2 combinations of cards, you don’t need to add any more mana into the pool. But as well all know, the game we love doesn’t always go to plan so sometimes you’ll have to combo off differently. Below are two combinations of which you will need to remember.
Continuing the loop with:
1x LED, 1x Dark Ritual, 1x Infernal Tutor
Now let’s play out this hand. (We’ll assume we only have one Undergound Sea in play.
Tap Underground Sea for B and play Dark Ritual. BBB in the Pool.
Play LED, and then Play Infernal Tutor. B in the Pool
You crack LED in response to Infernal Tutor, you have BBBB in the pool
You search for Ill-gotten Gains. 0 mana left in the pool.
So in order for you to continue the loop and get lethal Tendrils you’ll need at least BB extra.
The same goes for 1x Cabal Ritual (with Threshold), 1x Dark Ritual, 1x Infernal Tutor.
As long as you remember this you will not be caught with your pants down so to speak.
The Empty the Warrens Kill
This common from Time Spiral has given Iggy a very useful alternate win condition. When playing Iggy Pop, you’ll sometimes find that you cannot rise the storm count to a lethal level (IE because your facing counter magic or just don’t have enough mana to get there). This is where Empty the warrens comes in. You don’t need to get to 10 storm counts to kill. If you can cast this early enough in the game say for a storm count of 4, you’ll have 8 1/1’s on the board giving your opponent a 3 turn clock to find an answer.
A sample empty the warrens hand would be:
1x LED, 2x Lotus Petal, Swamp, 1x Cabal Ritual, 1x Infernal Tutor, Polluted Delta.
In your hand you have 2 Pieces of the ideal combo LED, and Infernal Tutor, but you lack the mana for a turn 1 kill via Tendrils. Let’s assume that you know your opponent has had disruption and therefore its in your best interest to combo off first.
The ideal set of plays will be:
Play Swamp, 2x Lotus Petal, LED (Storm count 3)
Crack the 2x Petals for BB and tap the Swamp for B (BBB in the Pool)
Play Infernal Tutor and Crack the LED in response for R mana (BRRR) in the Pool (Storm count 4)
Search for Empty the Warrens for (Storm count 5) 10 tokens. Giving your opponent a 2 turn clock to find an answer.
Double Tendrils Kill
In the face of heavy permission spells, you’ll sometimes find it near impossible to set up a traditional kill via Ill-gotten Gains recursions. Another way is to just set up a Double Tendrils of Agony Kill. This assumes that you have 2x Tendrils of Agony or at least managed to search for 2 of them. The idea is to ramp up to 8 mana via the rituals cards and cast both the Tendrils consecutively.
So a play of
Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Lotus Petal, with BBB in the pool
2x Tendrils of Agony will cause a total of 18 life lost to your opponent (in most cases its lethal)
This sort of play takes time to set up but if you’re facing counter heavy decks like Threshold, it is one play you cannot afford to miss.
Secondary Combo – Turn 1 Mind Twist
Although this combo will not kill your opponent, it will in most cases cripple him so badly allowing you to just walk over him. The combo is
Leyline of the Void + Ill-gotten gains
This combo is very common and usually can be pulled off on turn 1 if not turn 2.
Take for example this opening hand with you on the play.
Leyline of the Void, Lotus Petal, Brainstorm, Polluted Delta, Ill-gotten Gains, Dark Ritual, Mystical Tutor
All you have to do is
Turn 0 Leyline of the Void
Turn 1 Polluted Delta (Crack search for Underground Sea – No worries about wasteland if your opponent has no hand).
Play Lotus Petal. Crack for B
Tap Underground Sea for B, play Dark Ritual. BBBB in the Pool
Play Ill-gotten Gains – and remove your opponent’s entire hand from the game. You on the other hand will still keep 3 cards from your graveyard. May I suggest Polluted Delta, Brainstorm and Mystical Tutor? J
This will essentially buy you 2 free turns without any form of disruption (assuming your opponent doesn’t top deck everything he needs) easily allowing you to win.
Although the deck is quite tight, you can change a few things around. One thing I won’t change is the amount of Leyline of the Void.
Leyline of the Void is absolutely vital in this deck. Most importantly it stops your opponents from recurring cards from Ill-gotten Gains, but it does so much more. It slows your opponents clocks (IE: Threshold, 42 land) and helps kill your opponent’s combo (Ichorid). Another minor point is that is slows Affinity decks quite badly. Disiple of the Vault and Arcbound Ravanger aren’t so hot when their effects don’t work the way they used to.
Match Ups
Legacy is a very diverse format so it is nearly impossible to write down an analysis for every deck you will encounter. The one match up you can always expect to face and win is Goblins. Goblins is the premier aggro deck of the format. Even during the days of Hulk Flash, Goblins managed to put up a top 8 (certainly a sign of how good they are especially since they changed very little to their main deck). Even though we have a good match up against them, you mustn’t underestimate the explosive power of Goblins.
Goblins by David Hofmeyer
Creatures
4 Gempalm Incinerator
1 Goblin King
4 Goblin Lackey
4 Goblin Matron
4 Goblin Piledriver
1 Goblin Pyromancer
4 Goblin Ringleader
1 Goblin Sharpshooter
4 Goblin Warchief
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
4 Mogg Fanatic
2 Siege-Gang Commander
Artifacts
4 Aether Vial
Lands
1 Barbarian Ring
4 Bloodstained Mire
8 Mountain
3 Rishadan Port
4 Wasteland
2 Wooded Foothills
My opponent is a very competent goblin player and has been playing it for the past 2 years. I win the die roll and choose to go first
My Starting hand: 2x Mytical Tutor, Polluted Delta, Bloodstained Mire (These would be Flooded Strands but they were in another deck), Dark Ritual, 2x Lotus Petal.
Just by looking at this hand we know we’re going to win on turn 3 assuming there is no disruption from our opponent. (Try to work out the sequence before looking at the play by play)
Play by Play
Turn 1 – I play Polluted Delta. End my turn.
Goblins Turn 1 – Mountain , Goblin Lackey (probably one of the best starts)
End of Goblin player’s turn I crack Polluted Delta for an Island (no reason to get UndergroundSea when he could be holding a Wasteland) and play Mystical Tutor fetching Dark Ritual.
Turn 2 – I draw the Dark Ritual off the top play a Bloodstained Mire. End my turn.
Goblins Turn 2 – He swing with Goblin Lackey and puts a Goblin Warchief Into play. Plays a mountain and cast 2x Goblin Piledriver meaning I’m dead next turn.
End of Goblin Player’s turn 2, I play Mystical Tutor for Infernal Tutor
Turn 3 – Time to combo off.
Play 2x Lotus Petal and crack the Bloodstained Mire for a Swamp
Play 2x Dark Ritual off the Swamp, BBBBB in the pool
Play Infernal Tutor cracking 2x Lotus Petal leaving BBBBB in the Pool searching for Ill-gotten Gains.
I tap the Island leaving me to pay for Ill-gotten Gains leaving me with BB in the pool
Recur 2x Dark Ritual and an Infernal Tutor
Play the 2x Dark Ritual giving you BBBBBB in the pool
Play Infernal Tutor to get Tendrils of Agony leaving you with BBBB
Play Tendrils for 20 and win.
Game 2 – Sideboard
This is when things get really bad for you because they can bring in a number of hate. Tormod’s Crypt is bad when you’re trying to combo off with Ill gotten Gains, Pyrostatic Pillar one of the most common forms of hate is hard to deal with, and Chalice are quite bad as well.
Because I don’t know what my opponent will side in, I decide to play without changing anything. No use compromising my speed for unnecessary sideboard cards.
Game 2: vs Goblins
I get an opening hand of
2x Bloodstained Mire, Polluted Delta, Infernal Tutor, 2x Brainstorm, Dark Ritual.
This is one very misleading hand. Its good because it has Dark Ritual and Infernal Tutor. The 2x Brainstorms also help make this hand much better than it seems but you might just draw into crap. Since my opponent mulliganed to 5 I decide to take the risk.
Turn 1 Goblins – He plays Mountain and passes the turn (this is a good sign) he has no lackey meaning his clock is considerably slower.
Turn 1 Iggy – We draw a Bloodstained Mire, how nice … We play Polluted Delta and end the turn. You may be wondering why we don’t just play Brainstorm? Well because if we waited another turn, we can play the Bloodstained mire and look at another fresh batch of cards. Its all about maximizing the effects of Brainstorm. I’m certainly not saying you should do this all the time, if your hand looks like a turn 2 kill by all means go for it but under this circumstances we have time.
Turn 2 Goblins – Mountain , Pyrostatic Pillar
No wonder he kept that hand. Putting it out on turn 2 before we have developed anything is a really good play. We have to end it soon otherwise we’ll just lose too much life from his creatures to combo off.
THEREFORE IN RESPONSE – I crack the Polluted Delta for an Island and play Brainstorm. It’s better to take 1 damage rather than 3.
I see Ill-gotten gains, Leyline of the Void, Lotus Petal. Bah Nothing good at all. I take the Lotus Petal. At least I can up the storm count with that.
Turn 2, Iggy – I play Bloodstained Mire and say go. Best just to wait it out as there are no creature on the table.
Turn 3 Goblins – He plays Mountain and Goblin Warchief which brings me down to 17 Life. This isn’t good and its only going to get worse with that on the board. I Brainstorm end of turn into
Lion’s Eye Diamond, Infernal Tutor, Ill-gotten Gains.
I put 2x Ill-gotten gains and crack the Bloodstained Mire for a swamp.
Turn 3 Iggy
Our hand is now
Lion’s Eye Diamond, 2x Infernal Tutor, Dark Ritual, Bloodstained Mire, Lotus Petal
In play are 1x Swamp, 1x Island . Our life is at 14 and our opponents life is at 18.
Can you win?
Well I can tell you that I didn’t win. I tried a variety of ways but still I failed to kill him. The best I could do is just lower his life so he can’t afford to cast another creature letting me top deck into another tendrils or iggy … Anything really.
So this is the sequence
Play Dark Ritual , Infernal Tutor revealing Lion’s Eye Diamond, play 2x Lion’s Eye diamond, tap Island for U and play Infernal Tutor cracking 2x Lion’s Eye Diamond in response
So now we’re down to 4 life, we search for Tendrils of Agony and tendrils them for 12 dmg and going up to 15 life.
Our opponent is now at 6
Turn 4 Goblins – he plays Goblin Ringleader and reveals Goblin Lackey, Goblin Matron, Goblin Piledriver.
I scoop.
Game 3
Ok so we finally know his packing Pyrostatic Pillars, I therefore swap one Intuition and a Ill-gotten Gains for 2x Echoing Truth. These are cheaper than Wipe Away and deals with Multiple Pillars. They can be searched via Mystical tutor so you essentially have 6 copies in your deck. But then again if your meta is filled with control, Wipe Away might be a better choice.
Game 3 – Iggy Starts
Our opening hand:
1xPolluted Delta, 2x Bloodstained Mire, Brainstorm, Leyline of the Void, Infernal Tutor, Dark Ritual.
This isn’t a great hand but its better than the other one. At least this time you know you have 2 parts of the Combo (enough mana in terms of Dark Ritual and fetchlands, and the All important Infernal tutor). Not a great hand but would a 6 hander be better? I doubt it. Remember you only run 16 lands so your bound to find some sort of fuel in Brainstorm. So I keep.
Turn 1 Iggy – Leyline of the Void, Polluted Delta. End my turn
Turn 1 Goblins – Mountain, Goblin Lackey (How Lucky)
Turn 2 Iggy, I draw Cabal Ritual.
Now the hand looks like this:
Cabal Ritual, Dark Ritual, 2x Bloodstained Mire, Brainstorm, Infernal Tutor
Comboing off now is a lot more easier. So I try Brainstorm.
Crack polluted Delta for Island, Brainstorm into
Intuition, VolcanicIsland, Lion’s Eye Diamond
Can you work out how to win this turn?
Play by play
Put back VolcanicIsland and Bloodstained Mire back on top of the library.
Play Bloodstained Mire for an UndergroundSea (no use holding back)
Play Dark Ritual , Cabal Ritual BBBB in the pool
Play Lion’s Eye Diamond
Play Infernal Tutor and in response Crack the LED giving you BBBBB in the pool
Play your freshly tutored Ill-gotten gains leaving you with B in the Pool
Return Dark Ritual, Lion’s Eye Diamond , Infernal Tutor
Play Dark Ritual , Lion’s Eye Diamond and Infernal Tutor and crack Lion’s Eye Diamond in response giving you BBBB in the pool
Tendrils of Agony you win.
If you are confused, remember you cast a Brainstorm as well J
(Additional note) This primer is by no means complete. I'll write a match up against Threshold and other Control and combo decks when i have the time. But till then, comment away.
[CARD]
Burning Wish[/CARD]
Cunning Wish
Death Wish
Living Wish
... don't think anybody cares about Golden Wish
Just wanted to know if you could play Sins of the Past targeting Plunge into Darkness. I was told that you cannot do this because the life lost past of Plunge into Darkness is part of its cost but I just wanted to double check.
Well fair enough I didn't make top 8, and I presume 'flawlessly' is a term I shouldn't use so lightly. Still its my 4th PTQ and certainly the first I've ever been in contention for the top 8 so gimme a break dude!
Also I said my deck is good because it "suits my playstyle", but hey i'm not interested in a flamewar.
My losses were to Affinity (Plunged for 10 into no wishes or tendrils) and Desire for 8 revealing 5 lands and 3 rituals. By no means am I blaming the deck its a risk everyone takes when playing TEPS and I accept it.
Aggro loam. Reccuring Ghost Quarters sealed the game. I did win one round against him turn 4 with only a Bloom and two spheres
Death cloud - heavy discard hurt
Nah London, UK. As for the LLOTV, yes I had the same idea as you guys. Although I never did face LLOTV the entire tournament, I did see Peter's point whilst I was at the top tables. In my matches against Deathcloud and Aggro Loam, they only way I could have won was if I top decked a Wish / Sins of the Past and used it recur Mind's Desire. This would not be an option if they have LLOTV. I don't think its a huge problem though and if you switch the stars/sphere around they should be the same.
Lands
4x Sulfur Vent
4x Ancient Spring
3x Irrigation Ditch
1x Geothermal Crevice
3x Gemstone Mine
Artifacts
4x Lotus Bloom
4x Chromatic Sphere (You have more spheres because they are not affected by Leyline of the Void - a tip I got from PTQ London winner Peter)
2x Chromatic Star
Instant
4x Cabal Ritual
4x Seething Song
3x Fire//Ice (MPV) Won me several games
2x Plunge into Darkness
4x Orim's Chant
Sorcery
4x Burning Wish
2x Death Wish
4x Rite of Flame
3x Channel the Suns
3x Mind's Desire
1x Tendrils of Agony
1x Sins of the Past
Sideboard
1x Mind's Desire
3x Tormod's Crypt
1x Cabal Therapy
3x Duress
1x Sins of the past
1x Deathmark
1x Hull Breach
1x Channel the Suns
1x Morning Tide
1x Tendrils of Agony
1x Pyroclasm
I went into the tournament know that there will be a lot of Doran and Zoo decks both of which are capable of casting a Teeg. Therefore I wanted at least 10 main deck answers to it. This build has 11 (4x Burning Wish, 2x Death Wish, 2x Plunge, 3x Fire//Ice).
Orim's chant is used aggressively. Because most of these decks can only hurt you with Sorcery based spells (casting Teeg, Cabal Therapy, Duress, Thoughtseize, Meddling Mage), Orim's Chant is Time walk. Sometimes that extra turn is all you need for Bloom to resolve and win the game.
Fire//Ice is also never a dead card against non aggro / teeg decks. Against control you can tap their coloured land during their up keep. You can kill Putrid Imp before they have threshold. You can even stop massively fast aggro decks. I was on 10 life facing RDW and he had a goyf in play and 2 cards in hand. I tapped his Goyf during declare attackers step using Ice and breaking 2x Chromatic Sphere/ Star and Ancestral Recall myself. Won during the next turn.
I personally think this deck is as good as it can be but then again its only because it suits my play style. Lemme know what you guys think.
http://www.youtube.com/user/DeckConstruct
We will be covering a few more extended PTQ soon so keep checking out the website at www.deckconstruct.com
The reason text was chosen is so that newer players can get a grasp on the format. At least with text they can refer to the cards easier (the podcast is mainly designed as a introduction to competitive MTG) but glad you guys liked it
Well I did say I was going there for fun :). Besides I was too excited about covering the event that I wasn't even paying full attention. Footage of the top 8 can be seen at www.deckconstruct.com if anyone is interested.
werehassatangon:
The list is posted on page 7 of this thread
Well the decks I faced were
Game 1 -Doran in which he barely won game 1 but I got mana screwed Game 2
Game 2 -Faced slide. Imprinted Helix on scepter both games and won quite easily
Game 3- Faced Teps, Lost game 1 , won game with with sideboard Teeg and lost Game 3 because after a Desire for 7, he needed one more Red ritual to cast the Burning Wish in his hand. He Cracks Chromatic Sphere and mises a Rite of flame and wins shortly after. After 2 losses I dropped and started to cover the event