The idea here is to drop an Ensnaring Bridge and a Bottomless Pit. Keep you hand as low as possible, and allow the Pit to disrupt your opponent to no end.
I wonder if the deck could use Hesitation or Mindless Automaton...
It's amusing that I'm keeping the name Mindless Blue, since my version only puts it in the sideboard... I'll get into that later.
MonoBlue Counterspells like Cuneo Blue are possible in Tempest Block, but the card set allows for a few more tricky things to do rather than stuff in 30 counterspells. And thus Mindless Blue was born, combining defensive blue spells with counterspells and the combo of capsize+sapphire medallion.
The Automatons are the only thing essentially that MonoBlue has versus Scragnoth. For Boil... just pray you have a counterspell.
I looked at a few variations of this deck. There's a couple of versions that don't use the Automaton at all. There's some that use Ertai. There's some that use as little as 4 Bottle Gnomes for creatures.
I've mentioned in the CounterPhoenix deck the strength of memory crystal instead of Sapphire Medallion. Basically, since the medallion is only really used for whispers and capsize, the buyback reduce of memory crystal is more useful, since it's VERY unlikely in a game you'll get all 4 medallions out. I've designed it to maintain the strongest elements of the different variants.
The reason I put the Automaton into the sideboard is that he's only really useful against Scragnoth... which itself is a sideboard card anyways. Whispers will net you more cards than Automaton will, and you'll more likely use the Licid or Allures to steal a creature and beatdown with that.
Sometimes Wizards unknowingly puts in the perfect combo in the same block. But what were they thinking when they put in the perfect anti-creature lock in the same set, and in the same color?
Humility+Orim's Prayer
Humility makes all creatures 1/1 with no abilities. And Orim's Prayer makes any creature that attacks you make you gain 1 life. So any creature that attacks does nothing; and attack is all they can do since they have no abilities.
Important note: Under the current rules creatures with comes into play abilities do not have those ability occur, since the alter-effect ability of Humility happens simultaneously. So you are safe from Spikes, Cloudchaser Eagles, and other Comes-into-play creatures. (Unless the Spikes were already in play when you cast Humility.)
You can see it's very similar to Brian Hacker's version; I just use more reflecting pools, and 1 more reclaim.
This deck completely hoses creature based combo and control decks (like CounterPhoenix, RecSur, and Tradewind Awakening), especially if you draw Humility and Orim's Prayer in your opening hand. There's also one more lock card with Nature's Revolt, which can completely lock down all creatures and ALL lands, since lands now can't even tap for mana. The kill condition would have to change if this were the case. (Perhaps bring in spirit mirror and nature's revolt against creatureless decks?)
This deck's biggest enemy is Hatred, so keep that in mind. They can cast Hatred on a harmless 1/1 weenie and still have it take you out in one hit (assuming they have more life than you), and also Spinal Graft can make a worthless 1/1 still attack for 3 each turn, even if you have Orim's Prayer out. A Sligh player might have a blistering fast start, get lucky, and burn you to death, especially if they're packing Sonic Burst. White Weenie has Disenchant and Cataclysm. Any aggro deck that is too fast for the lock to come out will beat it, as well as fellow creatureless control decks. However, aggro decks that are too slow, you will be able to lock out, as well as creature-based control decks. I think the sideboard should change a bit more to reflect these matchups.
I've been tempted to design other decks that hose creatures, like Propaganda+Hand to Hand or Death Pits of Rath+Evincar's Justice... but none are as powerful, hosing, and efficient as Humility+Prayer.
One thing to note, is that Brian Hacker updated his list:
"Hacker took the Humility/Prayer deck he played at World's and updated it in light of new information about the metagame. The main change he made was to pull the Propagandas out of his main deck and put in Lobotomy instead. Because the beatdown decks aren't as good as they are in Standard and because so many people play slow decks, Lobotomy is a great card in this environment."
So if you're going to be facing a metagame filled with the slower control decks, run this version:
A very underrated hard lock deck. This deck has a lot of surprise... nobody expects Awakening to allow bouncing of 6 permanents every two turn cycle. The control elements are also very effective... While it's possible to be overwhelmed, or to not get all the right combo pieces and establish the lock, when it does, I've never lost. I've also dominated multiplayer games with this deck, since Awakening untaps my stuff each player's turn so I can focus individually on each opponent. My friends actually now refuse to play against this deck because of its effectiveness.
The lock works like this. Once you have Awakening, 6 lands, tradewind rider, 2 other creatures, and capsize in your hand, you are ready to bounce 6 permanents. Awakening says "Untap all creatures and lands during each upkeep." You get essentially 2 untap steps during your turn, and an untap step on your opponents turn. Beginning of your turn, untap everything, tap 6 lands to capsize something, tap tradewind riders and 2 creatures to bounce something. Then upkeep, untap and repeat this process. Then do this cycle once on your opponent's turn. And if you have multiple awakenings, their abilities stack.
In terms of what the deck needs to improve... it's hard to say. I've seen a couple of variants of this, and I think I've made a strong variation above. What the deck probably wish it had room for was tutoring. I tried one version that squished in 4 intuition to search for the combo pieces it needed. The problem with this is that I had to lower the number of some of the combo pieces, like less awakening, less tradewind, etc. That, and Intuition works best paired with reclaim for lots of neat tricks. Survival of the Fittest would probably also help to get that Tradewind, or Weaver if you're in a dire situation. But the creature base isn't big enough for a Survival use; you need LOTS of creatures to always ensure a steady flow of discarding creatures. That, and Survival can't get Awakening, which is the important piece of the puzzle that triples your bounce potential. Theoretically, this deck controls the game so well before it gets it's combo going, because it has the strongest blue and green control cards; but I've lost before simply because smart opponents gunned for my tradewinds, even with an awakening out.
The other element I wish this deck had was more creatures. I've also lost before because of the magic '3' number needed for tradewind's bounce. My friends have suggested Spike Breeder and Thopter Squadron, but I think they're too slow. Maybe Stalking Stones? I'm not sure... Wall of Blossoms and the spikes generally have a habit of not dying unless you want them to. If I were to add more creatures, I'd put in the Survival and take out the counterspell suite; and probably put in Hammerhead Shark, maybe Wall of Tears, Canopy Spider, Bottle Gnomes... Again, adding defensive creatures so that I can hold the board until the lock hits. The other thing is that the more creatures based version of this, I already created. I need to tweak a little bit and create a sideboard, but I took out awakening and added Aluren and Intruder Alarm. That means one more combo piece needed (Tradewind + 2 creatures + Awakening vs. Tradewind + 2 creatures- one of them a wall of blossoms or spike feeder- + Aluren + Intruder Alarm). Check out that deck for infinite bounce possibilities if combo is your game more than lock.
Overall, this is a very strong archetype. Metagame wise, it's the right pick, since it beats so many other deck types. But this deck loses out to bad luck more than anything (which I've personally seen and read about. read this article for an example of the perfect deck losing due to bad luck.)
The elements of this deck can be found in some of my other decks... look for the use if Awakening in a normal donais style counterspell deck, or an infinite bounce deck with Tradewind rider and Aluren.
This is an alternate build that seeks to be even better against Weenie decks in the first game by using Oath of Druids maindeck.
Article here:
"I realized that the deck wasn’t good enough to consistently win against weenies, I needed walls, spikes and oaths! So was I going to return to awakening? After all, it wasn’t good enough against control, right? Well, maybe if I fooled around with the sideboard? I added some wastelands (to kill stalking stones), powersinks (better than mana leaks vs spikes, licids and silver wyverns) and scragnoths to the sideboard.
The goal here is to use maindeck Oath to bring out your feeders, walls, weavers, and tradewinds against the super fast decks. Game 1 is designed to hose the fast creature decks, and the sideboard is designed to shift into anti-control mode, which is usually the opposite of most Awakening builds. Keep this decklist in mind if you're facing a metagame full of Sligh + Hatred + WW + Living Death.
This is another good control archetype. It plays like a Mono Blue Counterspell deck, but the inclusion of red gives it a great creature control card that doubles as counterspell lock with Forbid. And it's the kill condition too. A card that serves 3 functions? I'll take it.
"After Lisbon I decided all the changes I made really were improvements. If I was to play this at another tournament I think would add a 2nd Scroll Rack and pull the last Caldera Lake. I think I would also try Ertai's Meddling in the sideboard instead of Stalking Stones. "
This is another archetype that has no perfect decklist. But I am tempted to find the perfect decklist for this one, because I believe it exists somehow. This deck contains a lot of card advantage strategies, but it's tough to know which is the best strategy out of all of them. Here's what I know:
-Counter Phoenix is mana hungry. The Forbid lock, with 2 shard phoenixes requires 9 mana. Capsize bouncing requires 6 mana. Recurring pyroclasm lock with Phoenix requires 8 mana per turn. Most decklists run lots of land, almost half. Randy himself said he always used Whispers of the Muse to try to search for more land.
-Shard Phoenix is essential, but most every game I ever played with it, I drew an intuition before Shard Phoenix, and I'd search for 3 phoenixes, then I'd recur them and bring them into action. 4 Phoenixes main deck may be too many; you don't have the mana to be recurring all 4 of them, and the first intuition you get will search for 3. Plus, I've controlled the board with only one before. It may free up 1 slot to just stick with 3 phoenixes and 4 intuition.
-Propagandas are incredible. 4 are necessary; I very often intuitioned for 3, and wished I had 1 more copy in the deck. It completely shuts down creatures based attacks, you don't even need Hand to Hand (a very interesting enchantment which not a lot of people know combines with propaganda to make creatures unable to attack you. I thought about making a hand to Hand/propaganda lock deck, but it's too close to CounterPhoenix anyways.)
-The scroll racks are strange. On the surface they seem helpful, but it's so tough to dig in your deck when you're putting what you don't need on top of your library; you'll be racking those back in your hand.
-Kindle may be better than shock, since you'll be playing long games and I've intuitioned for 3 kindles before winning me the game.
-Mogg Fanatic under the new rules is no longer the Mogg Fantastic. If anything, he should be Fireslinger instead. The life loss isn't a problem; I've been beaten by a CounterPhoenix deck at 1 life before (and this was with my speedy damaging GoblinCraft deck.)
-Capsize Lock is tough without memory crystal or Awakening. I can see it keeping a nasty enchantment or artifact off the board, but you need to cast it multiple times a turn or else it's not as effective. I've seen MonoBlue Counter decks use medallions to abuse capsize and whispers; I think this decktype doesn't have the room for that kind of capsize lock.
-Portcullis looks fun, but not being able to get those phoenixes back because of a smart opponent is no fun.
-Thalakos Drifters is... eh... his potential for beatdown is superflous; CounterPhoenix wins eventually with an inevitable phoenix beatdown. Propaganda should stop shadow attacks; if it's too much, why not use wall of diffusion instead? (actually, not a bad idea...)
-Stalking Stones I think is good, especially once you establish control, but the lack of being able to make blue or red mana hurts it... this deck is mana intensive.
-Burgeoning is SO tempting. With 28ish lands, being able to have double the lands your opponent has can be awesome... too bad color splashing in Tempest Block sucks. UGR is so fragile (very few of the decks I've designed for this block even try those 3 colors.)
-Treasure Trove seems better than whispers. When I've established a lock, I still need as much mana open for forbid and other stuff. treasure trove can help a forbid lock without the phoenix... but the fact it's an enchantment leaves it open to disenchant. I dunno... whispers would be better combined with capsize and memory crystal, but that's taking up valuable slots.
-sapphire medallion is not as good as memory crystal. you use the medallion for only two spells: whispers and capsize. 1 memory crystal = 2 medallions, so you can have 3 copies in your deck and still benefit greatly by having only one in play.
This is the current version of my decklist. I've used Randy's version as a skeleton, taking out the Mogg Fanatics, the Dismisses, the Shocks, a Shard Phoenix, and a Mana Leak. I added in Propaganda and Whispers of the Muse. It has one big addition that I haven't seen elsewhere: Seismic Assault. Even though it costs RRR (making yet another tough-to-splash card compared to Shock) it completely transforms all your lands into Shocks. You now no longer have 4 Shocks, but potentially 26 (not counting the 3 mountains needed to cast the enchantment in the first place.) That's a potential 52 points of damage, compared to 8 from 4 Shock. This really capitalizes on CounterPhoenix's high land count; even when trying never to miss a land drop, there are always spare lands in my hand whenever I played. This creates three benefits: 1) being able to do something with all that extra land, 2) create a threat where when your hand has cards in it, the opponent never knows when a land will be discarded for damage, and 3) it allows you to beat MonoBlue Control, Mirror Match, and Humility decks once you successfully land a Seismic Assault on the table. You no longer need to fight through counterspells; 10 lands drawn and you win. Which this deck will do, since it has 50% land and Whispers of the Muse. (The muse is added back in to complement the Seismic Assault, to help create a second Forbid lock, and for overall card advantage.)
The sideboard has the Portcullis, Stalking Stones, and Thalakos Drifters that Randy's version has, but the similarities end there. Instead there are Legacy's Allure (all around great card to deal with any creature threat except Scragnoth), and Torture Chambers (also handles any creature threat with Pro red). I don't know if those 2 Stalking Stones slots should be Shattering Pulse, Whim of Volrath, Interdict, Furnace of Rath, Bottle Gnomes, Hammerhead Shark, Havoc, wasteland, or Grindstone.
I think speed is the only thing that beats this deck; speed and luck. That or an even stronger control deck. I've had fast decks bring CounterPhoenix down to 1 life, then lose once he established control. White Weenie with Cataclysm apparently beats it; that and theoretically Hatred, assuming they don't counter it, or get propaganda or burn spells. You can probably fight Hatred by bringing in more creatures that can block Shadow as well as burn. Another problem for this deck seems to be Tradewind Awakening; the best thing for that maybe would be Searing Touch to take advantage of their Awakening, or maybe then bring in Capsize targeting your own permanent to fizzle their capsize if they try targeting one of your permanents. Then use their Awakening to fuel your own Capsize and beat them at their own game, targeting their creatures first so that Tradewind Rider sits there useless. Capsize may also be helpful against a Humility Deck, just in case they successfully drop Humilty.
RecSur is the bad boy of this block. Sligh may be everywhere, but this deck actually wins the tournaments with its excellent control. Again, deck variants are wide because it's a toolbox deck and there's no perfect way to build it; but the main elements of Hermit Druids, Survival of the Fittest, Recurring Nightmare, and Living Death are always present. For those who don't know, use Survival and Hermit Druid to load up the graveyard with creatures (or search for the one you need) then get them into play cheap with Living Death or Recurring Nightmare.
White Weenie is designed to thrash Sligh and Hatred. Cataclysm I think is the wrong choice main deck, because against aggro, their one creature is generally going to be better than yours, and every time I've cast Cataclysm, the opponent ends up in a better position than me. Without empyrial armor, it makes less sense to keep one creature, since they're all weenies. But against control decks, lack of mana will ruin them; and then why wouldn't you just run Limited Resources anyways? Our deck does not need more than 5 mana to function, but decks like CounterPhoenix (and its Phoenix variants) Monoblue Control, RecSur, Tradewind Awakening, etc. absolutely depend on lots of mana. Perhaps replace it main with Gerrard's Battle Cry? or maybe Orim's Prayer (since most of your creatures are offensive shadow attackers, you need a defense of some kind.)
I've seen variants of this; one that doesn't use Cataclysm:
I like the Pacifisms main deck; playing with my friends have taught me that dealing with your opponent's creatures is important. Maybe Flickering Ward should be main deck because of it's insane flexibility, and not just as a Sideboard card. 'Protection from Color' can hose any deck with removal only in one color, and Flickering Ward can grant protection from any color.
If you're going to do a Tempest tournament, prepare for this deck. I've seen strong control decks (even ones designed to beat this type) lose to a simple weenie rush.
Matchups: Sligh: White Weenie eats this for breakfast. With the Paladins, Priests and Kors, the deck might be strong enough mainboard to not need Warmths in the side... CounterPhoenix: Cataclysms eat this deck, as do Priests and Paladins (with their Pro Red). Limited Resources can probably do the same function as Cataclysm, since you're mostly attacking lands. But maybe an extra card to help... like Flickering Ward to keep Capsize out of the question. Hatred: White Weenie eats this for breakfast. Soul Warden, Paladin, and Monk become very important. perhaps Peace of mind could be added as the sideboard card versus Sligh and Hatred, since for Hatred you just need to have more life than them, and same goes for Sligh. Mono Blue Control/Mindless Blue: Flickering Ward may help against a possible Capsize lock. But your weenies should come out fast enough to outrace them, even under a Propaganda. Just be careful for their sided in Torture Chambers or Thalakos Drifters, as well as Dominating Licids and Legacy's Allure stealing creatures. Tradewind Awakening: Another deck that beats White Weenie. I'm thinking again Flickering Ward for protection from blue to ensure a shadow creature can't be targeted by Capsize or Tradewind Rider. It takes them a couple of turns to bounce all your permanents... in a couple of turns, a 2 power creature can kill them, assuming they don't have Spike Weaver. Helm of Possession may be important for this battle. RecSur/Horsecraft: Another weakness for White Weenie. A recurring Spike Feeder, Spike Weaver, Shard Phoenix, Stronghold Assassin... these can all be deadly. Cataclysm/Limited Resources should however decimate them, since they need land to function and they can't keep both Survival and Recurring Nightmare. Portcullis should probably go in as well. Humility: Disenchant becomes very important; but it's more important to take down those Orim's Prayers, since under a Humility you can still damage them. Bring in more Disenchants, and maybe Gerrard's Battle Cry.
I want to make my own version with a new sideboard... I'll work on it later.
I think the only thing to look at here is considering the Sligh variants. The questions is whether the cookiecutter version is best, or some unique theme/addition makes it better. What do Portcullis, Spellshock, Seismic Assault, Ensnaring Bridge, and Stone Rain add? Testing will tell, but if you ever encounter a Tempest Block Constructed Tournament (like ones online) you'll run into Sligh. Prepare for it.
There are so many variants and differing decklists of Hatred that I don't think there's a perfect decklist. For the uninitiated, play a first turn creature, then 2nd turn play a city of traitors, dark ritual, and you have enough mana to cast Hatred and win the game right there. A very common archetype in Tempest Block.
One of the things I have yet to test is Volrath's Dungeon. Using a Dark Ritual, it should be possible to get it out fast. As a lock card, it is very weak because of the ability for the opponent to pay 5 life to destroy it. However, it can be a pseudo time walk, where you get 1-2 creatures out, then cast the Dungeon and discard your hand, to force the slower opponent to put his hand on top of his library. This may slow him down so much that the 2 creatures should apply a lot of unresisted beatdown, and if the opponent is stupid enough to not pay 5 life, you can keep discarding drawn cards to prevent him from recovering. The card Hatred is such a one trick glass cannon that it may be better to fool the opponent by keeping Hatred in the sideboard, to bring in only against a deck that you know the opponent can't prevent it (anything besides sligh decks and counter decks.) Maindeck Dungeon should be such an unexpected move, since they'd likely be expecting the Hatred.
Another untested variant I've wanted to explore was splashing red for Sonic Burst and Mogg Fanatic. Adding Burn may or may not aid in this deck's weaknesses, but I haven't tested it or looked into it.
Here's a sample of red/black beatdown:
That's about it. One of the key things to think about this is the rock/paper/scissors of the 3 main weenie decks. Hatred beats most control, Sligh beats Hatred, White Weenie beats both Sligh and Hatred. Just know that Hatred is at a disadvantage against Sligh and White Weenie.
Description of deck by Randy Buehler (quoted):
"Earthcraft has proven itself to be one of the best engine cards ever made, and that distinction got it banned in Type 2 and Extended. It is currently legal in Type 1 and 1.5, where it forms a potent combination with Squirrel Nest from Odyssey. If you ever need to play in a Tempest Block Constructed tournament, however, the combo is still legal there.
How it works: Have any creature in play, and other in the graveyard. Put Overgrowth on a swamp, giving you a land that is capable of producing enough mana to play Recurring Nightmare on its own. Play Recur and bring a creature out of the graveyard. Tap that creature to pay for Earthcraft's ability, untapping the enchanted swamp. Repeat.
Now alone, that combo does not generate extra mana, and therefore isn't a mana engine per se. But if one of the creatures you are Recurring is a Workhorse (an Exodus artifact creature that can generate mana by removing counters from itself), then you begin to net mana during each cycle.
What to do with the mana: It isn’t pretty, but the idea is to store up enough mana to eventually win with Corpse Dance and Mogg Fanatic. The Workhorse will provide all the necessary colorless mana, and Earthcraft gives you the black mana (by tapping the Mogg Fanatic each time).
Here is the crazy "Horsecraft" deck played by Randy Buehler and Mike Turian in the block portion of Worlds 1998. With utility creatures like Wall of Blossoms, Spike Feeder, and Spike Breeder, the deck can gain infinite life, draw infinite cards, and create infinite 1/1 tokens in addition to killing the opponent with a Dancing Mogg. Now this is a deck with "horsepower"."
I've felt that this deck was very interesting... anytime I try coming up with infinite combos that involve earthcraft and overgrowth, they tend to stray towards this decklist. While it is very strong, I feel it is a little unbalanced, by having a couple of kill conditions that are completely different from the engine. I feel that generating infinite creatures during the engine itself is far better and more efficient. While the addition of Corpse Dance allows for some instant-speed kill, I think it reduces the odds that you can get your engine going, as well as hurting your defense.
I made these changes:
Removed the kill condition of corpse dance + mogg fanatic
removed the mindless automatons
removed the workhorses
Added more spike breeders
added thopter squadrons
The combo piece, by replacing workhorse with spike breeder, is now part engine, part kill condition, since earthcraft + overgrowth+ spike feeder + recurring nightmare = infinite creatures and infinite colored mana.
I thought about splashing blue for intuition. -3 scroll racks, +3 intuition, -4swamp, +4 rootwater depths would allow for assembling the last combo piece you need (I once lost in a multiplayer match by having a controlling position of everything I needed except for Recurring Nightmare) and intuition also allows for putting whichever creature you need right in your graveyard, which allows for early game advantage. I think that perhaps the spike breeders can be removed, since thopter squadron does the same thing, which may allow for more freed up slots. This decklist isn't finalized, but HorseCraft is certainly a force in Tempest Block and should always be featured as an alternative to RecSur (especially since Horsecraft soundly beats RecSur.)
Version 2
After studying the deck a little more, I decided to tweak it a little more. I decided to stress even more the solid defense of green + black, and added a new kill condition that also doubles as a creature control spell before you go infinite. That card is... Evincar's Justice. I looked at the deck's creatures and most of them should be immune to the Justice. Plus, once you reach infinite, you can recur a Spike Feeder a couple of times so that your life is higher than your opponents, then cast Evincar's Justice again and again until the opponent is dead. The justice is also really good in that it helps hold down weenie hoardes until you have brought all your combo pieces together.
Also in this new decklist, I took out the Spike Breeders entirely and have only the Thopter Squadrons. The Thopters can create infinite mana even without a Recurring Nightmare (Earthcraft + Overgrowth + Thopter squadron), and they serve the same function in also providing infinite 1/1 tokens. The only disadvantage is that you can't move counters onto the feeders and weavers, but you have Recurring Nightmare for those.
I also increased the number of creatures, which aids Survival of the Fittest. I added Wall of Souls as an extra wall that is tough to kill and punishes the opponent for attacking and trying to kill it. The more that this deck becomes a defensive deck with a combo finisher, the better it will be, in my opinion.
One of the things I should mention is this deck gets completely hosed by Humility Control. Under the new rules, comes into play abilities and 'alter state' effects trigger at the same time, so a Cloudchaser Eagle coming into play with a Humility out will no longer destroy the Humility. I might try and find Randy Buehler's Tournament Report when he piloted this deck, and see which matchups Horsecraft lost to and try and tweak the sideboard. I hate seeing 1-of answers when they can't be tutored for.
Check Randy's tournament report for how his deck handled. Here's a quick list of the archetypes he faced and how he fared:
Slivers: Survival of the Fittest + Slivers. Easy win. Horsecraft handles Beatdown very well with Recurring Weavers. RecSur/Living Death: Tough fight, but beatable. Randy beat all his Living Death opponents. Living Death is a slow control build, but it has no way to stop the infinite combos. Tradewind Awakening: A big weakness for this deck. Randy faced two Awakening decks and lost to both of them. Sligh: Never an easy matchup, but beatable. Horsecraft's defense, especially after sideboarding, held Sligh at bay.
To quote Randy: "I think I misjudged the meta-game somewhat. I tested a lot against beatdown, but it turned out that most of the field was playing controllish decks based around very powerful engines (Recurring Nightmare, Awakening, Earthcraft)." Horsecraft can perhaps go through some more tweaking, and maybe it can have a sideboard that can be equipped to handle Humility, Mono Blue Control, Counter Phoenix, and Tradewind Awakening, which seem to be its biggest opponents. but if you're facing a metagame of lots of beatdown decks and Living death decks... Horsecraft is the way to go!
So the sideboard should probably change to face the control archetypes.
4 Tradewind Rider
4 Dominating Licids
4 Merfolk Looters
4 Bottle Gnomes
2 Ertai, Wizard Adept
2 Coffin Queen
4 Legacy's Allure
4 Bottomless Pit
4 Mox Diamond
4 Ensnaring Bridge
Lands
2 Volrath's Stronghold
7 Swamp
15 Island
4 Chill
4 Thrull Surgeon
4 Helm of Possession
3 Capsize
The idea here is to drop an Ensnaring Bridge and a Bottomless Pit. Keep you hand as low as possible, and allow the Pit to disrupt your opponent to no end.
I wonder if the deck could use Hesitation or Mindless Automaton...
7 Swamp
15 Island
4 Tradewind Rider
4 Dominating Licids
2 Ertai, Wizard Adept
4 Bottle Gnomes
3 Mindless Automaton
4 Legacy’ Allure
3 Mind Over Matter
4 Bottomless Pit
4 Ensnaring Bridge
4 Mox Diamond
7 Swamps
1 Rootwater Depths
1 Reflecting Pool
2 Volrath's Stronghold
3 Wasteland
4 Bottomless Pits
4 Dark Ritual
4 Ensnaring Bridges
4 Null Brooches
4 Merfolk Looters
3 Bottle Gnomes
2 Wall of Tears
2 Thrull Surgeons
4 Lobotomy
4 Chill
4 Dread of Night
3 Steal Enchantment
2 Grindstones
2 Perish
3 Mox Diamond
3 Wall of Souls
3 Wall of Tears
3 Dauthi Mindripper
2 Death Pits of Rath
4 Rootwater Hunter
3 Bullwhip
3 Ensnaring Bridge
3 Lobotomy
3 Tradewind
3 Mawcor
2 Intruder Alarm
11x Islands
10 Swamps
1 Wasteland
3 Ertai's Meddling
3 Bottomless Pit
3 Rain of Tears
3 Chill
MonoBlue Counterspells like Cuneo Blue are possible in Tempest Block, but the card set allows for a few more tricky things to do rather than stuff in 30 counterspells. And thus Mindless Blue was born, combining defensive blue spells with counterspells and the combo of capsize+sapphire medallion.
The Automatons are the only thing essentially that MonoBlue has versus Scragnoth. For Boil... just pray you have a counterspell.
I looked at a few variations of this deck. There's a couple of versions that don't use the Automaton at all. There's some that use Ertai. There's some that use as little as 4 Bottle Gnomes for creatures.
4x Wasteland
20x Island
Creatures
4x Dominating Licid
4x Tradewind Rider
3x Mindless Automaton
2x Ertai, Wizard Adept
1x Silver Wyvern
4x Sapphire Medallion
4x Counterspell
4x Forbid
4x Legacy's Allure
4x Whispers of the Muse
2x Capsize
4x Chill
3x Torture Chamber
3x Bottle Gnomes
2x Reins of Power
1x Thalakos Drifters
1x Evacuation
1x Capsize
4 stalking stones
21 island
Creatures
4 dominating licid
3 tradewind rider
2 ertai
Spells
3 memory crystal
4 counterspell
4 forbid
4 legacy’s allure
4 whispers of the muse
3 capsize
4 propaganda
4 Chill
3 Bottle Gnomes
3 Mindless Automaton
3 Torture Chamber
2 Reins of Power
My version could probably use some more work.
I've mentioned in the CounterPhoenix deck the strength of memory crystal instead of Sapphire Medallion. Basically, since the medallion is only really used for whispers and capsize, the buyback reduce of memory crystal is more useful, since it's VERY unlikely in a game you'll get all 4 medallions out. I've designed it to maintain the strongest elements of the different variants.
The reason I put the Automaton into the sideboard is that he's only really useful against Scragnoth... which itself is a sideboard card anyways. Whispers will net you more cards than Automaton will, and you'll more likely use the Licid or Allures to steal a creature and beatdown with that.
18 Island
4 Stalking Stones
4 Wasteland
Creatures
1 Ertai, Wizard Adept
4 Hammerhead Shark
4 Rootwater Hunter
4 Tradewind Rider
4 Capsize
4 Counterspell
1 Dismiss
4 Forbid
4 Legacy's Allure
4 Whispers of the Muse
2 Bottle Gnomes
4 Chill
2 Dismiss
1 Ertai, Wizard Adept
2 Propaganda
2 Thalakos Drifters
2 Torture Chamber
Humility+Orim's Prayer
Humility makes all creatures 1/1 with no abilities. And Orim's Prayer makes any creature that attacks you make you gain 1 life. So any creature that attacks does nothing; and attack is all they can do since they have no abilities.
Important note: Under the current rules creatures with comes into play abilities do not have those ability occur, since the alter-effect ability of Humility happens simultaneously. So you are safe from Spikes, Cloudchaser Eagles, and other Comes-into-play creatures. (Unless the Spikes were already in play when you cast Humility.)
2 Vec townships
3 Thalakos lowlands
4 Reflecting pool
9 Island
6 Plains
Spells
2 Grindstone
3 Mox diamond
3 Orim’s prayer
4 Humility
2 Disenchant
3 Reclaim
3 Propaganda
4 Forbid
4 Counterspell
4 Intuition
1 Capsize
3 Whispers of the muse
1 Peace of Mind
2 Dismiss
2 Grindstone
2 Disenchant
1 Light of Day
1 Circle of Protection: Red
1 Boil
1 Whispers of the Muse
3 Warmth
You can see it's very similar to Brian Hacker's version; I just use more reflecting pools, and 1 more reclaim.
This deck completely hoses creature based combo and control decks (like CounterPhoenix, RecSur, and Tradewind Awakening), especially if you draw Humility and Orim's Prayer in your opening hand. There's also one more lock card with Nature's Revolt, which can completely lock down all creatures and ALL lands, since lands now can't even tap for mana. The kill condition would have to change if this were the case. (Perhaps bring in spirit mirror and nature's revolt against creatureless decks?)
This deck's biggest enemy is Hatred, so keep that in mind. They can cast Hatred on a harmless 1/1 weenie and still have it take you out in one hit (assuming they have more life than you), and also Spinal Graft can make a worthless 1/1 still attack for 3 each turn, even if you have Orim's Prayer out. A Sligh player might have a blistering fast start, get lucky, and burn you to death, especially if they're packing Sonic Burst. White Weenie has Disenchant and Cataclysm. Any aggro deck that is too fast for the lock to come out will beat it, as well as fellow creatureless control decks. However, aggro decks that are too slow, you will be able to lock out, as well as creature-based control decks. I think the sideboard should change a bit more to reflect these matchups.
I've been tempted to design other decks that hose creatures, like Propaganda+Hand to Hand or Death Pits of Rath+Evincar's Justice... but none are as powerful, hosing, and efficient as Humility+Prayer.
One thing to note, is that Brian Hacker updated his list:
"Hacker took the Humility/Prayer deck he played at World's and updated it in light of new information about the metagame. The main change he made was to pull the Propagandas out of his main deck and put in Lobotomy instead. Because the beatdown decks aren't as good as they are in Standard and because so many people play slow decks, Lobotomy is a great card in this environment."
So if you're going to be facing a metagame filled with the slower control decks, run this version:
1 Vec Township
1 Skyshroud Forest
4 Reflecting pool
3 Rootwater Depths
6 Island
4 Plains
4 Thalakos Lowlands
Spells
3 Reclaim
4 Humility
3 Orim's Prayer
4 Counterspell
4 Forbid
1 Scroll Rack
2 Lobotomy
3 Disenchant
3 Mox Diamond
3 Whispers
4 Intuition
2 Grindstone
1 Mox Diamond
1 Whispers of the Muse
3 Ertai's Meddling
1 Light of Day
1 Lobotomy
2 Grindstone
2 Shattering Pulse
1 Disenchant
1 Capsize
1 Dismiss
1 Wasteland
10 Island
2 Skyshroud forest
4 Reflecting pool
8 Forest
Creatures
3 Spike weaver
4 Spike feeder
4 Tradewind riders
4 Wall of blossoms
3 Whispers of the muse
4 Counterspell
3 Forbid
4 Legacy’s Allure
4 Awakening
3 Capsize
3 Propaganda
3 Scragnoth
3 Dominating Licid
2 Grindstone
4 Chill
11 Island
4 Reflecting Pool
3 Skyshroud Forest
6 Forest
Creatures
3 Spike Weaver
2 Scragnoth
4 Tradewind Rider
2 Hammerhead Shark
4 Wall of Blossoms
4 Whispers of the Muse
3 Capsize
3 Awakening
1 Dismiss
4 Forbid
2 Mana Leak
4 Counterspell
1 Capsize
2 Ertai's Meddling
2 Hammerhead Shark
3 Torture Chamber
1 Awakening
1 Spike Weaver
3 Grindstone
2 Scragnoth
The lock works like this. Once you have Awakening, 6 lands, tradewind rider, 2 other creatures, and capsize in your hand, you are ready to bounce 6 permanents. Awakening says "Untap all creatures and lands during each upkeep." You get essentially 2 untap steps during your turn, and an untap step on your opponents turn. Beginning of your turn, untap everything, tap 6 lands to capsize something, tap tradewind riders and 2 creatures to bounce something. Then upkeep, untap and repeat this process. Then do this cycle once on your opponent's turn. And if you have multiple awakenings, their abilities stack.
In terms of what the deck needs to improve... it's hard to say. I've seen a couple of variants of this, and I think I've made a strong variation above. What the deck probably wish it had room for was tutoring. I tried one version that squished in 4 intuition to search for the combo pieces it needed. The problem with this is that I had to lower the number of some of the combo pieces, like less awakening, less tradewind, etc. That, and Intuition works best paired with reclaim for lots of neat tricks. Survival of the Fittest would probably also help to get that Tradewind, or Weaver if you're in a dire situation. But the creature base isn't big enough for a Survival use; you need LOTS of creatures to always ensure a steady flow of discarding creatures. That, and Survival can't get Awakening, which is the important piece of the puzzle that triples your bounce potential. Theoretically, this deck controls the game so well before it gets it's combo going, because it has the strongest blue and green control cards; but I've lost before simply because smart opponents gunned for my tradewinds, even with an awakening out.
The other element I wish this deck had was more creatures. I've also lost before because of the magic '3' number needed for tradewind's bounce. My friends have suggested Spike Breeder and Thopter Squadron, but I think they're too slow. Maybe Stalking Stones? I'm not sure... Wall of Blossoms and the spikes generally have a habit of not dying unless you want them to. If I were to add more creatures, I'd put in the Survival and take out the counterspell suite; and probably put in Hammerhead Shark, maybe Wall of Tears, Canopy Spider, Bottle Gnomes... Again, adding defensive creatures so that I can hold the board until the lock hits. The other thing is that the more creatures based version of this, I already created. I need to tweak a little bit and create a sideboard, but I took out awakening and added Aluren and Intruder Alarm. That means one more combo piece needed (Tradewind + 2 creatures + Awakening vs. Tradewind + 2 creatures- one of them a wall of blossoms or spike feeder- + Aluren + Intruder Alarm). Check out that deck for infinite bounce possibilities if combo is your game more than lock.
Overall, this is a very strong archetype. Metagame wise, it's the right pick, since it beats so many other deck types. But this deck loses out to bad luck more than anything (which I've personally seen and read about. read this article for an example of the perfect deck losing due to bad luck.)
The elements of this deck can be found in some of my other decks... look for the use if Awakening in a normal donais style counterspell deck, or an infinite bounce deck with Tradewind rider and Aluren.
Lands
9 island
7 forest
4 skyshroud forest
4 reflecting pool
Creatures
4 tradewind rider
4 wall of blossoms
3 spike weaver
2 spike feeder
4 counterspell
4 forbid
4 capsize
4 whispers
4 awakening
4 oath of druids
2 wasteland
2 powersink
4 chill
4 legacy´s allure
3 scragnoth
This is an alternate build that seeks to be even better against Weenie decks in the first game by using Oath of Druids maindeck.
Article here:
"I realized that the deck wasn’t good enough to consistently win against weenies, I needed walls, spikes and oaths! So was I going to return to awakening? After all, it wasn’t good enough against control, right? Well, maybe if I fooled around with the sideboard? I added some wastelands (to kill stalking stones), powersinks (better than mana leaks vs spikes, licids and silver wyverns) and scragnoths to the sideboard.
This was the sideboardplan:
Sligh: -3 counterspell, -1 forbid +4 chill
Counterphoenix: -4 awakening, -4 oath, -1 capsize, -2 walls +2 wasteland, +2 powersink, +4 chill, +3 scragnoth
Monoblue control: -4 awakening, -4 oath, -2 walls, -1 weaver +2 waste, +2 sink, +4 allure, +3 scraggy
WW: Nothing
Hate: Nothing
Awakening: -4 awake, -4 oath, -1 wall, -1 feeder, -1 weaver +2 waste, +2 sink, +4 allure, +3 scragnoth
Living death: -1 wall, -1 oath +2 waste"
The goal here is to use maindeck Oath to bring out your feeders, walls, weavers, and tradewinds against the super fast decks. Game 1 is designed to hose the fast creature decks, and the sideboard is designed to shift into anti-control mode, which is usually the opposite of most Awakening builds. Keep this decklist in mind if you're facing a metagame full of Sligh + Hatred + WW + Living Death.
14 Island
10 Mountain
4 Reflecting Pool
1 Caldera Lake
Creatures
1 Mogg Fanatic
4 Shard Phoenix
Spells
4 Intuition
4 Mana Leak
4 Counterspell
4 Forbid
2 Dismiss
4 Shock
3 Capsize
1 Scroll Rack
3 Mogg Fanatic
3 Portcullis
3 Thalakos Drifters
3 Shattering Pulse
1 Dismiss
2 Stalking Stones
"After Lisbon I decided all the changes I made really were improvements. If I was to play this at another tournament I think would add a 2nd Scroll Rack and pull the last Caldera Lake. I think I would also try Ertai's Meddling in the sideboard instead of Stalking Stones. "
This is another archetype that has no perfect decklist. But I am tempted to find the perfect decklist for this one, because I believe it exists somehow. This deck contains a lot of card advantage strategies, but it's tough to know which is the best strategy out of all of them. Here's what I know:
-Counter Phoenix is mana hungry. The Forbid lock, with 2 shard phoenixes requires 9 mana. Capsize bouncing requires 6 mana. Recurring pyroclasm lock with Phoenix requires 8 mana per turn. Most decklists run lots of land, almost half. Randy himself said he always used Whispers of the Muse to try to search for more land.
-Shard Phoenix is essential, but most every game I ever played with it, I drew an intuition before Shard Phoenix, and I'd search for 3 phoenixes, then I'd recur them and bring them into action. 4 Phoenixes main deck may be too many; you don't have the mana to be recurring all 4 of them, and the first intuition you get will search for 3. Plus, I've controlled the board with only one before. It may free up 1 slot to just stick with 3 phoenixes and 4 intuition.
-Propagandas are incredible. 4 are necessary; I very often intuitioned for 3, and wished I had 1 more copy in the deck. It completely shuts down creatures based attacks, you don't even need Hand to Hand (a very interesting enchantment which not a lot of people know combines with propaganda to make creatures unable to attack you. I thought about making a hand to Hand/propaganda lock deck, but it's too close to CounterPhoenix anyways.)
-The scroll racks are strange. On the surface they seem helpful, but it's so tough to dig in your deck when you're putting what you don't need on top of your library; you'll be racking those back in your hand.
-Kindle may be better than shock, since you'll be playing long games and I've intuitioned for 3 kindles before winning me the game.
-Mogg Fanatic under the new rules is no longer the Mogg Fantastic. If anything, he should be Fireslinger instead. The life loss isn't a problem; I've been beaten by a CounterPhoenix deck at 1 life before (and this was with my speedy damaging GoblinCraft deck.)
-Capsize Lock is tough without memory crystal or Awakening. I can see it keeping a nasty enchantment or artifact off the board, but you need to cast it multiple times a turn or else it's not as effective. I've seen MonoBlue Counter decks use medallions to abuse capsize and whispers; I think this decktype doesn't have the room for that kind of capsize lock.
-Portcullis looks fun, but not being able to get those phoenixes back because of a smart opponent is no fun.
-Thalakos Drifters is... eh... his potential for beatdown is superflous; CounterPhoenix wins eventually with an inevitable phoenix beatdown. Propaganda should stop shadow attacks; if it's too much, why not use wall of diffusion instead? (actually, not a bad idea...)
-Stalking Stones I think is good, especially once you establish control, but the lack of being able to make blue or red mana hurts it... this deck is mana intensive.
-Burgeoning is SO tempting. With 28ish lands, being able to have double the lands your opponent has can be awesome... too bad color splashing in Tempest Block sucks. UGR is so fragile (very few of the decks I've designed for this block even try those 3 colors.)
-Treasure Trove seems better than whispers. When I've established a lock, I still need as much mana open for forbid and other stuff. treasure trove can help a forbid lock without the phoenix... but the fact it's an enchantment leaves it open to disenchant. I dunno... whispers would be better combined with capsize and memory crystal, but that's taking up valuable slots.
-sapphire medallion is not as good as memory crystal. you use the medallion for only two spells: whispers and capsize. 1 memory crystal = 2 medallions, so you can have 3 copies in your deck and still benefit greatly by having only one in play.
4 reflecting pool
1 caldera lake
14 island
10 mountain
Creatures
3 shard phoenix
Spells
3 whispers of the muse
4 counterspell
3 mana leak
4 forbid
4 intuition
3 propaganda
3 capsize
3 seismic assault
1 scroll rack
3 thalakos drifters
3 torture chamber
2 stalking stones
4 legacy's allure
3 portcullis
This is the current version of my decklist. I've used Randy's version as a skeleton, taking out the Mogg Fanatics, the Dismisses, the Shocks, a Shard Phoenix, and a Mana Leak. I added in Propaganda and Whispers of the Muse. It has one big addition that I haven't seen elsewhere: Seismic Assault. Even though it costs RRR (making yet another tough-to-splash card compared to Shock) it completely transforms all your lands into Shocks. You now no longer have 4 Shocks, but potentially 26 (not counting the 3 mountains needed to cast the enchantment in the first place.) That's a potential 52 points of damage, compared to 8 from 4 Shock. This really capitalizes on CounterPhoenix's high land count; even when trying never to miss a land drop, there are always spare lands in my hand whenever I played. This creates three benefits: 1) being able to do something with all that extra land, 2) create a threat where when your hand has cards in it, the opponent never knows when a land will be discarded for damage, and 3) it allows you to beat MonoBlue Control, Mirror Match, and Humility decks once you successfully land a Seismic Assault on the table. You no longer need to fight through counterspells; 10 lands drawn and you win. Which this deck will do, since it has 50% land and Whispers of the Muse. (The muse is added back in to complement the Seismic Assault, to help create a second Forbid lock, and for overall card advantage.)
The sideboard has the Portcullis, Stalking Stones, and Thalakos Drifters that Randy's version has, but the similarities end there. Instead there are Legacy's Allure (all around great card to deal with any creature threat except Scragnoth), and Torture Chambers (also handles any creature threat with Pro red). I don't know if those 2 Stalking Stones slots should be Shattering Pulse, Whim of Volrath, Interdict, Furnace of Rath, Bottle Gnomes, Hammerhead Shark, Havoc, wasteland, or Grindstone.
Other decklists:
4 Mana Leak
4 Forbid
4 Counterspell
4 Shard Phoenix
4 Shock
3 Capsize
3 Intuition
1 Searing Touch
3 Mox Diamond
2 Reflecting Pool
14 Island
10 Mountain
3 Stalking Stones
3 Whim of Volrath
3 Legacy's Allure
2 Interdict
2 Torture Chamber
2 Shattering Pulse
3 Capsizes
4 Forbids
4 Counterspells
4 Mana Leaks
2 Dismisses
4 Intuitions
4 Shocks
1 Mogg Fanatic
4 Shard Phoenix
13 Island
9 Mountain
4 Reflecting Pools
2 Wastelands
2 Furnace of Rath(TECH!!!)
2 Bottle Gnomes
2 Hammerhead Sharks(DA BOMB!!!)
2 Treasure Trove(These aren't good... 2 more sharks would be better)
3 Mogg Fanatics
3 Thalakos Drifters
1 Portcullis(Couldn't get the third furnace of rath)
14 Island
9 Mountain
4 Tradewind Rider
4 Hammerhead Shark
2 Mogg Fanatic
4 Shard Phoenix
4 Forbid
4 Counterspell
2 Whispers of the Muse
4 Legacy’s Allure
1 Mana Leak
4 Havoc
4 Wasteland
1 Grindstone
3 Mana leak
3 Dismiss
I think speed is the only thing that beats this deck; speed and luck. That or an even stronger control deck. I've had fast decks bring CounterPhoenix down to 1 life, then lose once he established control. White Weenie with Cataclysm apparently beats it; that and theoretically Hatred, assuming they don't counter it, or get propaganda or burn spells. You can probably fight Hatred by bringing in more creatures that can block Shadow as well as burn. Another problem for this deck seems to be Tradewind Awakening; the best thing for that maybe would be Searing Touch to take advantage of their Awakening, or maybe then bring in Capsize targeting your own permanent to fizzle their capsize if they try targeting one of your permanents. Then use their Awakening to fuel your own Capsize and beat them at their own game, targeting their creatures first so that Tradewind Rider sits there useless. Capsize may also be helpful against a Humility Deck, just in case they successfully drop Humilty.
7 Forest
4 Pine Barrens
3 Reflecting Pool
1 Skyshroud Forest
3 Swamp
2 Volrath's Stronghold
2 Wasteland
Creatures
1 Anarchist
1 Cartographer
4 Hermit Druid
1 Ravenous Baboons
1 Revenant
1 Scragnoth
1 Shard Phoenix
2 Spike Feeder
2 Spike Weaver
1 Tradewind Rider
1 Treasure Hunter
1 Verdant Force
4 Wall of Blossoms
1 Altar Of Dementia
4 Living Death
4 Mox Diamond
4 Recurring Nightmare
4 Survival of the Fittest
1 Altar Of Dementia
4 Boil
1 Coffin Queen
1 Dauthi Cutthroat
2 Disenchant
3 Scragnoth
1 Spike Feeder
1 Spike Weaver
1 Stronghold Assassin
6 Forest
4 Pine Barrens
3 Reflecting Pool
1 Skyshroud Forest
3 Swamp
3 Volrath's Stronghold
3 Wasteland
Creatures
1 Anarchist
1 Cartographer
4 Hermit Druid
1 Ravenous Baboons
1 Revenant
1 Scragnoth
1 Scrivener
4 Skyshroud Elf
1 Spike Feeder
2 Spike Weaver
4 Wall of Blossoms
1 Boil
4 Living Death
4 Mox Diamond
3 Recurring Nightmare
4 Survival of the Fittest
1 Altar Of Dementia
3 Boil
2 Disenchant
2 Oath of Ghouls
2 Scragnoth
2 Spike Feeder
1 Spike Weaver
1 Time Warp
1 Treasure Hunter
12 Forest
1 Volrath's Stronghold
8 Swamp
1 Island
Creatures
3 Spike Weaver
2 Tradewind Rider
4 Wall of Blossoms
4 Wood Elves
2 Spike Feeder
1 Thrull Surgeon
1 Cloudchaser Eagle
1 Coffin Queen
1 Verdant Force
1 Scragnoth
4 Rampant Growth
2 Mirri's Guile
4 Recurring Nightmare
4 Survival of the Fittest
3 Living Death
1 Altar of Dementia
2 Verdigris
2 Coffin Queen
2 Portcullis
2 Reckless Spite
2 Constant Mists
1 Scragnoth
1 Grindstone
2 Tranquility
1 Thrull Surgeon
2 Reflecting Pool
3 Rootwater Depths
1 Skyshroud Forest
1 Volrath's Stronghold
3 Pine Barrens
1 Island
8 Forest
3 Swamp
Creatures
4 Wall of Blossoms
1 Stronghold Assassin
1 Spike Weaver
1 Coffin Queen
1 Thrull Surgeon
3 Spike Feeder
1 Cloudchaser Eagle
1 Anarchist
3 Tradewind Rider
1 Rootwater Diver
4 Hermit Druid
1 Verdant Force
1 Wood Elf
4 Living Death
3 Recurring Nightmare
2 Lobotomy
4 Survival of the Fittest
2 Mox Diamond
1 Cartographer
1 Capsize
3 Portcullis
1 Lobotomy
2 Mana Leak
3 Oath of Ghouls
2 Dread of Night
1 Spike Weaver
1 Scragnoth
3 Skyshroud Forest
4 Pine Barrens
2 Reflecting Pool
4 Swamp
7 Forest
Creatures
4 Hermit Druid
4 Skyshroud Elves
2 Wall of Blossoms
2 Spike Feeders
3 Spike Weavers
1 Scragnoth
1 Revenant
2 Carrionette
1 Thrull Surgeon
1 Anarchist
1 Cartographer
1 Cloudchaser Eagle
1 Tradewind Rider
1 Shard Phoenix
4 Survival of the Fittest
4 Living Death
2 Oath of Ghouls
1 Coffin Queen
1 Stronghold Assassin
1 Stronghold Taskmaster
2 Lobotomy
1 Scrivener
2 Shattering Pulse
1 Ravenous Baboons
1 Cloudchaser Eagle
1 Wall of Blossoms
2 Spike Feeder
3 Wasteland
19 Plains
Creatures
4 Warrior en-Kor
4 Soul Warden
4 Soltari Monk
4 Soltari Priest
4 Soltari Emissary
4 Soltari Visionary
4 Paladin en-Vec
4 Cataclysm
3 Disenchant
3 Helm of Possession
3 Torture Chamber
2 Master Decoy
2 Light of Day
2 Circle of Protection: Red
2 Penance
1 Helm of Possession
1 Disenchant
1 Winds of Rath
1 Wasteland
White Weenie is designed to thrash Sligh and Hatred. Cataclysm I think is the wrong choice main deck, because against aggro, their one creature is generally going to be better than yours, and every time I've cast Cataclysm, the opponent ends up in a better position than me. Without empyrial armor, it makes less sense to keep one creature, since they're all weenies. But against control decks, lack of mana will ruin them; and then why wouldn't you just run Limited Resources anyways? Our deck does not need more than 5 mana to function, but decks like CounterPhoenix (and its Phoenix variants) Monoblue Control, RecSur, Tradewind Awakening, etc. absolutely depend on lots of mana. Perhaps replace it main with Gerrard's Battle Cry? or maybe Orim's Prayer (since most of your creatures are offensive shadow attackers, you need a defense of some kind.)
I've seen variants of this; one that doesn't use Cataclysm:
23 Plains
Creatures
2 Master Decoy
2 Nomads en-Kor
4 Paladin en-Vec
2 Soltari Champion
4 Soltari Foot Soldier
4 Soltari Monk
4 Soltari Priest
4 Soltari Visionary
4 Warrior en-Kor
3 Disenchant
4 Pacifism
3 Circle of Protection: Black
3 Circle of Protection: Red
3 Flickering Ward
3 Soul Warden
3 Warmth
I like the Pacifisms main deck; playing with my friends have taught me that dealing with your opponent's creatures is important. Maybe Flickering Ward should be main deck because of it's insane flexibility, and not just as a Sideboard card. 'Protection from Color' can hose any deck with removal only in one color, and Flickering Ward can grant protection from any color.
If you're going to do a Tempest tournament, prepare for this deck. I've seen strong control decks (even ones designed to beat this type) lose to a simple weenie rush.
Matchups:
Sligh: White Weenie eats this for breakfast. With the Paladins, Priests and Kors, the deck might be strong enough mainboard to not need Warmths in the side...
CounterPhoenix: Cataclysms eat this deck, as do Priests and Paladins (with their Pro Red). Limited Resources can probably do the same function as Cataclysm, since you're mostly attacking lands. But maybe an extra card to help... like Flickering Ward to keep Capsize out of the question.
Hatred: White Weenie eats this for breakfast. Soul Warden, Paladin, and Monk become very important. perhaps Peace of mind could be added as the sideboard card versus Sligh and Hatred, since for Hatred you just need to have more life than them, and same goes for Sligh.
Mono Blue Control/Mindless Blue: Flickering Ward may help against a possible Capsize lock. But your weenies should come out fast enough to outrace them, even under a Propaganda. Just be careful for their sided in Torture Chambers or Thalakos Drifters, as well as Dominating Licids and Legacy's Allure stealing creatures.
Tradewind Awakening: Another deck that beats White Weenie. I'm thinking again Flickering Ward for protection from blue to ensure a shadow creature can't be targeted by Capsize or Tradewind Rider. It takes them a couple of turns to bounce all your permanents... in a couple of turns, a 2 power creature can kill them, assuming they don't have Spike Weaver. Helm of Possession may be important for this battle.
RecSur/Horsecraft: Another weakness for White Weenie. A recurring Spike Feeder, Spike Weaver, Shard Phoenix, Stronghold Assassin... these can all be deadly. Cataclysm/Limited Resources should however decimate them, since they need land to function and they can't keep both Survival and Recurring Nightmare. Portcullis should probably go in as well.
Humility: Disenchant becomes very important; but it's more important to take down those Orim's Prayers, since under a Humility you can still damage them. Bring in more Disenchants, and maybe Gerrard's Battle Cry.
I want to make my own version with a new sideboard... I'll work on it later.
4 jackal pup
4 mogg fanatic
4 mogg raider
4 fireslinger
3 mogg flunkies
4 canyon wildcat
2 rathi dragon
4 shock
2 sonic burst
4 kindle
4 giant strength
1 goblin bombardment
16 mountain
2 wasteland
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Mogg Raiders
4 Canyon Wildcat
4 Mogg Flunkies
4 Kindle
4 Shock
4 Fireslinger
4 Maniacal Rage
3 Seismic Assault
17 Mountain
4 Wasteland
2 Jinxed Idol
3 Torture Chamber
3 Hand to Hand
3 Shattering Pulse
2 Boil
4 Sonic Burst
4 Shock
4 Fireslinger
4 Canyon Wildcat
4 Mogg Flunkies
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Mogg Raiders
4 Jackal Pup
2 Bombardment
4 Mogg Conscripts
2 Raging Goblin
16 Mountain
4 Rathi Dragon
4 Scalding Tongs
4 Mountain
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Raging Goblin
4 Mogg Flunkies
4 Fireslinger
2 Rathi Dragon
4 Shock
4 Sonic Burst
4 Maniacal Rage
2 Giant Strength
4 Stone Rain
4 Wasteland
16 Mountain
4 Kindle
3 Flowstone Flood
2 Spellshock
1 Rathi Dragon
3 Boil
I think the only thing to look at here is considering the Sligh variants. The questions is whether the cookiecutter version is best, or some unique theme/addition makes it better. What do Portcullis, Spellshock, Seismic Assault, Ensnaring Bridge, and Stone Rain add? Testing will tell, but if you ever encounter a Tempest Block Constructed Tournament (like ones online) you'll run into Sligh. Prepare for it.
4 carnophage
4 dauthi horror
4 dauthi slayer
3 foul imp
4 dauthi marauder
2 stronghold assassin
2 thrull surgeon
4 dark ritual
4 hatred
4 sarcomancy
3 spinal graft
15 swamp
4 Carnophage
4 Dauthi Slayer
4 Dauthi Horror
4 Dauthi Warlord
4 Hatred
4 Dark Ritual
3 Culling the Weak
2 Reckless Spite
3 Thrull Surgeon
1 Crovax the Cursed
1 Stronghold Assassin
2 Spinal Graft
18 Swamp
2 Wasteland
1 Volrath's Stronghold
3 Stronghold Taskmaster
2 Bottomless Pit
1 Jinxed Idol
3 Bottle Gnomes
3 Dread of Night
1 Diabolic Edict
4 Carnophage
4 Blood Pet
4 Dauthi Slayer
4 Dauthi Horror
4 Dauthi Marauder
2 Crovax the Cursed
4 Dark Ritual
4 Hatred
4 Diabolic Edict
1 Slaughter
4 City of Traitors
17 Swamp
1 Dauthi Cutthroat
4 Dread of Night
2 Perish
2 Portcullis
3 Bottle Gnomes
There are so many variants and differing decklists of Hatred that I don't think there's a perfect decklist. For the uninitiated, play a first turn creature, then 2nd turn play a city of traitors, dark ritual, and you have enough mana to cast Hatred and win the game right there. A very common archetype in Tempest Block.
One of the things I have yet to test is Volrath's Dungeon. Using a Dark Ritual, it should be possible to get it out fast. As a lock card, it is very weak because of the ability for the opponent to pay 5 life to destroy it. However, it can be a pseudo time walk, where you get 1-2 creatures out, then cast the Dungeon and discard your hand, to force the slower opponent to put his hand on top of his library. This may slow him down so much that the 2 creatures should apply a lot of unresisted beatdown, and if the opponent is stupid enough to not pay 5 life, you can keep discarding drawn cards to prevent him from recovering. The card Hatred is such a one trick glass cannon that it may be better to fool the opponent by keeping Hatred in the sideboard, to bring in only against a deck that you know the opponent can't prevent it (anything besides sligh decks and counter decks.) Maindeck Dungeon should be such an unexpected move, since they'd likely be expecting the Hatred.
Another untested variant I've wanted to explore was splashing red for Sonic Burst and Mogg Fanatic. Adding Burn may or may not aid in this deck's weaknesses, but I haven't tested it or looked into it.
Here's a sample of red/black beatdown:
4 dauthi horror
4 mogg fanatic
4 foul imp
4 mogg flunkies
4 carnophage
2 scalding salamander
3 dark banishing
4 shock
4 maniacal rage
2 volrath’s stronghold
9 mountain
9 swamp
I'm not sure though.... it seems to lack the power of Hatred MonoBlack, or the added benefit of adding red I was mentioning earlier.
3 Carnophage
4 Dauthi Horror
2 Dauthi Warlord
3 Raging Goblin
3 Jackal Pup
2 Mogg Fanatic
4 Mogg Flunkies
3 Spinal Graft
3 Diabolic Edict
4 Shock
1 Sonic Burst
1 Goblin Bombardment
4 Scalding Tongs
1 Wasteland
2 Reflecting Pool
1 Cinder Marsh
8 Swamp
8 Mountain
3 Bottle Gnomes
3 Perish
2 Bottomless Pit
4 Dread of Night
That's about it. One of the key things to think about this is the rock/paper/scissors of the 3 main weenie decks. Hatred beats most control, Sligh beats Hatred, White Weenie beats both Sligh and Hatred. Just know that Hatred is at a disadvantage against Sligh and White Weenie.
"Earthcraft has proven itself to be one of the best engine cards ever made, and that distinction got it banned in Type 2 and Extended. It is currently legal in Type 1 and 1.5, where it forms a potent combination with Squirrel Nest from Odyssey. If you ever need to play in a Tempest Block Constructed tournament, however, the combo is still legal there.
How it works: Have any creature in play, and other in the graveyard. Put Overgrowth on a swamp, giving you a land that is capable of producing enough mana to play Recurring Nightmare on its own. Play Recur and bring a creature out of the graveyard. Tap that creature to pay for Earthcraft's ability, untapping the enchanted swamp. Repeat.
Now alone, that combo does not generate extra mana, and therefore isn't a mana engine per se. But if one of the creatures you are Recurring is a Workhorse (an Exodus artifact creature that can generate mana by removing counters from itself), then you begin to net mana during each cycle.
What to do with the mana: It isn’t pretty, but the idea is to store up enough mana to eventually win with Corpse Dance and Mogg Fanatic. The Workhorse will provide all the necessary colorless mana, and Earthcraft gives you the black mana (by tapping the Mogg Fanatic each time).
Here is the crazy "Horsecraft" deck played by Randy Buehler and Mike Turian in the block portion of Worlds 1998. With utility creatures like Wall of Blossoms, Spike Feeder, and Spike Breeder, the deck can gain infinite life, draw infinite cards, and create infinite 1/1 tokens in addition to killing the opponent with a Dancing Mogg. Now this is a deck with "horsepower"."
12 Forest
10 Swamp
Creatures
1 Cloudchaser Eagle
1 Hermit Druid
2 Mindless Automaton
1 Mogg Fanatic
2 Spike Feeder
2 Spike Weaver
1 Spike Breeder
1 Stronghold Assassin
4 Wall of Blossoms
2 Workhorse
3 Corpse Dance
4 Earthcraft
4 Overgrowth
4 Recurring Nightmare
3 Scroll Rack
3 Survival of the Fittest
3 Canopy Spider
1 Cloudchaser Eagle
3 Oath of Ghouls
2 Spike Weaver
2 Stronghold Taskmaster
1 Stronghold Assassin
2 Thrull Surgeon
1 Verdigris
I've felt that this deck was very interesting... anytime I try coming up with infinite combos that involve earthcraft and overgrowth, they tend to stray towards this decklist. While it is very strong, I feel it is a little unbalanced, by having a couple of kill conditions that are completely different from the engine. I feel that generating infinite creatures during the engine itself is far better and more efficient. While the addition of Corpse Dance allows for some instant-speed kill, I think it reduces the odds that you can get your engine going, as well as hurting your defense.
I made these changes:
Removed the kill condition of corpse dance + mogg fanatic
removed the mindless automatons
removed the workhorses
Added more spike breeders
added thopter squadrons
The combo piece, by replacing workhorse with spike breeder, is now part engine, part kill condition, since earthcraft + overgrowth+ spike feeder + recurring nightmare = infinite creatures and infinite colored mana.
12 forest
12 swamp
Creatures
1 cloudchaser eagle
1 hermit druid
4 thopter squadron
2 spike feeder
2 spike weaver
3 spike breeder
1 stronghold assassin
4 wall of blossoms
4 earthcraft
4 overgrowth
4 recurring nightmare
3 scroll rack
3 survival of the fittest
3 Canopy Spider
1 Cloudchaser Eagle
3 Oath of Ghouls
2 Spike Weaver
2 Stronghold Taskmaster
1 Stronghold Assassin
2 Thrull Surgeon
1 Verdigris
I thought about splashing blue for intuition. -3 scroll racks, +3 intuition, -4swamp, +4 rootwater depths would allow for assembling the last combo piece you need (I once lost in a multiplayer match by having a controlling position of everything I needed except for Recurring Nightmare) and intuition also allows for putting whichever creature you need right in your graveyard, which allows for early game advantage. I think that perhaps the spike breeders can be removed, since thopter squadron does the same thing, which may allow for more freed up slots. This decklist isn't finalized, but HorseCraft is certainly a force in Tempest Block and should always be featured as an alternative to RecSur (especially since Horsecraft soundly beats RecSur.)
Version 2
After studying the deck a little more, I decided to tweak it a little more. I decided to stress even more the solid defense of green + black, and added a new kill condition that also doubles as a creature control spell before you go infinite. That card is... Evincar's Justice. I looked at the deck's creatures and most of them should be immune to the Justice. Plus, once you reach infinite, you can recur a Spike Feeder a couple of times so that your life is higher than your opponents, then cast Evincar's Justice again and again until the opponent is dead. The justice is also really good in that it helps hold down weenie hoardes until you have brought all your combo pieces together.
Also in this new decklist, I took out the Spike Breeders entirely and have only the Thopter Squadrons. The Thopters can create infinite mana even without a Recurring Nightmare (Earthcraft + Overgrowth + Thopter squadron), and they serve the same function in also providing infinite 1/1 tokens. The only disadvantage is that you can't move counters onto the feeders and weavers, but you have Recurring Nightmare for those.
I also increased the number of creatures, which aids Survival of the Fittest. I added Wall of Souls as an extra wall that is tough to kill and punishes the opponent for attacking and trying to kill it. The more that this deck becomes a defensive deck with a combo finisher, the better it will be, in my opinion.
12 Forest
10 Swamp
Creatures
4 Wall of Blossoms
4 Spike Feeder
2 Spike Weaver
1 Hermit Druid
1 Stronghold Assassin
2 Thopter Squadron
3 Wall of Souls
3 Scroll Rack
4 Recurring Nightmare
3 Evincar's Justice
4 Overgrowth
4 Earthcraft
3 Survival of the Fittest
3 Canopy Spider
3 Oath of Ghouls
2 Stronghold Taskmaster
2 Scragnoth
2 Spike Weaver
1 Stronghold Assassin
1 Cloudchaser Eagle
1 Verdegris
One of the things I should mention is this deck gets completely hosed by Humility Control. Under the new rules, comes into play abilities and 'alter state' effects trigger at the same time, so a Cloudchaser Eagle coming into play with a Humility out will no longer destroy the Humility. I might try and find Randy Buehler's Tournament Report when he piloted this deck, and see which matchups Horsecraft lost to and try and tweak the sideboard. I hate seeing 1-of answers when they can't be tutored for.
Check Randy's tournament report for how his deck handled. Here's a quick list of the archetypes he faced and how he fared:
Slivers: Survival of the Fittest + Slivers. Easy win. Horsecraft handles Beatdown very well with Recurring Weavers.
RecSur/Living Death: Tough fight, but beatable. Randy beat all his Living Death opponents. Living Death is a slow control build, but it has no way to stop the infinite combos.
Tradewind Awakening: A big weakness for this deck. Randy faced two Awakening decks and lost to both of them.
Sligh: Never an easy matchup, but beatable. Horsecraft's defense, especially after sideboarding, held Sligh at bay.
To quote Randy: "I think I misjudged the meta-game somewhat. I tested a lot against beatdown, but it turned out that most of the field was playing controllish decks based around very powerful engines (Recurring Nightmare, Awakening, Earthcraft)." Horsecraft can perhaps go through some more tweaking, and maybe it can have a sideboard that can be equipped to handle Humility, Mono Blue Control, Counter Phoenix, and Tradewind Awakening, which seem to be its biggest opponents. but if you're facing a metagame of lots of beatdown decks and Living death decks... Horsecraft is the way to go!
So the sideboard should probably change to face the control archetypes.