I almost forgot, one of the most important pieces of a deck like this are draw spells to immediately make your win-con go off instead of having to wait until your draw step. You have Think Twice, and though it has flashback which is great here, it's expensive to cast. I used Thought Scour (they have amazing synergy with this type of deck already), and even better is Gitaxian Probe (I know you won't use it...) since you can just pay 2 life to win when you're tapped out. Good luck!
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Want to mill yourself faster? 1 Mirror Mad Phantasm. Jace, Memory Adept also helps quite a bit with milling. I know a million people have told you this already, but you seriously need a solid way to protect your Laboratory Maniac on the turn that you're going to draw from an empty library. This kind of deck is never going to go off against any of the top tier decks in standard because they will all just murder your win-con and watch you kill yourself. You have no counters whatsoever, and no way to guarantee that your lil' guy will stick around for the win. The Memory's Journeys will help but not enough, by any means. I was recently messing around with a G/U self-mill Lab. Man. deck, and the ONLY way it ever won was because Swiftfoot Boots were attached to the man. The. Only. Way. In the end, it was so inconsistent that I decided to just make G/U self-mill Splinterfright deck, which wrecks serious face EXCEPT against graveyard hate. Most of this hate is going to be rotated out with Scars (cough Surgical Extraction cough), and then I can honestly see a Splinterfright deck becoming tier 1, but not a Lab. Man combo deck. Ever. I'm not trying to hate or anything, I've tried running a similar style deck just for fun, but to make this even remotely close to a real competitive deck, you're going to need to suck it up and use the sets that are about to rotate out. They are available to you, just do it. As more and more sets are released, perhaps there will be something to add to this strategy, but until then why not use what you can to make it better? You want this to be standard for so long, but don't you think that you will change the cards at least some as the newer sets are released? So there's no point in denying yourself crucial key elements because you simply don't want to change it. Scars doesn't rotate out until September, that's a far way away. I'm sure you may have won some games before, but I doubt that many of them were against RDW, Delver, Solar Flare, B/U Control, R/G aggro, etc. Use what makes your deck better. As far as a casual fun deck, two thumbs up. Except the part where you don't have Swiftfoot boots. 1 thumb down and 1 thumb questionably sideways for that.
Yep, just checked, it works. Fuck a gold watch but seriously, can I get some eggs!?!
It does work that way, not with deck likes, but with comment likes. Can I get some eggs though, an omelet sounds really good! Anyway, it does seem like there is actually something happening on the vault right now - I'm not accusing you specifically of boosting, but it is very plausible that someone is using the comment like bug. I guess not many people know (knew) about it. Watch how many decks start hitting the front page with 1 comment now haha
well SOMEONE obviously hit like and refresh a bunch... it's not really bizarre, rather blatant
yayyy Spellskite lol
Jace, Memory Adept from M12 is an absolute must in a self-mill deck! (No Beleren, lol) I'm not really sure what's going on here with the Birthing Pod and some of the creatures...like Festerhide Boar and what-not. Forbidden Alchemy and Increasing Confusion would work well. Also, not sure why you would use Cancels over Dissipates, as they are a direct upgrade and you're not running Surgical. You need some instant draw to seal the deal so that your opponent doesn't simply remove your Lab Maniac and laugh. Gitaxian Probe can do that and let you see your opponent's hand earlier so you can know what to use your counters on, but I would go with Thought Scour, as it helps you mill and draw. It could even help you mill into a win if your library only has 1 or 2 cards in it. Interesting deck!
Seriously, take the joke Storm Crow off and put Spellskite back on so my brain doesn't explode lol
It certainly CAN be... Okay, so Invisible Stalker not being on this list I understand. It doesn't do much of anything by itself, and although I still think it's one of the best 2 drops, it's only good in certain formats. BUT. Spellskite is in every single way better than Lightning Helix. It eats Lightning Helix! Spellskite is so, so good against so, so many different things. It used to be on this list... what the hell happened?
hahaha Gaggro! Funniest thing I've heard all day. I appreciate the comment! You raise very valid points, so I'll try and explain my reasoning a bit. I was initially running 2 BSZ and 2 DOJ, for diversity. What I found is that more often than not, DOJ is far more useful. The ability to turn 3 BSZ to take out some weenies is definitely great, but I am almost always hard-pressed for double black that early, and beyond that it loses most of it's appeal. It does deal with indestructible quite well, but hardly anyone uses any indestructible creatures. Plus, it recycles itself, and usually turns into a 2-of as opposed to a 1-of. Also, DOJ is generally cheaper to flashback with Snapcaster. I personally think running more than 4 boardwipes, 1 of which recycles, and with 2 Snapcasters, is a bit much. I love BSZ though! Spellskite is absolutely INVALUABLE for certain match-ups. It nearly single-handedly won against RDW (oh, you WERE going to win with that Shrine of Burning Rage, weren't you?) It also messes up Wolf Run quite a bit, which is a deck I haven't played my deck against (in person), but I have played with/against plenty online and Spellskite is an absolute must. At worst, it's a super cheap, intimidate-shrugging blocker which can recur with Sun Titan, which is pretty damn good. It's also good against (as you mentioned) Humans, which are still a big archetype in standard. As far as Tempered Steel goes, 2 Revokes + 3 O-Rings + a million removal spells usually does the trick. Also, Tempered Steel is not as rampant in my meta as it may be in others, and the decks that are played a lot around here are definitely reflected by my SB. I was very sketchy about running so many lands at first, but I want to be able to hard-cast all of my creatures and have mana open for hijinks, plus I throw so many away with Forbidden Alchemy that I need to ensure I don't miss land drops. I am probably going to run 25 at the next FNM and see how it fairs. I too am usually a fan of about 24 lands in a control deck, but this honestly needs a touch more. The mana-base is wonky enough as is! Maybe it depends on your meta, but I have to ask, have you played with Sever the Bloodline before? On the surface it might seem shitty, BUT! It exiles, which answers 1) indestructible (meh), 2) undying (yeh!), 3) things that could be pulled out of a graveyard (Green? Mirror?). On top of it's exiles-beats-destroying advantage, it can hit multiple creatures at once, AND it has flashback. The flashback is extremely clutch! I am so, so on board with this card. It has seriously only let me down maybe once or twice! I used to run Timely Reinforcements, but most of the time it doesn't really do anything for me. The health gain is nice, but the 3 ground chumps are generally lackluster...Actually, gaining 6 health usually doesn't put me any closer to victory, either. Against aggro, it's usually pretty easy to just deny my opponent of any sort of board, and then drop a bomb and win. Timely just ends up slowing me down for the most part. It is certainly a very good card, it just never really played out well for me in this deck. I guess I'm done (now that I've written a book haha.) Thank you for the feedback! I hope this shows some insight into the reasoning behind the choices I've made, but you have given me plenty of food for thought for some match ups that I haven't faced yet. Good building to you too, sir!
lol on Lightning Helix STILL being on the list, but no Spellskite or Invisible Stalker. Pure comedy!
I like this, with the Call to the Kindreds. I wanted to use those so badly with my spirit tribal but never got around to it! I would go ahead and throw a couple of swords in here, because those dudes flying at your enemy's face could be doing hella more damage :D
Oh, look at that, all of your creatures are spirits! This must be a Spirit Tribal deck! Why yes it is! No spitting in Wizards' eyes necessary. That conversation got me SO WEAK lol
Hmm... use Fog instead of Moonmist in your SB, it's cheaper and you only have 3 wolves
Nice deck! I was inspired to make a Grixis version with the infinite combos. I don't know how well these types of decks will run professionally, but it sure is fun to play! If anyone would like to check it out, herrrre it is http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=298879 (but I'd rather you check out my Solar Flare deck, my beautiful little baby :D http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=296807)
Liked just for the name lol
It's a pretty chill deck, but it is far from unbeatable. In fact, mono black limits the power of this type of deck by quite a bit. Definitely needs green for power/ramp OR blue for some sort of control/Blighted Agents/unblockable stuff. Also, I take it you've never run this against Solar Flare...nice title though. It definitely draws people in!
No one ever countered them? No Mental Missteps? Or extracted your extractions? Sounds like your control opponents were really dropping the ball lol
It's quite alright, to each his own, but how are you going to take Spellskite off? My other suggestions I can understand, but Spellskite AND Invisible Stalker need to be on this list for it to be legit. I would take either over about 40% of the cards on there (Lightning Helix? Really?)
Rugged = tough = raw = sick = good = both of you must be from different coasts, he was giving you a compliment.... Anyways, nice deck. It's not original, but honestly how can it be? It's a dedicated BW aggro. token deck. I was running 'almost' exactly the same build and it wrecked face pretty well, except against Solar Flare (damn Elesh...). I've now reverted it from tokens to spirit tribal, with Solar Flare-ish attributes. If you don't do well at the IQ try throwing blue in for the control variant, I think in the long run it will hold up better. Best of luck to you at your IQ!
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