Legacy phyrexian dreadnaught deck. In play as possible turn 2, swinging possible turn 3. control cards to ensure and control the flow of the game how I want and deny opponent's plan.
I had the idea originally seeing a phyrexian dreadnaught, I just thought it was a cool card, and I knew the renegade doppelgangers from ROE at the time. People pointed me to stifle, and eventually this is what I have now. It's fairly stable, but I am not a master magic player, so could probably use some tweaks, especially I want scry but don't know what to give up. Counter balance is kinda funky - could be my playing, but have issues with it usually.
Gone the wayside is Eater of Days. I found it too risky if someone countered a stifle, etc. but I thought about it and played with it a few times. And when it's running well by turn 4 you should be doing better than that card.
Stifle, dreadnaught, top are the main high cost items.
I considered adding 1 Jace, the Mindsculptor, but haven't wanted to spend the $$. Force of Will's would be great too if you are trying to get serious. I'd also consider zendikar type fetch lands to help with reshuffles for 2nd chance Top digging. As a cheaper alternative, with the new enter tapped, scry 1 lands, I've been thinking of throwing 2 in there instead of islands, not sure if that's a good move or not.
my sideboard sucks. all I like there are dismember and blue elemental blast - there are probably way better cards I don't know of for a side board.
The primary goal is to play phyrexian dreadnaught. There are 7 cards and 2 ways to avoid the sacrifice. First is stifle - prevents it obviously. Second is have Renegade Doppelganger's on field already, and then either sac the dreadnaught, and swing with doppelgangers, or usually sac doppelganger, keep dreadnaught and swing next turn. A perfect moment turn 3-4 (not fastest swing), is to have doppelganger, play dreadnaught and stifle dreadnaught keeping both. Fastest swing is to tap out on turn 2 for dreadnaught and stifle (opening hand or good draw), then swing on 3 and for, use any counters to protect dreadnaught going through.
The deck needs very little land to operate. So I generally keep hands that have half of the condition I need, and at least 1 land, preferably 2. Besides having a perfect opening hand of {2 land, stifle, dreadnaught, counterspell, brainstorm, top, brainstorm}, a more typical great hand would be something like { 3 land, stifle, counter-cards, trinket mage}. Obviously on game 1 if u search, the gig is up, but that's a great hand.
If the game runs long, and you have to play slowly, there is a wurmcoil, and 2 cards to draw into to fetch it in addition to the top and drawing. There's no cheating it out, just need 6 mana, but that's why it's a secondary win condition. Third chance is beat down with the mages, yeah! go mages. ... you'll probably lose if that happens, but you never know.