A painful truth

by surewhynot on 20 April 2013

Main Deck (60 cards)

Sideboard (15 cards)

Submit a list of cards below to bulk import them all into your sideboard. Post one card per line using a format like "4x Birds of Paradise" or "1 Blaze", you can even enter just the card name by itself like "Wrath of God" for single cards.


Deck Description

Life and Death were walking along in a forest alone. Life asked Death, "Death, why do people love me, but hate you?" Death responded, "Because you are a beautiful lie, and I am a painful truth."

I'm never fully satisfied with my Iso-Seek design, so this rendition is to see how Blood Scrivener works in the deck.

Deck Tags

  • Extraction
  • Iso-Seek
  • Control

Deck at a Glance

Social Stats

6
Likes

This deck has been viewed 2,215 times.

Mana Curve

Mana Symbol Occurrence

12111930

Card Legality

  • Not Legal in Standard
  • Not Legal in Modern
  • Legal in Vintage
  • Not Legal in Legacy

Deck discussion for A painful truth

I the addition of the Scrivener, but I'm honestly not sure about Dimir Charm. It's good, and you can stick it on the Scepter, but I can't help but think that slot could be better served by added {B} hand disruption.

And as you told me, they say the true masterpieces are the ones the artist never finishes, I find this quite fitting for your Iso-Seek designs :)

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Posted 17 May 2013 at 00:33

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I have to disagree with you about the charm. I've used each one of its modes in multiple games with great results. The "mill" mode is in some ways better than hand disruption, since you can stop the threat before it even becomes one. In addition, the "Put one back" part allows for the placement of some powerful mana burden. The other two modes are amazing too.

And thanks =]

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Posted 17 May 2013 at 01:55

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Fair enough, I think I just have my mind set on disruption after tweaking that UBx core for so long, and didn't even bother to think of using it to force mana burden. I need sleep, and to do something different it seems...

One thing I notice that's not just me stuck in my groove, is that your mana curve seems a bit odd to use Counterbalance in. 13 15 5? I know everybody likes 2CMC cards, but it seems a bit off-kilter.

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Posted 17 May 2013 at 11:57

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I've found through testing that a great percentage of cards that cause this deck issues are in the 1-2 mana range. Mostly the 2 mana range. It shuts out Goyf, Bob, and even prevents Daze from ruining my early-game fun. It's also remarkably effective at slowing down Affinity, at least to the extent one can slow it down =/

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Posted 17 May 2013 at 19:22

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I can dig it, 2cmc is the danger zone in almost every situation. It just seems odd to me, but that might be because I'm a bit OCD about CounterTop.

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Posted 17 May 2013 at 19:42

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I think it's only odd because it's designed to work in a different zone than your traditional layouts for a CounterTop. It does look a bit off if you think of it in that sense...

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Posted 17 May 2013 at 21:03

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And if there's any setup I like to do in a traditional way, CounterTop would be the closest. I have nothing but fond memories for playing CounterTop Progenitus as one of my main decks, and I think I might have to experiment with aggro-control decks with it again.

I tried this list for a few games last night, and holy balls do I take back anything negative I've ever said about Dimir Charm. It's decent on paper, but it's one of those cards you have to play to actually understand just how much it can shape a game.

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Posted 20 May 2013 at 08:24

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hahah that description was a great laugh XD and im surprised u didnt fill the SB with ur fav card, Cheaty Face hahahha.

idk man, this seems sorta random to me. plenty of answers to just about everything though lol.

http://cardgametalk.wordpress.com/

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Posted 17 May 2013 at 01:15

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It's not that random =]

It's the latest tweaking of my current Iso-Seek extraction build.

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Posted 17 May 2013 at 01:59

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I'm now deeply inspired to make another prison called 'A beautiful lie'. This is wonderful, and I agree with WandB's sentiment, not just because I know you in real life, and know how much of a perfectionist you are, but because I can visibly see you tinkering with each little 'weakness' present in the design. It's hard to say which of the three kinds of extraction is truly your masterpiece, but it is also hard to say which painting was Van Gogh's best.

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Posted 17 May 2013 at 03:15

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=]

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Posted 17 May 2013 at 03:17

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Long time no see! Isn't Bob just better than scrivener? Your curve tops at 4 and is comprised of mainly 2-drops. I'd much rather take 2 a turn for a definite draw than take 1 hopefully to draw 2 cards, and then HAVE to play them both to draw an additional next turn. Plus Bob beats down.

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Posted 25 August 2013 at 04:26

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Wow holy crap welcome back Ethan!

I've gone back and forth with both Bob and Blood Scrib, and they both have their high merits to be honest. Bob, as you mentioned, allows for much more consistent draws, but at the cost of more life. It's true that it isn't that much more life, but it does add up. Scrib on the other hand, only hurts me on occasion and more importantly, lets me recover better from aggressive early game moves where I empty my hand. It's not actually about getting the 2 cards a turn. It's about getting those 2 cards after I've played out everything right away and need to keep up the pressure with some answers.

It is very much an apples/oranges kind of thing, and that's why Bob is in the Sideboard...I switch those two out back and forth all the time depending on who/what I'm playing.

Anyway it's good to see ya again buddy. Are you back on the site for a while, or just checking up?

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Posted 25 August 2013 at 05:03

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Just checking up, I'm afraid. Ded sent me an inbox on The Vault and apparently I'm not forgotten around here hahaha. Life started up rather quickly, and magic has seemingly lost its flare for me. Started university, started writing a lot more--life has begun. I still know my way around the dojo, I just don't visit as frequently.

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Posted 25 August 2013 at 06:54

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I couldn´t help but feeling a bit sad. A painful truth indeed. Do you think that dementia is a natural protection system, so that when you (hopefully) grow old, the painful truth isn´t as paining?

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Posted 01 March 2014 at 18:49

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I think it might be for those who fear it. I personally don't fear it. I can't control it, much like I can't control the sun rising and I don't fear that. Sure, dying sucks, but if you accept it for what it is and nothing more, it stops being such a painful idea =]

Some deep shit man =P

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Posted 01 March 2014 at 19:31

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Yeah, I´ve sometimes wondered how lucky we are, to be a part of precisely *this* world. *This* moment in time. To have near-infinite possibilities and to be lucky enough to have the gift of free choice. Considering all that, makes the painful truth, much more painful. To be able to see the splendors in this timeline, I don´t believe that´s a beautiful lie, yet still I understand the quote - confusing, huh...
And then, what if the painful truth is just the beginning of a thousand new lies?

Yeah, deep sh*t

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Posted 01 March 2014 at 19:45

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Sorry... got a little weird there.

How has Blood Scrivener worked out for you?

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Posted 02 March 2014 at 15:53

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Really well actually. I've been using it ever since. Even in my latest design ( http://www.mtgvault.com/surewhynot/decks/i-also-love-him/ ) I put Blood Scriv in and it does the job.

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Posted 02 March 2014 at 16:28

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Cool 8-) Do you think he is a so-called 'Dark Horse?' And will explode in price?

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Posted 02 March 2014 at 16:32

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I dunno. I can tell you that he's very similar to Bob, but it's the differences that are so interesting to me. Some decks will do WAY better with Bob, and some, like this, do better with Scriv. I actually have Bob in the SB because sometimes just by the deck I'm playing against the need changes.

So I don't think it's so much a dark horse as it is just a solid card.

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Posted 02 March 2014 at 22:55

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