Messages

Fate Reforged and German Highlander

Comments are welcome. Either here or in this thread.

Best Boros build is called "Naya".

Thank you for the report. A friend of mine suggested to add claws of gix to get another out for sunrise turns where we dont have orb. I was suprised to see treasure cruise in your report. You play that card ? (cant imagine you want remove that many cards most of the time)

I had Claws of Gix for a while, the annoying problem was that I needed to dump mana in. It is good only in scenarios where you have exactly Academy and Sunrise, but cannot tutor for ZOrb as all the same tutors find either one of these and sacrificing your lands is always a bit risky if they have a counterspell for your Sunrise, you are pretty much done, so I only do that play when I am sure my opponent has nothing or I have Defense Grid in play.

On the plus side, Claws of Gix would also give a new life to Candelabra of Tawnos, so that could create absurd mana out of nowhere and zero mana artifacts that have relevant abilities are pretty decent in the deck anyway. I probably revisit that card when I run out of other stuff to test, still very unsure about Basalt Monolith, but Intuition seems gas.

Cruise was a test slot, I haven't had any time to test this deck for a good while, so prior the tournament I managed to free some slots and try some new cards. I was pretty sure that I wouldn't want to play Treasure Cruise, but might as well test it. I didn't have access to Dig Through Time during the tournament, which I think is just miles better anyway. While Cruise was pretty lackluster, Dig might be good enough. Unfortunately it is pretty horrible against aggro and I am confident that adding something like Reforge the Soul or Time Reversal can fill that role while being fine card in the matchups where you just need to race. That is, even if you want something like that in the first place. I wouldn't recommend running either of them currently, but for most of the time it felt like there was enough chaff in the 'yard that you didn't need to remove anything too relevant, but it also made the Cruise cost something like 3-4 mana, which is kinda weak.

I managed a 5-1-1 record with this last weekend. Quick report:

First match was against Abzan midrange. I mull to six or five and keep a slow hand. He gets down Anafenza and Gaddock Teeg. I would actually have a combo, but Teeg locks my Tezzeret and I can't find another tutor for Zuran Orb to kill him, so I die on the next turn. Game two I get lucky with my last turn and I find Salvagers to kill him. Can't remeber third game clearly, but I get Basalt Monolith + Rings fueled Draw seven and find Capsize and Candelabra for inifinite colored mana.

Second match was against a familiar face and deck. He played a UB control featuring depths combokill. First game I manage to draw 7 early enough, but brick with the gas. The few relevant spells I had for the next turn get countered, but he has no pressure so we started rebuilding our hands while he gets the occasional Mishra's Factory attack in. On the last turn I have many haymakers and hope to overload his counters. I start by playing Open the Vaults as a sort of a bait, but much to my surprise, it straight up resolves as his soft counters are unable to keep up with my Academy. This brings back Defense Grid along with 10+ eggs. If I recall correctly, I make him tap out on the second game and combo with Salvagers.

Third match was against elves. He keeps a bad six card hand, while I keep fairly glasscannony hand with Rings + Monolith. I deploy the combo but brick with my cantrips to actually win, so I need to pass the turn with all lands in hand. He has a Viridian Zealot on the table to deny any more Ring shenanigans. While he is stalled for land I can keep him from amassing too much pressure as I have Capsize going. On the final turn before he just has lethals I rip Time Spiral, but fail to produce the kill. I have to pass the turn after playing Salvagers as a blocker. He claims that he has the kill, but changes his tone immediately with a smirk when he remembers that Time Spiral made him a completely new hand. He tanks for a while and just deploys his hand to have a sure kill on the next turn. I transmute Tolaria West to Lion's Eye Diamond and that is all she wrote. Second game I don't remember too well. I keep a good hand that even rips the Salvagers for an "oops, I win" instead of needing to start chaining some draw 7's.

Fourth match was against Jeskai aggro-control, but we ID to top4. We play the matches out and I lose 2-1 after some misplays. Also Armageddon was kind of blowout. Had I seen it coming, Faith's Reward would have made that blowout to the other direction, but I was tapped out.

Round five I need to play. I faced an aggro-control deck with lots of flash creatures. I think he was RUG, but I am not 100% on that. First game I overrun him with Thopter/Sword, which got removed, but it was still enough to force him to tapout and me to Salvagers for the win. Second game I got what seems like infinite mana with Thopter + Sword Academy and untappers, but fail to find anything despite Sensei's Divining Top. He Council's Judgments my Thopter so I acnnot just straight up win. He even Mana Drains my Treasure Cruise and dumps the mana onto a now unblockable Mistcutter Hydra (X was something like 12). I think I might have won the race with my thopters, but Top sees a relevant spell, so I don't need to do combat math.

Semi-finals were AMAZING. I am playing against Reanimator. I won the swiss so I get to start. I tried to mulligan into a graveyard hate, but have to settle with a solid hand. He reanimated Iona either on the first or the second turn naming white, but is all out of gas. I make a huge mistake with Intuition by getting Salvagers as the third card (accompanied with Capsize and AEther Spellbomb). He obviously gives me the white card. I crack some eggs to find Artificer's Intuition. That finds me Conjurer's Bauble to put AEther Spellbomb back in the deck and then finds it to bounce the Iona turn before the lethal. This turns the Salvagers on so I can just Artificer's Intuition for the Lion's Eye Diamond for the win.

Second game I still mulligan to try to find one of my hate cards, but I need to go down to six to find even a keepable hand. My hand is basically just mana with Academy, but I lack for anything to cast. He has second turn Rune-Scarred Demon that finds Wasteland to kill my Academy. I draw Fabricate which I am forced to get AEther Spellbomb with. Next turn he draws Personal Tutor for Reanimate, so I am confident that he has a way to discard the creature should I bounce it. I really don't want to give him another Demonic Tutor as I am sure that would just end the game so I just keep taking 6 from the demon. On the last possible turn I rip Transmute Artifact. Having no mana to get Memory Jar, I Transmute my spellbomb for Thopter Foundry to buy some time and giving me an out to draw Sword for the win. Too bad that he has Lim-Dul's Vault and eventually settles for a line that allows him to reanimate Griselbrand. I find nothing and he gets attack in with the lifelinker to really put me out of the game.

Third game I mulligan once again trying to find graveyard hate. I have a hand that will find me Academy on turn two and has Intuition. He once again has turn two reanimate (some people, right?) this time for Griselbrand. Silver-lining being that he needed to take eight from Reanimate. He draws the cards and I Intuition for bounce and Twister, netting me a Capsize. I play my Capsize without the mana to buy it back and just cross my fingers. Next turn he drops to two life from Overgrown Tomb and animates Iona to lock me out of blue. I have a healthy life, but I really feel that I need to do something this turn or his grip full of cards will just do me in. I crack a Conjurer's Bauble and find a Second Sunrise. I tank for a full five minutes to figure out a line and make sure my mana works. My play for the rest of the turn was: Crack Lifespark Spellbomb to turn my Tolarian Academy into a 3/3 creature and Second Sunrise it back to do the same for my Volcanic Island and he has no Force of Will allowing an attack for lethal. I also hoped that he would not be able to reanimate anything the previous turn as I had Sword of the Meek in hand to kill him from four life with spellbomb, but instead I had to get lucky and creative, but man was it worth it.

We play best of one finals with a split. He is playing aggro naya and comes out of the gates rather fast and Armageddons us to stone age. Unfortunately he rips the nmeeded land last possible turn to kill me before I get Thopter Foundry to block basically forever.

Deck is still super hard to play and amazingly powerful.

tiggupiru:
Entomb - Entomb tutors best fatty avaiable out of the library, Loot effects have to work with the selection in your hand strongly decreasing the power of the effect. T2 reanimation is also not a autowin if your fatty is Sphinx of the steel wind for example. Scavenging Ooze is no out to T2 renaimation and Deathrite is only an out when the DRS player is on the play. There are also quite a few reanimation spells for 2cmc or less with Reanimate, Life//Death, Dance of the Dead, Reanimate Dead, Exhume, (Goyo's vengeance, Shallow Grave) avaiable. The biggest problem for Reanimtor is getting the most game braking fatty into the yard  - at least according to my (limited) reanimator playing experience.

Yea, Entomb would obviously be the best card in the deck. I am not arguing that.

Sphinx of the Steel Wind is one of the few targets that doesn't win the game immediately. Right now I am playing these targets in my reanimator list:

Elesh Norn, Grave Titan, Wurmcoil, Rune-Scarred Demon, Drogskol Reaver, Jin-Gitaxias, Sun Titan, Griselbrand, Woodfall Primus, Consecrated Sphinx, Sphinx of Uthuun, Ashen Rider, Damia, Terastodon, Primeval Titan and the Steel Wind.

Out of that list, there are few creatures that might do nothing: Steel Wind, Wurmcoil and Elesh Norn. Some require immediate answer: Consecrated Sphinx, Jin-Gitaxias and Damia, Sage of Stone. Rest of the targets do something immediately and most of that is really backbreaking to see on the second turn especially when they come with a big body attached. I honestly think that if there is going to be something reanimated of the second turn of the game, it is more often than not really bad for you even if you can immediately kill it.

We also get potential new targets about every other set released. I fondly remember the time when Akroma, Angel of Wrath was the best possible target for animation and now that is so laughably bad card it isn't even funny.

Vampiric vs. Demonic - Vampiric is much more powerful to enable broken things on T2 because the card costs only one mana and is instant. I agree that Demonic is extremely powerful. But for tutoring I almost completely look at the mana cost and wether the tutor is an instant.

Sure. Vampiric enables more broken things on the 2nd turn, but what are these broken things? I mean, most of them require a bunch of other stuff to actually do backbreaking stuff, or if you have few really broken examples that are consistent, maybe we should ban the cards that enable those things. I get the idea behind your argument, but if you need several cards to work together in order to produce that broken turn two play, you could argue that Demonic Tutor is just as bad because it allows broken stuff to happen of turn two if you have Chrome Mox in your starting hand.

[Stoneforge Mystic]

So, let me get this straight: We need to contact Wizards to get them to reprint Imperial Seal so that we can unban it while we also ban Price of Progress and Oath of Druids? Am I the only one who doesn't think any of that is a good idea?

Anyways, my personal opinions about the current watchlist:

Stoneforge Mystic and Natural Order are unneeded bans in my opinion, but these can be annoying in the German metagame so I can see why, but it just baffles me everytime.

Gifts Ungiven - I can see this card becoming a fair card at some point in the future. Effective cheap/midrange creatures makes Gifts weaker. While I agree the time is not now, it's good to revisit it once in a while. Also the fact that it takes years to resolve is a good reason to keep it banned even if there would be time for it to see play.

Fastbond - Would not unban it personally, I think it is too powerful, but I would love to brew a deck for this, so there is that. I am for the unban, I guess.

Entomb - Sure, there is a possible turn two Griselbrand associated with this card, but there are so few two mana reanimation spells in the format that it is far from likely. Besides, if you switch Entomb with Careful Study or Faithless Looting in that scenario, you still get the turn two animation. With the current targets, it really doesn't matter a whole lot what creature is coming to the party on turn two for it to be unbeatable. Deathrite Shaman and Scavenging Ooze have already made playing Reanimator very annoying, so I rather unban it. Also would enable some niche strategies across the board, never a bad thing.

Mystical Tutor - I think this is fine as it is, but I was one of the guys who were very vocal about unbanning it in the first place, so I might be biased.

Tolarian Academy - Would not have removed it from the watchlist yet, but at the same time I am very happy that I can keep playing it for six more months at the very least. I also feel like there are lot of untapped potential we've still yet to uncover. New potentially broken combo enablers like Jeskai Ascendancy have a ton of players working to see if they are viable since they are legal in standard and modern. Academy (and Fastbond) are cards that nobody has put any serious work into as they are banned in just about every conceivable format known to man, meaning that the work hours for Academy is next to nothing compared to the discussion and playtesting that Ascendancy has had in the couple of weeks it has been legal.

True-Name Nemesis - It's not as oppressive as Jitte, but the lack of interaction is the real problem. You do have many more answers to Jitte than to TNN. O-Rings, Reclamation Sages and creature removal all work, but against TNN you need to have specific cards most of the time. Cards like that aren't usually even good enough unless you really need to deal with the TNN, so playing them is kinda like shooting yourself to foot. I am also not saying Jitte should be unbanned, the card can burn in hell for all I care, but comparing the two is misleading IMO.

Imperial Seal - I am more than okay with this being banned due to the high market price. Workshop is something that I personally feel that it should fall into the same category. The card isn't even that good in the format to begin with. Tabernacle is only rarely played, so that is not a card I personally am worried about. Imperial Seal would be nigh automatic slam to any black deck.

Vampiric Tutor & Demonic Tutor - I probably sound like a broken record, but the power level of these cards are through the roof. I really can't understand other one being allowed and the other one not. I would ban both, but unbanning Vampiric would at least bring some consistency.

I also feel that Chain of Vapor should not be banned.

What is monochain oath?

It is a Berlin thing. You wouldn't understand.

I dont see how we can cut ponder/preordain. We are a combo deck after all and having a lot of artifacts is mandatory but we also need to find our key spells and/or lands.

Easy. We mulligan aggressively. Ponder/Preordain are quite excellent cards on their own right and I do not remove them without good reasons. The deck is consistent enough that we should be able to find something seriously powerful to cast when we attempt to go off. Against slower deck cantrips are quite good, but when we face an aggro, all that goes out of the window. You need to be very precise with your mana on the first few turns to give you maximum chance to produce a kill or unlosable board state by turn four sometimes even against a hatebear of sorts and that becomes seriously hard to manifacture unless you spend the first three turns to setup. Ponder and Preordain seemed to help in the matchups I already was comfortable with and were quite weak when you just need to goldfish as soon as possible. They are not bad, they are just unneeded. I've yet to add a Terrarion in the deck as I find no room and I would play that over Ponder so I have no idea what to cut.

I am playing 35 right now and will cut at least one but going to 33 seems pretty dangerous (especially without any digging).
What about y.will btw? I know it disrupts our gameplan with removing the cards but it can get some pretty good value and help getting back on the foot or preparing for a huge turn.

I agree. I feel that 34 is the sweet spot.

Yawgmoth's will is something I've given though about, but have had no time to actually test it. I feel it is good, but you kinda need to play it in very specific manner. You would pretty much need to go for the Rings + Capsize win if you need to cast Y. Will on the last possible turn and you can't actually win on that turn, which shouldn't matter unless it's the last extra turn. I don't expect it to be amazing, but it's something that should get some test just because it's such a powerful card. I would feel much happier with it if we had another combo that ignores graveyard. Geyser + Power Artifact + Monolith would do it, but I have no idea what to cut to make room for three cards. I don't want to go down with the number of artifacts with a possible exception being Tooth of Ramos and all non-artifacts have a very specific function.

Oh, and the Frantic Search is amazing, I've tried it for sometime now and it should be in the deck. I cut the Obelisk of Undoing.

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. Sad to see that all the cards I had thought of were already tested and didn't perform well.

Not a problem, this actually benefits me a lot too. But yeah, I actually built this deck long ago before Academy was around and kinda merged my Academy list with it once I hit a brick wall on my first approach with it. As a result I've tried so many different cards that it is not even funny.

Is it me, or is the deck really hard to play? I mean sometimes you have one combopiece in hand and just dig/search for the other or you are generating value/cycle turns with the eggs, but from time to time I'm completely lost. When to sac a certain egg or use/cycle a spellbomb requires planning ahead for some turns while keeping in mind all the possible draws over the next turns. Do you have the same feeling?

It's not just you. This is probably the hardest deck to pilot I've ever played. I still make really dumb mistakes from time to time and there are decisions that are just plain hard to do correctly no matter how many matches you have under your belt.

I do say that the deck got somewhat easier once I settled on a middle ground and sacrificed the straight up egg approach to add simpler combos. Sunrise is more of a value card at the moment that can kill the opponent if all the pieces fall correctly, so instead of doing nothing on your fourth or fifth turn, you definitely should just "value" sunrise to get maybe extra land drop from your fetch and two-three cards deeper to find a draw seven or a combo piece. There is also some value of having Sunrise in the 'yard as Codex Shredder can kickstart the combo at that point.

I usually crack my eggs if I need to win on that exact turn, or my control opponent is tapped out and I have a window to resolve a key spell that I haven't yet drawn. It can be bad just to do nothing on certain turns, so cracking weaker eggs there to find something to use your mana on is also sometimes valid play. You also almost always need the third land, unless Academy is involved, so digging for that is okay in my book.

All in all, just goldfishing with the deck will help you understand the probabilities and lines you want to take in certain situations without actually having to figure out the math or trying to prepare for insane amount of scenarios. Have an extra five minutes to kill? Just put your favorite music on the background, shuffle the deck and try to figure out how to win on turn four.

1. I too had the feeling that one has to take too many mulligans due to the low land count. Therefore I would love to up the land count by two (or more effects like ponder/preordain like Tabris suggested)

True. I added a Plateau (cut Scroll Rack), which seemed to do the trick. I am reluctant to add another because I feel that I need the deck to be aggressive to be able to consistently beat aggro. I will do this if needed, but right now I am happy enough with just the one more land.

For that same reason I would not play Ponder or Preordain. The cards were in the deck for quite long, but I changed them to cheap artifacts and never looked back. After all, you need a critical mass of artifacts to really leverage Academy. They will also have much better synergy with draw sevens as you can just dump them into play, draw seven and be up on so many cards.

2. Scavenging ooze is a real problem. It disrupts scepter foundry as well as the sunrise/eggs combo and Salvagers stuff. I would love to have more ways than just aether spellbomb, capsize and piryte Spellbomb to fight it (especially because the green decks will tutor for it once they know what you are up to) and include some kind of "catch all" answer in the deck. Maelstrom Pulse or vindicate seem obvious, but i think that abrupt decay would maybe be enough because it hits all the hatebears and nonbasic hate cards and is searchable via mystical and muddle.

Sure, Ooze is a real problem, but you can sometimes overload their green mana sources or go off with Rings or Capsize + Candelabra. You can also respond to a Ooze activation on your Sword of the Meek by sacrificing another artifact to Foundry. This then creates another trigger and you will dodge an activation. If the Ooze is the only thing they have going, you should be able to beat it nine times out of ten. I do recognize that Scavenging ooze is the most problematic thing opponents can have and backed with more disruption or a significant clock, you are in a world of trouble. Going off ASAP is the only avenue to victory in that spot.

I would not advise to add catch-all answers because they will not do anything if you need to kill your opponent as fast as possible. You can't beat every card or hand they have and pure speed is something fair decks cannot deal with, so I prefer to have as consistent deck as possible while also being extremely explosive to overcome problematic scenarios. Capsize is in the deck to combo with Candelabra and be that catch-all answer as a back up.

3. Many people have included blood moon, back to basics and other nonbasic hate in their decks (at least where I play), because 4c Blood is the best aggro deck (and one of the best decks overall) right now. It is really hard to win against these hate cards (sometimes blood moon is not that bad because of eggs and mox, but back to basic is a pain in the ...).

Yeah, they are annoying. No way around that. Luckily, neither of those cards should be a game over by itself and I don't mind longer games with the deck too much, so as long as they don't have it all, you can usually fight through them. In my experience there is no single card that will cause you to scoop, so I feel no need to make adjustments and try to prepare for everything. There really aren't any decks that can consistently produce fast clock and disruption, so I rather fight them by being consistent in the other two games of the match.

There are a lot of possible cards for the deck like basalt and grim monolith, power artifact + braingeysir, inkmoth and blinkmoth nexus, krak clan ironworks, myr incubator, baleful strix,  Tezeret, agent of bolas, meekstone, ancient stirrings, etc. Has anyone tested some of these cards yet? I like the thought of the extra planeswalkers as another grind option/win condition/tutur. And ancient stirring seems sweet too.

Basalt Monolith I haven't tested. I feel that Rings of Brightheart has enough synergy and cobos so that adding more would make you too dependant of it, but Basalt Monolith is also a decent card on it's own. I haven't felt that I need it, but it is probably at least decent, so i am not going to fault anyone running it. Grim monolith doesn't combo with Rings, so I don't think you would want it. Power Artifact is three card combo, so I don't really like it. You could run all three, but I have no suggestion on what to cut as I feel like all the pieces I currently have are too valuable to remove for the sake of a combo that requires more help.

Nexuses (could have sworn the correct plural is Nexi, but apparently not) I see no real benefit. Unless you get to untap Academy they do not generate any mana and if you can untap Academy, you should be in a good spot most of the time anyway.

KCI I had in the deck, but the problem was very high casting cost. Four mana is a ton and most likely you don't have enough colored mana afterwards to do anything fancy. Passing the turn just to see it getting killed is just very annoying. But when it did work, it really did work. Going infinite with Thopter/Sword was also relevant sometimes, but I just hated to see that on my opening hand, so it had to go. I can't fault anyone running the card, but I personally prefer cheaper cards.

Incubator has the same problem as KCI, only tenfold. Unless you have Academy, you can't play and activate it in time and if you have Academy I would rather just draw seven cards as making load of 1/1's isn't foolproof way to close a game. This format has way too many random things that just screw with Incubator-kill.

Baleful Strix was cut when I still had Oath. It was an okay card, but I never felt like it was really needed. I still feel that the best weapon against aggro is just to combo before they goldfish you. Strix can help to slow them down, but it slows you as well and you are very tight on amna on the first couple of turns. Sometimes you also hate to rely on creatures to power your Academy as they can be killed so very easily. Long story short, I never felt like the card was bad, but I never felt like I won because of it either. I would encourage to try it though, could be meta dependent.

Tezzeret 2.0 was in the deck in the early stages. It was okay in matchups I felt were pretty good anyway, so having a potential blank against aggro when you have four untapped mana against them, you really need to win on the spot or set up a sure kill next turn. AGent of Bloas never provided that. If all you are facing are some kind of grind decks, then second planeswalker can be good.

Ancient Stirrings doesn't find any real spells. We have abundant ways to cycle or play random artifacts in every game what we need is mana and a big thing to finish your curve with. Stirrings can find Academy or Memory Jar if you are really lucky, but other times it just becomes a Spellbomb or random island or something and that is not very good.

Obelisk of Undoing is the weakest card in the deck, so I would cut that if you want to try something out.

[1. The combos in the deck:]

I've recieved few questions about the deck, so I figured might as well start a new thread in case there are more people wondering what is it all about. It really helps me to put all this text in to words anyway, so might as well share. If you have more questions, I am more than happy to answer them. New card suggestions are also welcome. I've tried so many cards over the course of making the deck, I might have answer ready why something isn't in the deck, but it just as likely that you present me something I've never though of. Just leave a comment here or send me a PM and I will try my best to get back to you as soon as possible.

Current decklist:

// Lands
   1 Tropical Island
   1 Savannah
   1 Underground Sea
   1 Tundra
   1 Scrubland
   1 Bayou
   1 Verdant Catacombs
   1 Arid Mesa
   1 Marsh Flats
   1 Misty Rainforest
   1 Bloodstained Mire
   1 Tree of Tales
   1 Island
   1 Seat of the Synod
   1 Polluted Delta
   1 Flooded Strand
   1 Windswept Heath
   1 Scalding Tarn
   1 Plains
   1 Ancient Den
   1 Vault of Whispers
   1 Tolarian Academy
   1 Ancient Tomb
   1 Tolaria West
   1 City of Traitors
   1 Darksteel Citadel
   1 Great Furnace
   1 Wooded Foothills
   1 Deserted Temple
   1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
   1 Volcanic Island
   1 Crystal Vein
   1 Horizon Canopy

// Some more mana
   1 Candelabra of Tawnos
   1 Jeweled Amulet
   1 Tooth of Ramos
   1 Mind Stone
   1 Mox Diamond
   1 Mox Opal
   1 Lotus Bloom
   1 Lotus Petal

// Sunrises
   1 Second Sunrise
   1 Open the Vaults
   1 Faith's Reward

// Eggs
   1 Elsewhere Flask
   1 Prophetic Prism
   1 Kaleidostone
   1 Nihil Spellbomb
   1 Conjurer's Bauble
   1 Darkwater Egg
   1 Mossfire Egg
   1 Skycloud Egg
   1 Shadowblood Egg
   1 Sungrass Egg
   1 Chromatic Sphere
   1 Chromatic Star
   1 Scroll of Avacyn
   1 Sunbeam Spellbomb
   1 Necrogen Spellbomb
   1 AEther Spellbomb
   1 Phyrexian Furnace
   1 Ichor Wellspring
   1 Lifespark Spellbomb
   1 Scrabbling Claws

// Tutors
   1 Crop Rotation
   1 Enlightened Tutor
   1 Muddle the Mixture
   1 Mystical Tutor
   1 Wargate
   1 Fabricate
   1 Tezzeret the Seeker
   1 Expedition Map
   1 Reshape
   1 Transmute Artifact
   1 Artificer's Intuition
   1 Tainted Pact
   1 Demonic Tutor
   1 Trinket Mage
   1 Sylvan Scrying

// Draw 7
   1 Time Spiral
   1 Timetwister
   1 Wheel of Fortune
   1 Memory Jar
   1 Windfall
   1 Diminsihing Returns

// C-c-c-combo
   1 Lion's Eye Diamond
   1 Thopter Foundry
   1 Sword of the Meek
   1 Auriok Salvagers
   1 Rings of Brighthearth
   1 Codex Shredder
   1 Zuran Orb
   1 Pyrite Spellbomb

// Random value stuff
   1 Voltaic Key
   1 Obelisk of Undoing
   1 Scroll Rack
   1 Defense Grid
   1 Brainstorm
   1 Sensei's Divining Top
   1 Thoughtcast
   1 Capsize

So the recent changes have been: -Flagstones of Trokair -Thirst for Knowledge // +Sylvan Scrying +Diminishing Returns


1. The combos in the deck:

Rings of Brighthearth & Deserted Temple/Minamo - You untap Academy and copy the ability to target itself. If you have 4+ artifacts, you generate infinite blue mana. If you combo with Deserted Temple, you can also untap all other lands you have, generating infinite amount of other colors as well. Same can be achieved with Candelabra of Tawnos + Voltaic Key/Obelisk of Undoing (copy the ability of the Key/Obelisk onto itself as well as the Candelabra), if you don't have an untapping land. Then you usually sac some eggs and if you sacrifice spellbombs or similar, you can copy the card draw as well. Eggs themselves cannot be copied since they are mana abilities.

Rings of Brighthearth + Infinite mana + Sensei's Divining Top - will draw you your deck, just keep copying the card draw which draws you a random card + Top. Rings also is a wondrous value card against slower decks, so it's really important card all around. In a stalemate situation having Top + Rings is just nuts, if you have Academy you can draw a whole bunch of cards every turn. Voltaic Key + Sensei's Top is also pretty good combination and the latter is fetchable with Artificer's Intuition.

Another infinite combo is Zuran Orb + Second Sunrise/Faith's Reward + Codex Shredder. If your lands generate nine mana, sac them all to Zorb and use the Shredder to bring back Second Sunrise and you gain inifinite mana and life. Add an egg, and you can draw your deck.

Candelabra + Capsize + Academy has the potential to yield infinite mana if you have 9+ artifacts, which isn't that hard to do. Capsize also straight up wins in that position, be it that you just bounce everything they have and then keep replaying Kaleidostone or another cantripping thing to draw the deck.

Thopter/Sword is usually the go-to combo when playing against monored or other fast aggro. Academy goes nuts with the tokens as they are also artifacts. I used to have Krark-Clan Ironworks in the deck, which would go inifinite with the Thopter/Sword, but I don't think the card is necessary, even though it's pretty good. I suggest you trying Ironworks for yourself once you get more comfortable with the deck as I might just have a personal bias against the card.

LED + Salvagers is kind of a "oops, I win" - combo since you don't have that many tutors for Salvagers. He is a pretty good value guy even when he is not going off, so I consider that combo to be almost free anyway.

You usually kill with Pyrite Spellbomb. Looping it with Salvagers or Conjurer's Bauble. Infinite Thopters will also do the trick especially if you have Capsize going, so getting Pyrite exiled is not a huge deal.


2. How to get to the combos:

One really important role player is Artificer's Intuition. It can find Academy (through Expedition Map), mana when you have Academy (Candelabra + Voltaic Key/Obelisk of Undoing), Regrowth (Codex Shredder), mini-combo (Top + Voltaic Key) or a combo piece (LED). Having Academy in play and Open the Vaults in hand is incredible if you have Intuition going. You can stack the graveyard with LED + Lotus Bloom + Lotus Petal + some artifact lands + Zorb + Codex Shredder to go infinite with the Open the Vaults.

Sunrise is very often used as a simple value card in mid-game. Just sac a bunch of stuff to draw a few cards to get a little bit deeper with your deck and the card has filled it's role. They also bring back lands, so you can ramp up with fetchlands as well. Zuran Orb + Sunrise is very good against monored. Just gaining 8 life and still having Zuran Orb in play is really valuable in that matchup and buys you a ton of time. Especially if you can ramp with fetches to have even more lifegain available later on.


3. Matchups

If you play against aggro, you need to mulligan into a hand that will have some form of draw 7, a combo piece and/or a tutor. You cannot durdle around too long and your early game is pretty much just dropping down some artifacts, so there is not too much room to maneuver. Against control or slower decks it is fine to keep a hand with no action. The deck is incredibly redundant, since half of the deck cycles and if you have time, you will mass enough mana and cards soon enough to overrun a counterwall. Draw sevens are incredible. If you play a bunch of cheap artifacts in the early turns and then cast a Timetwister, you have access to huge amount of cards next turn. This is perfectly viable plan against aggro as well. Just cast them as soon as possible against fast decks and burn through counters with other spells first against control.

I feel that aggro is around 50-50, Naya is slightly more problematic because of some hatebears are just the nuts. Control I like facing. I have so many cards they need to counter and I have so much mana once I find the Academy that I can easily play bunch of those problematic cards on the same turn.


4. Some of the questions answered

Why especially Tooth of Ramos?

It provides the double white for Open the Vaults and Second Sunrise. It can help to get the loop (with Codex Shredder) going if the double white is hard to come by.

Why no Terrarion?

This probably goes back in now that my main focus has shifted from being Sunrise specific to include more combos. Terrarion can't loop things with Sunrises, but having one egg that doesn't do it seems fine now. I am going to test this once I find room.

Is Thopter Foundry really necessary?

I feel it is. It is somewhat late introduction to the deck, but in order to have a good aggro matchup, I think you need it. I actually also felt exactly the same way, long time it just felt unnecessary. It's pretty effective against any other deck as well, even if it doesn't kill instantly. It can make some dorks to put pressure and if your control opponent deals with it, they probably had to use some resources to sweep the board and get rid of Foundry all the while you used all the mana to make more flying pests and stock up on cards ready to throw them all out if endless army of 1/1 fliers didn't get there.

Why play Flagstones?

Flagstones of Trokair was in the deck (I recently took it out) when I realized I needed more lands and it was next on my "might as well try it if I find room" - list. It seemed somewhat cute with Zuran Orb, especially if you back that up with Sunrise, but I never really believed it would be important card anyway. It might come back again if I find the current land count to be too few, which I honestly feel like it is. Obviously, if I stumble across a better value land or feel the need to add Plateau, then Flagstones will go down couple of slots.

I 4-0'd with that Eggs-deck in a 10 player tournament. Slight changes to the above list: -Oath -FOrchard -Mana Drain +Trinket Mage +Windfall +Capsize

Matchups were:

UBg-control feat. DarkDepths combo - First game I tutor for Thopther Foundry when I have Sword of the Meek in hand. I was on the play so Foundry stuck. He counters my Sword on the following turn. I stalled on lands, but eventually one of my artifacts resolved so that I was able to get the combo going. In game two he found enough counters and thoughtseize to do me in. Game three I had to win on my last extra turn, which I was able to do thanks to Defense Grid.

Uw-Control feat. RiP + Helm - I almost beat Rest in Peace in game one, but he topdecks untapped land to go with his Helm of awakening for the win. I probably would have gone off next turn, but I am unsure. Game two I just had embarrassment of riches and I get infinite mana to finish him off when he has nothing to my grip full of relevant cards. Naturally drawn Academy just is the nuts. Game three he finds Rest in Peace and we end up in a spot where I have the infinite mana again, but have all my relevant kill spells exiled. I drop all my artifacts in the table along with Thopter Foundry and a Tezzeret I +1'ed to be able to go ultimate. He casts Personal Tutor into Ponder just to try to mise a win with Helm. I Muddle the Mixture the Ponder and he concedes. He also has a Cryptic Command to tap me out the next turn, to buy a draw step, but I would have been able to Lifespark Spellbomb two of his untapped lands into creatures (with Rings of Brighthearth) and then bounce them with my AEther spellbomb (#SickTricks).

UWR-Control (notice a trend?) - In game one he Dack Faydens me a bunch, but he couldn't find any pressure so even when he had counters and disruption to everything I do, I still have time. When he taps out, I Time Spiral, into Windfall into Wheel of Fortune (without Academy that got Wastelanded even), which gave me more that enough tools to seal the deal with Salvager + LED. Game two, He Dack Faydens my artifact land and has a critical Force of Will for my Windfall (which I enabled by Enlightened Tutoring for a Mox Diamond leaving me with no cards in hand), so I just lose. Game three he has lots of counters to deal with my key spells including last card of my hand which was Timetwister. I crack some eggs and find Open the Vaults that refills me enough to finally go off.

Burn - First game I have turn four Salvagers + LED with Defense Grid backup, but he plays Eidolon of Great Revels which I need to answer by tutoring a pyrite spellbomb. He finds Blood Moon to lock me out of the white which would have kickstarted the loop. Game two he comes out fast with Stromkirk Noble and Stormblood Berserker, but I have turn four Salvagers with LED again, which I need to execute against his three untapped lands, because I just get run over if I try anything cute. It works, since he is one damage short. Game three we both mulliganed to six. I had reasonable hands with the deck, but against fast aggro you need to have a big spell, tutor or at least one combo piece or you just need to get incredibly lucky. I settle with a hand that has some eggs and access to Academy, because mull to five is just not the greatest. He doesn't have a great hand and has no cumulative source of damage. I get my Academy and cantrip the eggs to find Tezzeret that fetches Thopter Foundry. He can kill the Tezzeret, but I have too many artifacts in play (including one Sunbeam Spellbomb) for he to burn me out from 17 even when I don't have Sword of the Meek so he scoops.

My tournament results with the deck so far: 5-0, 4-2, 0-2, 4-0

My losses have been from poor deckbuilding (too few lands, didn't adjust correctly to the new mulligan) and loose keeps against aggro. I like my position against control, I feel like I am slight favorite to aggro provided that I mulligan correctly. I'd say that rumors of combo's demise are greatly exaggerated.

Here we go. I am quite pleased with the deck. Fun to play and I feel that it is powerful enough to be a force. Ridiculously difficult to pilot though.

Dr. Eggman

// Lands
    1 Tropical Island
    1 Savannah
    1 Underground Sea
    1 Tundra
    1 Scrubland
    1 Bayou
    1 Verdant Catacombs
    1 Arid Mesa
    1 Marsh Flats
    1 Misty Rainforest
    1 Bloodstained Mire
    1 Tree of Tales
    1 Island
    1 Seat of the Synod
    1 Polluted Delta
    1 Flooded Strand
    1 Windswept Heath
    1 Scalding Tarn
    1 Plains
    1 Ancient Den
    1 Vault of Whispers
    1 Tolarian Academy
    1 Ancient Tomb
    1 Tolaria West
    1 City of Traitors
    1 Darksteel Citadel
    1 Great Furnace
    1 Wooded Foothills
    1 Flagstones of Trokair
    1 Deserted Temple
    1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
    1 Volcanic Island
    1 Crystal Vein
    1 Horizon Canopy
    1 Forbidden Orchard

// Some more mana
    1 Candelabra of Tawnos
    1 Jeweled Amulet
    1 Tooth of Ramos
    1 Mind Stone
    1 Mox Diamond
    1 Mox Opal
    1 Lotus Bloom
    1 Lotus Petal

// Sunrises
    1 Second Sunrise
    1 Open the Vaults
    1 Faith's Reward

// Eggs
    1 Elsewhere Flask
    1 Prophetic Prism
    1 Kaleidostone
    1 Nihil Spellbomb
    1 Conjurer's Bauble
    1 Darkwater Egg
    1 Mossfire Egg
    1 Skycloud Egg
    1 Shadowblood Egg
    1 Sungrass Egg
    1 Chromatic Sphere
    1 Chromatic Star
    1 Scroll of Avacyn
    1 Sunbeam Spellbomb
    1 Necrogen Spellbomb
    1 AEther Spellbomb
    1 Phyrexian Furnace
    1 Ichor Wellspring
    1 Lifespark Spellbomb
    1 Scrabbling Claws

// Tutors
    1 Crop Rotation
    1 Enlightened Tutor
    1 Muddle the Mixture
    1 Mystical Tutor
    1 Wargate
    1 Fabricate
    1 Tezzeret the Seeker
    1 Expedition Map
    1 Reshape
    1 Transmute Artifact
    1 Artificer's Intuition
    1 Tainted Pact
    1 Demonic Tutor
    1 Oath of Druids

// Draw 7
    1 Time Spiral
    1 Timetwister
    1 Wheel of Fortune
    1 Memory Jar

// C-c-c-combo
    1 Lion's Eye Diamond
    1 Thopter Foundry
    1 Sword of the Meek
    1 Auriok Salvagers
    1 Rings of Brighthearth
    1 Codex Shredder
    1 Zuran Orb
    1 Pyrite Spellbomb

// Random value stuff
    1 Voltaic Key
    1 Obelisk of Undoing
    1 Scroll Rack
    1 Thirst for Knowledge
    1 Mana Drain
    1 Defense Grid
    1 Brainstorm
    1 Sensei's Divining Top
    1 Thoughtcast

Öhman (Tiggupiru) has a really cool eggs combo deck. Maybe he could share his list now that our Nationals is over. That deck is definitely competitive and not that impossibly hard to pilote.

I disagree. It feels impossible to me

I do agree on the competitive part, though. Feels really powerful and surprisingly consistent.

But the list isn't quite there yet. I felt like I got into a good place prior to nationals, but I misread the meta and also the list wasn't entirely ready either. I can share what I have now, but there are cards I don't like at all and some cards that might be better off as something else. I also don't have the current list in digital form, so that'll have to wait until I get an inspiration to type it in during this heat wave.

@Tiggupiru: True. Because of that I think you only want to run GS in decks that are to some extent interested in 2/1 vanillas (or in decks that are especially focused on broken things and ramp). Not in normal Midrange Goodstuff.

I came with the same conclusion. The next leap for me was to figure out where I would want this next. I personally don't like two mana 2/1's in any deck. I feel like the format is just too violent for them. I just die a little inside when I am looking at Lingering Souls when a moment ago I was hoping to attack with my 2/1.

And if I want to do broken stuff or ramp, I just feel that we have better, more consistent ways to do it. I'd rather play High Tide, Academy or pretty much any combo deck to do consistent powerful things and if you want to ramp, you are getting about the same deal as you would get out of a ritual and you don't want to play rituals in your ramp deck, because once you get that one big thing out of the door you are crossing fingers that it survives and wins the game, or you are back at the square one.

I considered many potential places for this card to add to and I either was unimpressed or found too many other good options and came to conclusion that the few really good scenarios would not outweigh the blowouts.

Then I came back full circle and actually felt that general goodstuff is actually the best place for this card as they can cope with the fact that you have a card that is somewhat narrow, but can produce great advantages in correct situations. In the end I just can't fit this card in there, because the lists are really tight and you really don't want to play six drops in those decks, so you wouldn't be able to ramp into anything ridiculously powerful and the threat of getting two-for-onned was the last nail in the coffin.