Heres what started out as a real 3am sleep deprived baby crying deck brew that i actually took a second look at when i woke up and havent looked back.
All you need is 1 pyramid and 1 paradox engine and youre good to go. And a t1 pyramid often leads to a t5 win (with 3 lands in play and opt in hand)
Pyramid generating 3 mana per tap lets the deck build up huge amounts of mana and has enough threats to fight through counter magic like forcing a counter on a 12/12 walking balista to the showdown/shadow for 4 animate a champion of wits chain together charts/tormenting voice and cast a reservoir with a storm count of 15.
This deck is fun as hell and has multiple ways to win just make sure you have some dice handy to count your mana and storm count
This deck is really cool! It seems like it would be fairly consistent, but I'm not sure about the speed of going off. I would guess turn 5 with the Pyramid being turned on casting a paradox engine and another cheap spell to get the untap and storming off?
Champion of Wits could be good as a draw filter and blocker, Cut/Ribbons could be good early removal and a big X burn spell to help finish them off once you get going, that may be better than the Insult/Injury plan. And Commit/Memory could be a good turn 4 counter and a way to reset your deck and finish comboing them out.
Yeah pyramid t1 can win t5.
Ive actually made a couple changes.
Mainly glintnest crane.
I did consider champion of wits but went with the sphinx because the scry is real important if youre missing a piece.
And showdown for 6 becomes less risky when you dont have grave in hand and youre staring down lethal next turn and get to scry 6 draw 6. I do want to look into some good aftermath cards though
Insult has won games when i dont have combo. But cut/ribbon is worth giving a shot since i have been beat down by a rogue refiner waiting to top deck a sweltering suns. And the mana potential of the deck makes ribbons good. Especially if we get showdown taken with lost legacy we can generate alot of mana and still win
Ive been looking at refuse/cooperate
Refuse being pretty bad but could sneak a win. Cooperate being a counter spell i dont need to hold in hand or a double up of showdown
I think Cut/Ribbon would be the best addition, more removal and another way to win is amazing! The list seems pretty tight, what did you take out for the Glintnest Cranes?
have you considered adding Dowsing Dagger?it doesn't help with the whole combo plan but it helps get para dox engine early and put counters on pyramid with out it hurting as much...just stick it on a glint nest crane and flip you know
have you considered adding Dowsing Dagger?it doesn't help with the whole combo plan but it helps get para dox engine early and put counters on pyramid with out it hurting as much...just stick it on a glint nest crane and flip you know
There's so few creatures in this deck that the few in it become a lightning rod for it and particularly if you were to equip one. It's a reasonable idea, but it probably won't work great against most decks.
1 Visage of Bolas + 1 Bolas the Deceiver could be fun, the Visage would add an extra Mana with each untap for quicker and easier X spells, Bolas is meh, but you can fetch it for free lol.
Metallurgic Summonings could be another win con, making a ton of constructs then get most of your grave back and storm off.
Anything that can tap and deal damage, like Wall of Forgotten Pharaohs, speeds up the kill too.
I was actually thinking of siding dynavolt.
Wall needs deserts so probably not.
Summonings sounds awesome though.
Ive thought about other rocks but 3 mana is the perfect amount and adding more dilutes the deck hard and results in combo stalling more often.
Maybe a 1 of paradoxal outcome. Once ive started generating mana i can bounce my cranes/champions/pyramids deaw a bunch for one last big showdown
Dynavolt would be really good, even just firing it twice in the combo turn takes a lot of the work off of Showdown, and you don't have to waste Mana towards it.
I got in 2 matches last night
1 grixis GPG 2-0 no chandras which was lucky cos i dont really have a way to kill it, just redirecting showdown damage. Game 2 he tapped out to hard cast Gift and swung for 10 with hazoret and vicious conquistador token leaving himself open for me to play paradox engine without contest in 1 life. And drew 26 cards floating 20 something mana from pyramids into a walking balista for game.
1 5 colour panharmonicon/sunbird invocation deck thing that looked really cool. T6 sunbird t7 cloudblazer hitting panharmonicon then t8 regal cat hitting a second cat was intense and made me want to build that deck. It was too much game 1 but he didnt see my deck at all really so i sided sweltering suns for game 2 and counter spells game 3 to protect my paradox drop.
Im going to update the OP with my current list, that i think might be finished pending fnm this week if i can find the cards.
Ive added a couple more artifact win cons because hitting nothing off crane felt bad and tbh it has been so good. Finding reservoir when youre already at 10 storm count or walking balista at 15 mana floating.
And THANK YOU for the metalergic summonings suggestion. I have to admit i havent got many tokens off it but enough to chump block but that second effect to grab all your spells from gy is back breaking.
Having shadow countered then just sacing summoning ive found often i can just play through counter magic because i have too much mana
Glad it helped! Thank you for a sweet deck I can try out and tinker with! It's such a good home for a lot of underused cards, it just needed this shell
Saffronolive just posted a Grixis Showdown deck on MTGgoldfish, it has Baral and Primal Amulet to get cost reduction and double up spells with a flipped Amulet. It's a way different version, but may have some tech you like
It's not a bad transformation sideboard, the main is so tight in what it wants to do this makes an elegant answer:change the whole game plan! They will be bringing in negate, lost legacy, artifact hate etc, and taking out removal, so you can blank almost all of it, the grave hate they may side could definitely still hurt but Drake can be a 2 turn clock with ease before they ever find it.
I think amulet over paradox engine makes the deck a lot slower where it already is quite slow where its biggest strength i feel is being able to win the turn paradox engine resolves as opposed to dropping amulet and maybe winning 3 turns later.
I think amulet would he much better in UB control than UR being able to double up on cards like doomfall and hailfire and actual card draw like hieroglyphic instead of red cyclers.
I do have an updated list that im taking to fnm tomorrow. The biggest upgrade I think is 1 of kefnet and 1 of renegade map.
Map making hands more keepable as well as reducing the chance slightly of hitting nothing with crane.
Kefnet is good off a slow start where you can easily keep 7 in hand and fine when youre comboing as you can mana dump for extra cards and bounce lands for more damage from showdown.
In testing id say like 90% of my wins and losses come down to "ok i win next turn" and either my opponent finds the damage they need or storm and hit any of my win cons. Like drawing atherflux at storm 15 hitting a ballista with 40mana in pool metallugic summoning to add my grave back to hand.
I have yeah.
The feeling for showdown for 25 before counting the 18 cards left in your deck -_-.
Only once though. After that you just need to pay attention.
9/10 in winning with reservoir or ballista
Showdown has turn into more of a "trade 6 lands for gas" card than a win con.
Reservoir might even need to be played at 2 since it does so much work in giving me an extra 2 or 3 turns to win
Ive also bumped renegade map to 3 because it has multiple uses.
- lets me combo off pyramid and 3 land
- artifact count for summonings sac effect
- ramps with pyramid
- easy draw for laradoxal outcomd
cut land count for 4 renegade map.
hour of devestation because sweltering doesnt hit enough and theres enough walkers in my local. bontus reckoning might be better
chart is better than tormented voice but i could only find 2 -_-
summoning, reservoir, ballista are the win cons. ive kept fateful pretty much to throw away all the land i draw since you dont really need more than 3 land
and 1 pyramid on board
Here is my latest version after coming across this thread and making some changes to my original deck (listed under this one) I thought it interesting to see where I was with my build and how it has changed since seeing the version on this thread. I tried the fateful and shadows also but, found I never wanted to actually use them. So tried something more my speed. Love cut/ribbons. Many times, ribbons for ten to untap and ribbons the rest with two ribbons in grave.
Any thoughts as I usually dont have many problems against most decks but I dont keep accurate track of games either. Either way it is a very fun deck with tons of triggers and unusual lines to win.
Yeah, but Conley Woods is the Dredge of Magic players. Everything that is good and reasonable in the world says his style of play and type of deckbuilding shouldn't work, but it does. It. Just. Works.
He's not just out of the box, he defies any sort of geometric shape. He's that special kind of certifiably-insane evil genius.
All you need is 1 pyramid and 1 paradox engine and youre good to go. And a t1 pyramid often leads to a t5 win (with 3 lands in play and opt in hand)
Pyramid generating 3 mana per tap lets the deck build up huge amounts of mana and has enough threats to fight through counter magic like forcing a counter on a 12/12 walking balista to the showdown/shadow for 4 animate a champion of wits chain together charts/tormenting voice and cast a reservoir with a storm count of 15.
This deck is fun as hell and has multiple ways to win just make sure you have some dice handy to count your mana and storm count
1 Walking Ballista
4 Glint-Nest Crane
4 Champion of Wits
Spells:34
4 Opt
4 Pyramid of the Pantheon
4 Censor
4 Chart a Course
3 Shadow of the Grave
3 Tormenting Voice
2 Sweltering Suns
1 Aetherflux Reservoir
3 Fateful Showdown
1 Paradoxical Outcome
1 Metallurgic Summonings
4 Paradox Engine
2 Dragonskull Summit
2 Drowned Catacomb
5 Island
4 Mountain
4 Spirebluff Canal
3 Walking Ballista
3 Negate
2 Drake Haven
3 Dynavolt Tower
2 Sweltering Suns
2 River's Rebuke
Champion of Wits could be good as a draw filter and blocker, Cut/Ribbons could be good early removal and a big X burn spell to help finish them off once you get going, that may be better than the Insult/Injury plan. And Commit/Memory could be a good turn 4 counter and a way to reset your deck and finish comboing them out.
Needs moar Delver.
Ive actually made a couple changes.
Mainly glintnest crane.
I did consider champion of wits but went with the sphinx because the scry is real important if youre missing a piece.
And showdown for 6 becomes less risky when you dont have grave in hand and youre staring down lethal next turn and get to scry 6 draw 6. I do want to look into some good aftermath cards though
Insult has won games when i dont have combo. But cut/ribbon is worth giving a shot since i have been beat down by a rogue refiner waiting to top deck a sweltering suns. And the mana potential of the deck makes ribbons good. Especially if we get showdown taken with lost legacy we can generate alot of mana and still win
Ive been looking at refuse/cooperate
Refuse being pretty bad but could sneak a win. Cooperate being a counter spell i dont need to hold in hand or a double up of showdown
Needs moar Delver.
4 Glint-Nest Crane
4 Champion of Wits
Spells:34
4 Pyramid of the Pantheon
4 Censor
4 Chart a Course
1 Cut // Ribbons
4 Shadow of the Grave
3 Strategic Planning
3 Tormenting Voice
2 Sweltering Suns
4 Fateful Showdown
1 Refuse // Cooperate
4 Paradox Engine
2 Dragonskull Summit
2 Drowned Catacomb
5 Island
5 Mountain
4 Spirebluff Canal
There's so few creatures in this deck that the few in it become a lightning rod for it and particularly if you were to equip one. It's a reasonable idea, but it probably won't work great against most decks.
Metallurgic Summonings could be another win con, making a ton of constructs then get most of your grave back and storm off.
Anything that can tap and deal damage, like Wall of Forgotten Pharaohs, speeds up the kill too.
Needs moar Delver.
Wall needs deserts so probably not.
Summonings sounds awesome though.
Ive thought about other rocks but 3 mana is the perfect amount and adding more dilutes the deck hard and results in combo stalling more often.
Maybe a 1 of paradoxal outcome. Once ive started generating mana i can bounce my cranes/champions/pyramids deaw a bunch for one last big showdown
Needs moar Delver.
1 grixis GPG 2-0 no chandras which was lucky cos i dont really have a way to kill it, just redirecting showdown damage. Game 2 he tapped out to hard cast Gift and swung for 10 with hazoret and vicious conquistador token leaving himself open for me to play paradox engine without contest in 1 life. And drew 26 cards floating 20 something mana from pyramids into a walking balista for game.
1 5 colour panharmonicon/sunbird invocation deck thing that looked really cool. T6 sunbird t7 cloudblazer hitting panharmonicon then t8 regal cat hitting a second cat was intense and made me want to build that deck. It was too much game 1 but he didnt see my deck at all really so i sided sweltering suns for game 2 and counter spells game 3 to protect my paradox drop.
Im going to update the OP with my current list, that i think might be finished pending fnm this week if i can find the cards.
Ive added a couple more artifact win cons because hitting nothing off crane felt bad and tbh it has been so good. Finding reservoir when youre already at 10 storm count or walking balista at 15 mana floating.
And THANK YOU for the metalergic summonings suggestion. I have to admit i havent got many tokens off it but enough to chump block but that second effect to grab all your spells from gy is back breaking.
Having shadow countered then just sacing summoning ive found often i can just play through counter magic because i have too much mana
Needs moar Delver.
I wont be playing it this FNM since my store is doing iconic masters drafts
Needs moar Delver.
Needs moar Delver.
I think amulet would he much better in UB control than UR being able to double up on cards like doomfall and hailfire and actual card draw like hieroglyphic instead of red cyclers.
I do have an updated list that im taking to fnm tomorrow. The biggest upgrade I think is 1 of kefnet and 1 of renegade map.
Map making hands more keepable as well as reducing the chance slightly of hitting nothing with crane.
Kefnet is good off a slow start where you can easily keep 7 in hand and fine when youre comboing as you can mana dump for extra cards and bounce lands for more damage from showdown.
In testing id say like 90% of my wins and losses come down to "ok i win next turn" and either my opponent finds the damage they need or storm and hit any of my win cons. Like drawing atherflux at storm 15 hitting a ballista with 40mana in pool metallugic summoning to add my grave back to hand.
The feeling for showdown for 25 before counting the 18 cards left in your deck -_-.
Only once though. After that you just need to pay attention.
9/10 in winning with reservoir or ballista
Showdown has turn into more of a "trade 6 lands for gas" card than a win con.
Reservoir might even need to be played at 2 since it does so much work in giving me an extra 2 or 3 turns to win
Ive also bumped renegade map to 3 because it has multiple uses.
- lets me combo off pyramid and 3 land
- artifact count for summonings sac effect
- ramps with pyramid
- easy draw for laradoxal outcomd
Needs moar Delver.
1 Walking Ballista
4 Glint-Nest Crane
2 Champion of Wits
1 Kefnet the Mindful
Spells:36
4 Opt
4 Pyramid of the Pantheon
4 Renegade Map
2 Cathartic Reunion
3 Censor
2 Chart a Course
2 Shadow of the Grave
4 Tormenting Voice
1 Aetherflux Reservoir
2 Fateful Showdown
1 Paradoxical Outcome
1 Refuse // Cooperate
1 Hour of Devastation
1 Metallurgic Summonings
4 Paradox Engine
1 Dragonskull Summit
1 Drowned Catacomb
1 Inventors' Fair
4 Island
4 Mountain
1 Sequestered Stash
4 Spirebluff Canal
hour of devestation because sweltering doesnt hit enough and theres enough walkers in my local. bontus reckoning might be better
chart is better than tormented voice but i could only find 2 -_-
summoning, reservoir, ballista are the win cons. ive kept fateful pretty much to throw away all the land i draw since you dont really need more than 3 land
and 1 pyramid on board
Needs moar Delver.
Any thoughts as I usually dont have many problems against most decks but I dont keep accurate track of games either. Either way it is a very fun deck with tons of triggers and unusual lines to win.
1 Kefnet the Mindful
2 Champion of Wits
4 Glint-Nest Crane
1 Walking Ballista
Spells:32
1 Metalurgic Summonings
4 Opt
3 Paradox Engine
1 Commit/Memory
3 Cut/Ribbons
1 Aetherflux Reservoir
2 Oracle/s Vault
4 Pyramid of the Pantheon
4 Renegade Map
3 Tormenting Voice
1 Baral's Expertise
4 Chart a Course
1 River's Rebuke
2 Aether Hub
2 Dragonskull Summit
2 Drowned Catacomb
2 Sequestered Stash
1 Spirebluff Canal
5 Island
2 Mountain
2 Swamp
2 Spire of Industry
2 Negate
2 Duress
3 Doomfall
2 Lost Legacy
2 Vraska's Contempt
1 Torment of Hailfire
2 Sweltering Suns
1 The SCarab God
4 Champion of the Wits
1 Walking Ballista
Spells:29
1 Commit/Memory
4 Spring/Mind
1 Aetherflux Reservoir
3 Cultivator's Caravan
3 Oracle's Vault
4 Prophetic Prism
3 Pyramid of the Pantheon
1 Mechanized Production
1 Approach of the Second Sun
4 Attune with Aether
3 Hour of Promise
2 Paradox Engine
4 Aether Hub
4 Botanical Sanctum
1 Canyon Slough
1 Desert of the Fervent
1 Desert of the Glorified
1 Desert of the Indomitable
1 Desert of the Mindful
1 Desert of the True
1 Fetid Pools
1 Irrigated Farmland
1 Scattered Groves
1 Sheltered Thicket
4 Forest
2 Plains
1 Inventor's Fair
2 Authority of the Counsuls
2 Fumigate
1 Hour of Revelation
2 Kefnet's Last Word
1 Gonti, Lord of Luxury
1 Torment of Hailfire
2 The Scarab God
1 The Locust God