About 20 bucks plus lands, everything should be in the bulk/junk binder except the Smiters and the Isamaru's.
If you have the money, voice of resurgence should be here too.
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What's the big deal? You could have played multiple Righteous Avengers for years now.
Whenever anyone asks me about budget Modern decks, I always mention the "big three". That is, Burn, Soul Sisters, and Mono-U Tron. Each can be built for $100-$150 (less than a playset of Mox Opals), each are considered Competitive decks (at least by MTGS), and each have had a lot of practice and modification.
Out of those three decks, only one can be considered a ''budget'' list, or built on a budget. UTron and Soul Sisters are decks that funcition particularly well. The fact that they aren't as expensive as Jund does not make them ''budget'' decks, rather decks that are friendly to your budget. Being a cheaper deck also doesn't mean they will be a deck you have fun playing. Both have their own play style and if it's not for you, you are better off playing a different style of deck. I usually open people up to MonoWtokenPolymorph. Fun to play, and also gives you the satifaction of dropping an Emrakul. Also, MonoGreenInfect is the cheapest and most effective budget deck that can be built. >$10
Not exactly. I didn't include Mono U Tron because he asked for Budget and most (all?) lists run Remand and Wurmcoil Engine, among other cards that tend to push a deck past the budget range. It's borderline budget.
That being said it's a pretty good deck to build.
Remand can be replaced by a lot of cards if you are being budget friendly. My UTron list runs 1 wurmcoil, 1 platinum emperion, 1 platinum angel.
You can trade for them pretty easy, and they are much cheaper than mana bases for 99% of decks.
You could also use mindslaver, steel hellkite, argentum armor, inkwell leviathon, etc...
There's ways to "budgetize" many decks and still be competitive.
Sundering titan is like 2 or 3$...
Edit:a lot of people also don't realize what cards they actually own so homebrews can be devastating and turn into big decks, especially in such a young format
I don't know if we are using the same general dollar value for the term "budget" here What are you guys considering "budget", price-wise?
Also, is there a more precise definition of "competitive" here? I haven't seen any decks place well that deviated from the staples noted in the the respective primers for deck. Maybe in a weak local meta they do well?
I don't know if we are using the same general dollar value for the term "budget" here What are you guys considering "budget", price-wise?
Also, is there a more precise definition of "competitive" here? I haven't seen any decks place well that deviated from the staples noted in the the respective primers for deck. Maybe in a weak local meta they do well?
This may be true but there are alternatives for most of those.
Soul Sisters doesn't NEED aven mindcensor to win, and burn decks have survived before vexing devil.
You can make budget decks... you can make $5 modern decks and be successful somewhere. I think it varies at different levels of competition.
I know a lot of people have friends who let them borrow cards - for example last big tourny I played in I had to borrow some mutavaults, and one of my buddies borrowed my emrakul.
Some decks need those specific cards... like Living end kind of needs Living end, which is becoming more popular, thus more expensive. Caw blade needs swords... you get my point.
but if you don't have certains cards for what looks like a fun deck - that doesn't mean you can't play that deck.
edit: and I fight for UTron because you don't need emrakul or karn (see: RG Tron).
I think to establish any deck in the world of magic: the gathering you need to be willing to spend some kind of money. Especially in eternal formats where prices don't fluctuate like standard.
Most people also don't realize that a good place to start if you have an empty wallet (like so many of us) is a single draft tournament, and to build a binder from there. So many of them want to just get right into the nitty-gritty.
Well blue tron is fairly budget. Remands can be budgetized. Same with wurmcoil engine. One academy ruins and one oblivion stone won't break your budget I would guess. By budget I'd say anything below 100 bucks. Sure there's decks that can be done for 10-20 etc but the cheapest decks that are competitive and finding a few that's under a 100$ is fairly cheap considering competitive standard decks cost a lot more than that. Those 5$ decks that OP linked to can maybe steal a game here and there once in a while but I wouldn't call them competitive.. but they are budget.
I'd say burn (aggro), blue tron (control), living end (combo) are all easy decks that can be cheap to build budget versions of and upgrade as you go. There's also green red aggro without goyfs and cheap manabase and some other decks around so there's options.
$100 when done right can build a plethora of decks, many of which can be considered competitive.
I don't know if we are using the same general dollar value for the term "budget" here What are you guys considering "budget", price-wise?
Also, is there a more precise definition of "competitive" here? I haven't seen any decks place well that deviated from the staples noted in the the respective primers for deck. Maybe in a weak local meta they do well?
wow your post literally rustles my jimmies.
vexing devil, goblin guide 5-10$ per,
living ends 7$ per
serra ascendant 10$ per, ranger of eos 6$ per, proclamation of rebirth 5$
As for tron...honesty? you're expecting a deck full of mythic highly played EDH cards to be cheap.... seriously?
Question: have you even been able to play standard lately?
If you can't even put 40$ dollars at least away each month for you're magic hobby then you're probably not going to be on the competitive scene to often and yes all those cards you've listed minus the tron stuff i consider budget and tell others it as well (minus vexing devil that card never does what you want it to do so I tell them to avoid it), however mono u tron is cheaper.
And I just watched a kid with no income but a graduation party money save enough to get a melira pod deck and watched another one of my unemployed friends start to dabble into magic pick up a pod deck as well
Jimmies aside if you truly can't put away money for a playset of 5-10 dollar cards then there is mono green infect. Save up your pennies so you can get play sets of might of old krosa, rancor, inkmoth nexus eventually.
If you clicked the links, you'll see that they are a bit more than you claim. The closest ones you got were the Soul Sisters cards.
I also did not "expect Tron to be cheap". I've noticed that other people keep calling it a budget deck, but it seems that both you and I are fully aware of the price on this, and in agreement...I don't know why that would rustle your jimmies. I did get to play Standard last month a couple of times, because someone let me borrow a deck. Lucky me
Currently, I put $100 away each month to work my way up. If you click my signature ("New Decks"), you'll see my progress. I had to sell my collection last year ("Old Decks") to help out a friend in dire need, and now I"m slowly trying to work my way back in. If that also rustles your jimmies, then so be it.
I suppose having "no income", but getting money for graduating, would be difficult. I wonder what his mortgage is like, or how much he puts away to feed his family. You know, like me.
I do have plans on what to do about this, but that's me (buy a booster box every month rather than singles from now on, until I retire and open my own store). For everyone else, who actually wants to play Modern but can't afford it, for lack of income or for other responsibilities, I feel for them. I am fine building my budget decks. I do, however, empathize with those who don't want a meta full of MonoG Infect.
Storm I was able to build (minus the rare mana base) for <$50 and that was based solely off Finkel's list (no SB yet, but I'm getting pieces slowly)
Affinity was the first Modern deck I was drawn towards coming back in a month ago, Opals are literally the last non-SB card I'm getting to finish it (everything but Opal - $30 each for the three I've picked up and Ravager - $13 each for four) I was able to get for $7 a card or less. So Affinity far from "budget" but if you can afford it it's nice.
Like previous guys said Burn is going to be the cheapest viable deck short of going 3 for 1. I'm thinking about doing that actually with guttersnipe and rituals since I can "Go Off" by turn 3 I have the probability of competing pretty well against high end decks. I'm not sure what the meta is nowadays since I've never actually competed in modern so only thing I can think to watch out for is 5c gifts control, MUC, and a few others =\.
Infect is pretty cheap. I've tested it, and it works reasonably well even without Inkmoth Nexus, and for UG infect fetchlands aren't needed and you can use painlands, City of Brass, and Gemstone Mine instead. City of Brass and Gemstone Mine actually are pretty good at supporting even 3 or 4 colored infect decks.
I'm playing a semi budget WafoTapa control list. All I'm really missing are Cryptics and fetches, except one scalding tarn. Its actually fairly competitive, I don't actually miss cryptics too much. I use remands, leaks and snares in my counter package (the remands I picked up when they were still cheap)
Also I play ajani v and elspeth and they really work well, help me stabilize, then win. I also play 4x path for some oomph, since I don't have cryptics, and 2 sphinx, 3 or 4 snapcasters, and electrolyzes to recoup card advantage. I had a lot of cards from standard and trades before modern spiked, so it's probably worth more than I would assume, but if you have some of the staples, shocks and buddies, you can put it together fairly easily, i think.
I can post my list if you'd like?
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This is the cheapest, most all-around competitive deck that I've found. I have an excellent record against Pod, URW Control, Tron, Infect, Hexproof, Boom/Bust Cascade aggro, Affinity, Storm...The only deck I seem to really have a serious problems with is RDW, and only in game 1.
Minus sideboard, it's $58.22. Most of that seems to be because of the Ensnaring Bridges, which seem to have risen quite a bit in price here recently :/ With sideboard, it's $65.38. If you have any questions about exactly how it is piloted, let me know. It's kind of strange, and takes a while to really get the jist of.
This is the cheapest, most all-around competitive deck that I've found. I have an excellent record against Pod, URW Control, Tron, Infect, Hexproof, Boom/Bust Cascade aggro, Affinity, Storm...The only deck I seem to really have a serious problems with is RDW, and only in game 1.
Minus sideboard, it's $58.22. Most of that seems to be because of the Ensnaring Bridges, which seem to have risen quite a bit in price here recently :/ With sideboard, it's $65.38. If you have any questions about exactly how it is piloted, let me know. It's kind of strange, and takes a while to really get the jist of.
Borderline budget due to Aether Vial and Mutavault plus a whole ton of ~$3 cards, but mono-blue Merfolk isn't too terribly expensive if you don't think Clique is necessary. Can probably get it made for about ~$150.
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Did you come here for the sake of the Dharma? Or did you come here for the sake of a chair?
You use Lantern of Insight and Ghoulcaller's Bell/Codex Shredder to restrict what cards your opponent will and will not draw. If you don't want them to have it, mill it. You can also use Mishra's Bauble to look at their top card if you don't have a Lantern if you really need to.
Ancient Stirrings allows you to search for the artifact you need. Noxious Revival lets you get back your Stirrings in order to keep searching. The massive amount of cantrips (Edge of Autumn, Gitaxian Probe, Mishra's Bauble) allow you to rifle through your deck even faster to what you need.
You can rather safely blindly mill yourself with Ghoulcaller's Bell, too, thanks to Noxious Revival and Codex Shredder allowing you to pick cards out of your graveyard.
Edge of Autumn serves double duty, getting you a third land if you just can't seem to cantrip into one. You rarely need more than three land in play at a time.
Gitaxian Probe serves double duty, letting you know what cards to name with Pithing Needle, or what threats your opponent has, so you know if you need to throw off their mana base for a certain color with Ghost Quarter. It also lets you know if they are having trouble getting certain color land or land at all early on. I've used this knowledge to purposefully lock out my opponent from drawing necessary land using the Lantern and Bell/Shredder combo.
I already mentioned how Mishra's Bauble serves double duty.
Ghost Quarter lets you throw off their mana base, like I mention above, but if you don't want them to get their top card, you can use it on one of their lands and make them choose between getting that top card or getting Strip Mine'd.
Tormod's Crypt is a maindeck answer, just in case your opponent has some way to use the cards in his or her graveyard as you are milling them away (Snapcaster Mage, Unburial Rites, sac it to exile a graveyard with Emrakul, the Aeons Torn trigger on the stack...). Its 0 cmc also sets you up for early Dispatch with Baubles and your plethora of other low cmc artifacts.
The singleton Elixir of Immortality helps to set you outside of damage range to help seal the game, and helps to recycle your graveyard in order to ensure you don't mill yourself out in some situations. It doesn't happen often, but it does help win some close games.
If you need to, I'm phlsphr on Cockatrice, and I'll play a few games with you to give you an idea on how it goes. One of the key aspects of it is the number of cantrips. These let you play through milling yourself. If one is on top, milling yourself with Bell is just like playing it for free. If you don't have a Bell, drawing it allows you to cycle to the next card down faster.
The thing with Barber Shop, is to truly effectively run it, you honestly need 2-4 Mox Opal. Otherwise you're really limiting the power and consistency of the deck, at least that's what I've found. Don't get me wrong, I love the deck, but many of lists I've seen (including my own version) are far from budget. Also, card advantage engines such as snapcaster, sphinx's rev, or mystical techings can break the lock. Other decks, such as Gruul can win with just their hand, and if you don't hit bridge or can't empty your hand fast enough, you just lose. Another problem out of affinity is Ornithopter/Signal Pest +Plating gets around bridge, provided they have access to 1BB over the course of a turn and one additional creature, which is nowhere out of the question, a fairly common occurrence in fact.
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I would have to disagree with some of your claims, Tinfoil. I don't run Mox Opal, and my list runs just fine without it. I mean, I win the majority of my games, so that shows that Mox Opal isn't a "must-have" for the deck. I tested with Mox Opal, and found it lacking. Sure, I can drop my hand sooner, but it doesn't actually contribute to the game any more than any of the other cards do.
As far as Sphinx's Revelation, Snapcaster, and Teachings goes...If you look at the thread, I posted a report last night about a matchup against UWR Control that ran Snapcasters and Revelations. I beat it, handily, even after he was able to draw two Snapcasters and play a Revelation. Remember, I maindeck cards that answer Snapcaster, and my decklist rifles through the deck for answers rather quickly. He even resolved a Think Twice (and flashed it back). These cards don't exist in a vacuum, and it's key to take note that those cards exist in a deck that is very land heavy, and that is particularly important That wasn't my only experience against UWR Control, either. I playtested it a good amount two weekends ago irl and handily won all but one game. I also posted previous reports of playing against it further back in the thread. Guess who won
Yes, against more aggro decks, Bridges are important. But pay attention to the amount of cards in the deck that search/rifle through the deck. That, and there are also Dispatch. It turns out that aggro decks are one of the better matchups, as they normally just fall flat against a Bridge alone. That includes Affinity. Yes, it *could* get under Bridge if it has an opening hand of Ornithopters, Memnites, Signal Pests, and an instant speed Cranial Plating. That's quite an opening hand, and that assumes that you don't ever get Pithing Needle or Dispatch.
It sounds more like your argument is along the lines of "if you draw badly and your opponent draws well, you lose". My record against decks gives me different results than your presumed ideas of how it would play.
It's not presumption, its talking from experience from both sides of the table. I've resolved Sphinx's against barber shop for 7+ because they just hand me lands (rightfully), but I had the Sphinx in my opener (in plenty of games and matchups) and kept the hand, mostly because I have an affinity for the card. Sphinx for 7 or more into even just Bolt, Cryptic, Snapcaster, Electrolyze, can generally end the game against barber shop. NTM the fact that Sphinx for that much, in a deck with 4 each Bolt, Helix, Electrolyze, Snap, and Cryptic, those draws are not uncommon. In fact, its fairly common to draw into 12+ points of burn to lob at the dome, then two hits from a Colonade and it's game. In those cases, you NEED the Dispatch. Cryptic can always bounce the bridge and draw a card. I've done it, and had it happen to me.
As for teachings, that card is about the best card vs barber shop. Luckily it's not highly played, but nonetheless, you basically can't stop them from finding the best card for the situation, be it a 1-of Disenchant, or even just Sphinx to find another teachings, to Cryptic your bridge, then swing with Tar Pits. Again, these are not uncommon scenarios.
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I think a key point to note is that your experience is with a very different Barbershop list. See, I get to know what my opponent has and what to watch out for.
Speaking of, I noticed that your list doesn't run any way to see the opp's hand. Most of the other lists run targeted discard, which may also mean the difference between their results and yours.
Again, I suppose that if your opp gets a good hand and you get a crap one, that would mean trouble for most decks. Particularly if you have no way of obtaining information about their hand like most Barbershop decks, and you're running blind
Really, though, I think we've hijacked this thread enough. There's a thread for Barbershop we could probably talk about this in.
I was just thinking, there could be a fairly cheap notion thief/teferi's puzzle box control deck built. AFAIK both cards are relatively cheap along with mystical teachings, go for the throat, doom blade, disfigure, IOK, duress, mana leak, even clutch of the undercity and consume the meek
Run skyscribing, baby Jace, howling mind and/or vision skeins for card advantage to work with notion thief if you don't have the puzzle box
Thoughts?
My new deck, Stranglehold, is fairly cheap (built for a little over $100) and very competitive. It has a great MU all around and a stellar MU with pod/combo decks. Here is the list:
4x Kalonian Tusker
4x Garruk's Champion
4x Watchwolf
4x Vines of Vastwood
4x Experiment One
4x Call of the Conclave
3x Loxodon Smiter
3x Isamaru, hound of Konda
2x Kessig Cage Breakers
2x Overwhelming Stampede
22 Land
About 20 bucks plus lands, everything should be in the bulk/junk binder except the Smiters and the Isamaru's.
If you have the money, voice of resurgence should be here too.
Out of those three decks, only one can be considered a ''budget'' list, or built on a budget. UTron and Soul Sisters are decks that funcition particularly well. The fact that they aren't as expensive as Jund does not make them ''budget'' decks, rather decks that are friendly to your budget. Being a cheaper deck also doesn't mean they will be a deck you have fun playing. Both have their own play style and if it's not for you, you are better off playing a different style of deck. I usually open people up to MonoWtokenPolymorph. Fun to play, and also gives you the satifaction of dropping an Emrakul. Also, MonoGreenInfect is the cheapest and most effective budget deck that can be built. >$10
Fix'd
You could always brew some totally unexpected homebrew...
Without fetches and if you replace goyf naya zoo can be cheapish
Currently Playing
UTron
Tahngarth, Talruum Hero
TRADE ME!!!
Remand can be replaced by a lot of cards if you are being budget friendly. My UTron list runs 1 wurmcoil, 1 platinum emperion, 1 platinum angel.
You can trade for them pretty easy, and they are much cheaper than mana bases for 99% of decks.
You could also use mindslaver, steel hellkite, argentum armor, inkwell leviathon, etc...
There's ways to "budgetize" many decks and still be competitive.
Sundering titan is like 2 or 3$...
Edit:a lot of people also don't realize what cards they actually own so homebrews can be devastating and turn into big decks, especially in such a young format
Currently Playing
UTron
Tahngarth, Talruum Hero
TRADE ME!!!
Living End: Not budget.
Tron: Not really very budget.
Soul Sisters: Not really very budget.
I don't know if we are using the same general dollar value for the term "budget" here What are you guys considering "budget", price-wise?
Also, is there a more precise definition of "competitive" here? I haven't seen any decks place well that deviated from the staples noted in the the respective primers for deck. Maybe in a weak local meta they do well?
Lantern Control
(with videos)
Uc Tron
Netdecking explained
Netdecking explained, Part 2
On speculators and counterfeits
On Interaction
Every single competitive deck in existence is designed to limit the opponent's ability to interact in a meaningful way.
Record number of exclamation points on SCG homepage: 71 (6 January, 2018)
"I don't want to believe, I want to know."
-Carl Sagan
This may be true but there are alternatives for most of those.
Soul Sisters doesn't NEED aven mindcensor to win, and burn decks have survived before vexing devil.
You can make budget decks... you can make $5 modern decks and be successful somewhere. I think it varies at different levels of competition.
I know a lot of people have friends who let them borrow cards - for example last big tourny I played in I had to borrow some mutavaults, and one of my buddies borrowed my emrakul.
Some decks need those specific cards... like Living end kind of needs Living end, which is becoming more popular, thus more expensive. Caw blade needs swords... you get my point.
but if you don't have certains cards for what looks like a fun deck - that doesn't mean you can't play that deck.
edit: and I fight for UTron because you don't need emrakul or karn (see: RG Tron).
I think to establish any deck in the world of magic: the gathering you need to be willing to spend some kind of money. Especially in eternal formats where prices don't fluctuate like standard.
Most people also don't realize that a good place to start if you have an empty wallet (like so many of us) is a single draft tournament, and to build a binder from there. So many of them want to just get right into the nitty-gritty.
Currently Playing
UTron
Tahngarth, Talruum Hero
TRADE ME!!!
$100 when done right can build a plethora of decks, many of which can be considered competitive.
Currently Playing
UTron
Tahngarth, Talruum Hero
TRADE ME!!!
wow your post literally rustles my jimmies.
vexing devil, goblin guide 5-10$ per,
living ends 7$ per
serra ascendant 10$ per, ranger of eos 6$ per, proclamation of rebirth 5$
As for tron...honesty? you're expecting a deck full of mythic highly played EDH cards to be cheap.... seriously?
Question: have you even been able to play standard lately?
If you can't even put 40$ dollars at least away each month for you're magic hobby then you're probably not going to be on the competitive scene to often and yes all those cards you've listed minus the tron stuff i consider budget and tell others it as well (minus vexing devil that card never does what you want it to do so I tell them to avoid it), however mono u tron is cheaper.
And I just watched a kid with no income but a graduation party money save enough to get a melira pod deck and watched another one of my unemployed friends start to dabble into magic pick up a pod deck as well
Jimmies aside if you truly can't put away money for a playset of 5-10 dollar cards then there is mono green infect. Save up your pennies so you can get play sets of might of old krosa, rancor, inkmoth nexus eventually.
If you clicked the links, you'll see that they are a bit more than you claim. The closest ones you got were the Soul Sisters cards.
I also did not "expect Tron to be cheap". I've noticed that other people keep calling it a budget deck, but it seems that both you and I are fully aware of the price on this, and in agreement...I don't know why that would rustle your jimmies. I did get to play Standard last month a couple of times, because someone let me borrow a deck. Lucky me
Currently, I put $100 away each month to work my way up. If you click my signature ("New Decks"), you'll see my progress. I had to sell my collection last year ("Old Decks") to help out a friend in dire need, and now I"m slowly trying to work my way back in. If that also rustles your jimmies, then so be it.
I suppose having "no income", but getting money for graduating, would be difficult. I wonder what his mortgage is like, or how much he puts away to feed his family. You know, like me.
I do have plans on what to do about this, but that's me (buy a booster box every month rather than singles from now on, until I retire and open my own store). For everyone else, who actually wants to play Modern but can't afford it, for lack of income or for other responsibilities, I feel for them. I am fine building my budget decks. I do, however, empathize with those who don't want a meta full of MonoG Infect.
Lantern Control
(with videos)
Uc Tron
Netdecking explained
Netdecking explained, Part 2
On speculators and counterfeits
On Interaction
Every single competitive deck in existence is designed to limit the opponent's ability to interact in a meaningful way.
Record number of exclamation points on SCG homepage: 71 (6 January, 2018)
"I don't want to believe, I want to know."
-Carl Sagan
Affinity was the first Modern deck I was drawn towards coming back in a month ago, Opals are literally the last non-SB card I'm getting to finish it (everything but Opal - $30 each for the three I've picked up and Ravager - $13 each for four) I was able to get for $7 a card or less. So Affinity far from "budget" but if you can afford it it's nice.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
Also I play ajani v and elspeth and they really work well, help me stabilize, then win. I also play 4x path for some oomph, since I don't have cryptics, and 2 sphinx, 3 or 4 snapcasters, and electrolyzes to recoup card advantage. I had a lot of cards from standard and trades before modern spiked, so it's probably worth more than I would assume, but if you have some of the staples, shocks and buddies, you can put it together fairly easily, i think.
I can post my list if you'd like?
Thanks to Rivenor for the signature and XenoNinja for the Avi!
Quotes:
4 Brushland
4 Ghost Quarter
3 Forest
1 Plains
4 Lantern of Insight
4 Ghoulcaller's Bell
4 Codex Shredder
4 Mishra's Bauble
4 Ancient Stirrings
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Edge of Autumn
4 Dispatch
3 Pithing Needle
3 Ensnaring Bridge
3 Noxious Revival
2 Tormod's Crypt
1 Elixir of Immortality
4 Torpor Orb
3 Elixir of Immortality
2 Tormod's Crypt
1 Grafdigger's Cage
4 Nature's Claim
1 Pithing Needle
Minus sideboard, it's $58.22. Most of that seems to be because of the Ensnaring Bridges, which seem to have risen quite a bit in price here recently :/ With sideboard, it's $65.38. If you have any questions about exactly how it is piloted, let me know. It's kind of strange, and takes a while to really get the jist of.
Hope this helps!
Lantern Control
(with videos)
Uc Tron
Netdecking explained
Netdecking explained, Part 2
On speculators and counterfeits
On Interaction
Every single competitive deck in existence is designed to limit the opponent's ability to interact in a meaningful way.
Record number of exclamation points on SCG homepage: 71 (6 January, 2018)
"I don't want to believe, I want to know."
-Carl Sagan
Interesting deck...How does it work?
You use Lantern of Insight and Ghoulcaller's Bell/Codex Shredder to restrict what cards your opponent will and will not draw. If you don't want them to have it, mill it. You can also use Mishra's Bauble to look at their top card if you don't have a Lantern if you really need to.
You hold off creatures with Ensnaring Bridge/Dispatch.
You take care of troublesome creatures (Deathrite Shaman, for example), artifacts (Oblivion Stone), planeswalkers, or lands (fetchlands, manlands, Inkmoth Nexus, etc) with Pithing Needle.
Ancient Stirrings allows you to search for the artifact you need. Noxious Revival lets you get back your Stirrings in order to keep searching. The massive amount of cantrips (Edge of Autumn, Gitaxian Probe, Mishra's Bauble) allow you to rifle through your deck even faster to what you need.
You can rather safely blindly mill yourself with Ghoulcaller's Bell, too, thanks to Noxious Revival and Codex Shredder allowing you to pick cards out of your graveyard.
Edge of Autumn serves double duty, getting you a third land if you just can't seem to cantrip into one. You rarely need more than three land in play at a time.
Gitaxian Probe serves double duty, letting you know what cards to name with Pithing Needle, or what threats your opponent has, so you know if you need to throw off their mana base for a certain color with Ghost Quarter. It also lets you know if they are having trouble getting certain color land or land at all early on. I've used this knowledge to purposefully lock out my opponent from drawing necessary land using the Lantern and Bell/Shredder combo.
I already mentioned how Mishra's Bauble serves double duty.
Ghost Quarter lets you throw off their mana base, like I mention above, but if you don't want them to get their top card, you can use it on one of their lands and make them choose between getting that top card or getting Strip Mine'd.
Tormod's Crypt is a maindeck answer, just in case your opponent has some way to use the cards in his or her graveyard as you are milling them away (Snapcaster Mage, Unburial Rites, sac it to exile a graveyard with Emrakul, the Aeons Torn trigger on the stack...). Its 0 cmc also sets you up for early Dispatch with Baubles and your plethora of other low cmc artifacts.
The singleton Elixir of Immortality helps to set you outside of damage range to help seal the game, and helps to recycle your graveyard in order to ensure you don't mill yourself out in some situations. It doesn't happen often, but it does help win some close games.
If you need to, I'm phlsphr on Cockatrice, and I'll play a few games with you to give you an idea on how it goes. One of the key aspects of it is the number of cantrips. These let you play through milling yourself. If one is on top, milling yourself with Bell is just like playing it for free. If you don't have a Bell, drawing it allows you to cycle to the next card down faster.
Lantern Control
(with videos)
Uc Tron
Netdecking explained
Netdecking explained, Part 2
On speculators and counterfeits
On Interaction
Every single competitive deck in existence is designed to limit the opponent's ability to interact in a meaningful way.
Record number of exclamation points on SCG homepage: 71 (6 January, 2018)
"I don't want to believe, I want to know."
-Carl Sagan
Thanks to Rivenor for the signature and XenoNinja for the Avi!
Quotes:
As far as Sphinx's Revelation, Snapcaster, and Teachings goes...If you look at the thread, I posted a report last night about a matchup against UWR Control that ran Snapcasters and Revelations. I beat it, handily, even after he was able to draw two Snapcasters and play a Revelation. Remember, I maindeck cards that answer Snapcaster, and my decklist rifles through the deck for answers rather quickly. He even resolved a Think Twice (and flashed it back). These cards don't exist in a vacuum, and it's key to take note that those cards exist in a deck that is very land heavy, and that is particularly important That wasn't my only experience against UWR Control, either. I playtested it a good amount two weekends ago irl and handily won all but one game. I also posted previous reports of playing against it further back in the thread. Guess who won
Yes, against more aggro decks, Bridges are important. But pay attention to the amount of cards in the deck that search/rifle through the deck. That, and there are also Dispatch. It turns out that aggro decks are one of the better matchups, as they normally just fall flat against a Bridge alone. That includes Affinity. Yes, it *could* get under Bridge if it has an opening hand of Ornithopters, Memnites, Signal Pests, and an instant speed Cranial Plating. That's quite an opening hand, and that assumes that you don't ever get Pithing Needle or Dispatch.
It sounds more like your argument is along the lines of "if you draw badly and your opponent draws well, you lose". My record against decks gives me different results than your presumed ideas of how it would play.
Lantern Control
(with videos)
Uc Tron
Netdecking explained
Netdecking explained, Part 2
On speculators and counterfeits
On Interaction
Every single competitive deck in existence is designed to limit the opponent's ability to interact in a meaningful way.
Record number of exclamation points on SCG homepage: 71 (6 January, 2018)
"I don't want to believe, I want to know."
-Carl Sagan
As for teachings, that card is about the best card vs barber shop. Luckily it's not highly played, but nonetheless, you basically can't stop them from finding the best card for the situation, be it a 1-of Disenchant, or even just Sphinx to find another teachings, to Cryptic your bridge, then swing with Tar Pits. Again, these are not uncommon scenarios.
Thanks to Rivenor for the signature and XenoNinja for the Avi!
Quotes:
Speaking of, I noticed that your list doesn't run any way to see the opp's hand. Most of the other lists run targeted discard, which may also mean the difference between their results and yours.
Again, I suppose that if your opp gets a good hand and you get a crap one, that would mean trouble for most decks. Particularly if you have no way of obtaining information about their hand like most Barbershop decks, and you're running blind
Really, though, I think we've hijacked this thread enough. There's a thread for Barbershop we could probably talk about this in.
Lantern Control
(with videos)
Uc Tron
Netdecking explained
Netdecking explained, Part 2
On speculators and counterfeits
On Interaction
Every single competitive deck in existence is designed to limit the opponent's ability to interact in a meaningful way.
Record number of exclamation points on SCG homepage: 71 (6 January, 2018)
"I don't want to believe, I want to know."
-Carl Sagan
Run skyscribing, baby Jace, howling mind and/or vision skeins for card advantage to work with notion thief if you don't have the puzzle box
Thoughts?
Thanks to Rivenor for the signature and XenoNinja for the Avi!
Quotes:
Lantern Control
(with videos)
Uc Tron
Netdecking explained
Netdecking explained, Part 2
On speculators and counterfeits
On Interaction
Every single competitive deck in existence is designed to limit the opponent's ability to interact in a meaningful way.
Record number of exclamation points on SCG homepage: 71 (6 January, 2018)
"I don't want to believe, I want to know."
-Carl Sagan
4x Dryad Militant
2x Figure of Destiny
1x Hero of Bladehold
3x Inquisitor Exarch
4x Kitchen Finks
2x Phyrexian Revoker
4x Squadron Hawk
3x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3x Emeria, The Sky Ruin
4x Flagstones of Trokair
15x Plains
2x Tectonic Edge
Enchantment (5)
3x Ghostly Prison
2x Oblivion Ring
Instant (4)
4x Path to Exile
Sorcery (4)
4x Day of Judgment
3x Burrenton Forge-Tender
2x Leonin Relic-Warder
2x Relic of Progenitus
2x Rule of Law
2x Stony Silence
4x Torpor Orb