I find it funny that this deck is called scaled affinity but the decklists being posted literally no longer have any cards with the actual keyword affinity.
I guess it's just for historical purposes but I feel like "scaled modular" would be more accurate. Doesn't have the same ring though.
I've been getting back into magic after a while away and have recently spent a decent amount of time putting together a 360 card (semi) powered cube. The most common draft type is 6 man booster draft.
Since I've been out of the game for quite a while, I'd really appreciate any feedback on cards I may be missing or questionable picks.
Right now, the cube is a 360-card semi-powered cube that strives for balance between control, aggro and mid-range.
Combo is currently not supported, but it could be if people were interested in that.
Furthermore, I easily have enough cards to expand the cube to 405 or 450 cards without issue.
Meta Game Considerations: One issue with the MTGO Vintage cube is an overabundance of combo decks, which devalue
creature based-decks. White, red and green creature based decks typically have no answers for these types of decks
and they are very non-interactive. Hence, I worry that adding storm would hurt create based decks and strengthen the
two colors that are already the strongest in almost any vintage cube (blue and black) while leading to less interactive
magic games.
Meta Game Considerations: This suffers from many of the weaknesses of adding Storm. However, most of the combo pieces
are creatures that are fine in their own right, so it's not such an all-or-nothing combo and it doesn't devalue creature based strategies nearly as much. Furthermore, it helps give red another dimension.
3) Signets (current NOT supported):
Meta Game Considerations: The cube does support Wildfire strategy but I haven't found space for Signets.
Signets are also great in the Artifact deck, which is not currently strongly supported. It might make sense to add some of the better Signets (UR, UB and maybe RG), however I've had difficulty finding anything to cut.
Meta Game Considerations: My worry with Mana Drain and Ancestral Recall is that blue is already the strongest color in pretty much every vintage cube, and these cards are just absurdly and strictly better than very playable counter magic and draw spells. Along with Library of Alexandria, these cards also risk unbalancing the cube by strengthening control and weakening aggressive creature-based strategies.
Black Lotus, Sol Ring and Mana Crypt are all absurdly better than already good cards (Dark Ritual, Worn Powerstone) and are universal P1P1 over everything else. Furthermore, they greatly strengthen Mid-Range and Control strategies at the expense of aggressive decks.
Channel, True Name Nemesis and Mind Twist may be unconventional bans - the first randomly just ends the game Turn 1 or Turn 2 with cards like Eldrazi while the latter two have just been unfun in my experience. But like everything, the ban list is up for review and discussion.
5) Swords (currently supported):
We currently run all 5 swords in the cube, which could be a little heavy.
Meta Game Considerations: I don't think these cards unbalance the metagame - they help creature-based decks and I really don't think thy are overpowered. However, some people find them unfun, especially when they randomly get hosed by the protection from colors. Certainly up for discussion.
6) Artifact Deck (currently NOT supported):
In addition to adding 5+ of the signets and/or Lotus+Sol Ring+Mana Crypt+Lotus Petal, this boils down to adding the following cards:
Meta Game Considerations: This could be a fun deck to support, and as long as it doesn't involve adding in Lotus+Sol Ring+Mana Crypt it probably wouldn't be too unbalancing. Like most of the potential changes, this would probably make the best color (Blue) even better.
The guild section is a little imbalanced, offsetting color imbalance for the most part.
Using fractional apportionment, the guild section works out to:
Black: 10.5 cards (54.5 total black cards)
Blue: 10 cards (56 total blue cards)
White: 10.5 cards (54.5 total white cards)
Green: 11.5 cards (54.5 total green cards)
Red: 10.5 cards (54.5 total red cards)
Are there any renders of the following? Or are the renders compiled in any one place where I can check. It's hard to page through all 200 pages to find out!
Abrupt Decay
Restoration Angel
Batterskull
Birthing Pod
Bloodghast
Bribery
Chrome Mox
Creeping Tar Pit
Entomb
Karn Liberated
Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
Lotus Cobra
Magus of the Moon
Mangara of Corondor
Mystical Tutor
Pack Rat
Pact of Negation
Ranger of Eos
Shardless Agent
Smokestack
Sword of Feast and Famine
Sword of War and Peace
Tezzeret the Seeker
Toxic Deluge
Umezawa's Jitte
Unexpectedly Absent
Vedalken Shackles
Vengevine
Voice of Resurgence
Basically it's a tradeoff between power and consistency (in your mana base). It sounds to me like you made the correct assessment here -- by weakening your mana base and adding green, you gained:
...plus some other stuff that's not irreplaceable. These are some of the most powerful cards you could reasonably expect to encounter in a draft, and with an existing Heroic base to back them up, it's not surprising to me that you did well.
(As a side note, you're effectively running 19 lands. I would have taken out a Plains or a Mountain and inserted a Nylea's Presence to help smooth out the colors and shrink the deck.)
Yeah Presence versus Amulet was a tough choice. I went with Amulet because a) it can get you a green land if you don't have it b) you can drop it turn 1 c) it can make some 1 land hands keepable
You might be right on dropping a land for a Presence. On a side note, the Amulet is a little less than a land in the same way that a fetchland is less than a land because it thins out the lands in your deck. So I was probably running ~18.5 lands or something. Still a little high.
Last night I did a Theros draft that started out conventionally. I picked up a bunch of good bestow and combat tricks in white, along with strong heroic targets in green. Every card was WG pack one except for a speculative Chained to the Rocks.
Then pack two, I open up Xenagos which I pick up (at the time) purely as a money card. But now I've got two very strong red cards (w/ the Chained to the Rocks) and the next pack presents me with Magma Jet versus mediocre options in color. I pick up the Jet, as well as a Polis Crusher and Two Minotaur Skullcleavers the next three packs.
Now I'm split basically evenly between white and red and heavier on green and I realize there's no way to cut either white (which has all my heroic triggers) or red (which has a ton of bombs). So I go with it and just draft Traveler's Amulet and Nylea's Presence over any mediocre cards I see (which I wouldn't play anyway, given my high number of playables).
From this experiment, the following deck results. Every time I mentioned I was playing 3 colors, or that I dived into a third color second pack I got looks of pity and confusion. But I 3-0 for the first time in Theros, after going 2-1 in each of my 3 other Theros drafts playing it safe. I guess it does pay to take risks sometimes!
Do you agree with taking risks like this? As you can see from the sideboard I could probably have built an ok two color deck. Have you had similar experiences and would you have built the deck differently?
Have people been testing Miracle/Top variants? I just played a few games with the following and both Terminus and Temporal Mastery seem strong in the traditional countertop shell.
I've been out of the loop. Is there any reason we can't play Temporal Mastery in this deck? Temporal Mastery and Delver seem ideal with enablers like Jace, Brainstorm and Ponder here (or pitch to FoW). Plus the free turn is ridiculous with Jace or Geist in play.
Here's what I've been testing (haven't settled on a SB):
So Christmas came in the form of volcanoes in the middle of the ocean and thanks to those beauties, I was able to make Patriot Stoneblade. Any critiques for my list so far? I'm trying to tune it to a meta that is full of Merfolk, a couple of RUG/BUG tempo decks, a few other stoneblade decks, and quite a few Maverick lists (everyone seems to be making this deck <_<).
I don't agree with this sort of build, especially when forgoing bolt for STP.
Without StP you're quite vulnerable to KotR and Tarmogoyf, among others. SoFF helps but Lightning Bolt is useless again these guys and it doesn't do much that Grim Lavamancer can't do better.
Stoneforge is an intense mana sink in the early game, which will really slow your game plan down, especially when you're giving them life from STP.
This is one reason the deck is packing 8 free counterspells. If you drop a Mystic turn two, FoW and Daze can protect him or handle threats pretty well. Fetch a Batterskull, and it's only going to be another two mana at instant speed to get Batterskull in the game. SoFF, when you fetch it, should be speeding up your game rather than slowing it down.
Lavamancer is good right now, but I occasionally found it awkward with Snapcaster mage in my own UWr list.
WIth 3 snapcasters and no riptides, this really hasn't been much of a problem. You really just need to leave one or two good targets for Snapcaster in your hand or the graveyard.
The problem I ran into was that my threat density was really underwhelming. You open yourself up to being crippled by wasteland, (ponder and brainstorming for lands feels horrible, especially when you're trying to flip a delver on top of that.) I don't think this deck has very good game against reanimator, especially when they board into show and tell.
This I don't understand at all.
1) If Tempo Thresh and Reaminator can get away with playing 17 lands, and Zoo can play 20/21, a deck with this curve can definitely get away with playing 20 lands. In fact, you shoot yourself in the foot if you play more because you dilute your threat and response density, as well as the density of instants and sorceries that can flip delver.
2) It's not hard to fish for lands AND flip delver with Ponder and Brainstorm at the same time. If you brainstorm into a land, just keep the land and put an instant or sorcery on top. If you Ponder and see a land, just arrange the three cards with a land first, then an instant or sorcery second. That way you draw the land and flip the delver. If you didn't see an instant or sorcery in those three cards - tough luck, you wouldn't have been able to flip Delver anyway, even if you weren't fishing for lands. Sure you can't shuffle and draw a random card (giving you some chance at an instant/sorcery on top) but a fetchland will achieve the same effect.
3) With 20 lands and 8 fetches, you actually have a high threat and response density. This is especially true with Brainstorm and Ponder which lets you draw into Fetches to further thin your deck, and also let you ship back excess lands when you are mana flooded, leaving you with more useful cards.
4) Last time I heard a boatload of Spell Snares, Force of Wills, Dazes and Swords to Plowshares to boot was pretty decent against Reanimator, with Tormod's Crypt, Spell Pierce, Red Elemental Blast all coming in from the board. Lets not forget Snapcaster to double the trouble.
Here's my latest take on UWR, I think the deck manages to be fast enough to pose a legitimate offensive threat, while making use of efficient removal like Lavamancer to deal with utility creatures and Snare / StP / FoW to handle other threats.
To streamline the deck and become more quick and nimble, I cut down to the bare bones - no Jace, no Clique, no Riptide Lab. Lavamancer is an MVP here between all the instants/soceries, 8 fetches and 4 wastes. Lightning Bolt unfortunately doesn't make the cut, but Lavamancer is far more useful if you can get him to stick around a few turns [worst case he draws some removal].
Hmm, well I built this deck back in August, it played pretty well, fun for a control fan. I just found Riptide Lab a bit slow and it didn't work with my manabase, was trying to do too much.:
The whole point of this deck is to exploit synergies between Life from the Loam and Brainstorm, Sensei's Diving Top and Jace.
With Top out, you can recur loam whenever you don't like your top three cards. You can also use loam to recur fetch lands, allowing you to see news cards with your top.
With Brainstorm, you can swap the lands you recur with Loam for meatier fare, using a fetchland or recurring loam to get rid of the lands you place of top. Jace, of course, allows you to do this every turn. Jace also acts as the win condition, so this is obviously a pure control deck where the focus is on mitigating the opponent and gaining card advantage for an eventual victory.
Of course, Wasteland and Mox Diamond are auto includes in a Loam deck. Horizon Canopy is a bit more iffy, but it's still a really good way to give you the full three to recur. I've also added the Engineered Explosives/Academy Ruins engine, since this deck does not have a fast win condition and Loam makes the engine quite hard to disrupt (Crypt type effects must be sideboarded in).
I guess it's just for historical purposes but I feel like "scaled modular" would be more accurate. Doesn't have the same ring though.
They are both sorcery but forked bolt is 1/3rd of the mana for 2/3rd of the damage.
I've been getting back into magic after a while away and have recently spent a decent amount of time putting together a 360 card (semi) powered cube. The most common draft type is 6 man booster draft.
Since I've been out of the game for quite a while, I'd really appreciate any feedback on cards I may be missing or questionable picks.
Here's my current list:
http://www.cubetutor.com/viewcube/105282
Cube Design:
Right now, the cube is a 360-card semi-powered cube that strives for balance between control, aggro and mid-range.
Combo is currently not supported, but it could be if people were interested in that.
Furthermore, I easily have enough cards to expand the cube to 405 or 450 cards without issue.
Design Questions:
1) Storm Support (currently NOT supported).
This boils down to adding the following cards:
Meta Game Considerations: One issue with the MTGO Vintage cube is an overabundance of combo decks, which devalue
creature based-decks. White, red and green creature based decks typically have no answers for these types of decks
and they are very non-interactive. Hence, I worry that adding storm would hurt create based decks and strengthen the
two colors that are already the strongest in almost any vintage cube (blue and black) while leading to less interactive
magic games.
2) Splinter Twin Support (currently NOT supported) - Restoration Angel is already in the cube and Zealous Conscripts is fighting with Glorybringer for a spot.
This boils down to adding the following cards:
Meta Game Considerations: This suffers from many of the weaknesses of adding Storm. However, most of the combo pieces
are creatures that are fine in their own right, so it's not such an all-or-nothing combo and it doesn't devalue creature based strategies nearly as much. Furthermore, it helps give red another dimension.
3) Signets (current NOT supported):
Meta Game Considerations: The cube does support Wildfire strategy but I haven't found space for Signets.
Signets are also great in the Artifact deck, which is not currently strongly supported. It might make sense to add some of the better Signets (UR, UB and maybe RG), however I've had difficulty finding anything to cut.
4) Other power / Ban List
These cards are banned:
Meta Game Considerations: My worry with Mana Drain and Ancestral Recall is that blue is already the strongest color in pretty much every vintage cube, and these cards are just absurdly and strictly better than very playable counter magic and draw spells. Along with Library of Alexandria, these cards also risk unbalancing the cube by strengthening control and weakening aggressive creature-based strategies.
Black Lotus, Sol Ring and Mana Crypt are all absurdly better than already good cards (Dark Ritual, Worn Powerstone) and are universal P1P1 over everything else. Furthermore, they greatly strengthen Mid-Range and Control strategies at the expense of aggressive decks.
Channel, True Name Nemesis and Mind Twist may be unconventional bans - the first randomly just ends the game Turn 1 or Turn 2 with cards like Eldrazi while the latter two have just been unfun in my experience. But like everything, the ban list is up for review and discussion.
5) Swords (currently supported):
We currently run all 5 swords in the cube, which could be a little heavy.
Meta Game Considerations: I don't think these cards unbalance the metagame - they help creature-based decks and I really don't think thy are overpowered. However, some people find them unfun, especially when they randomly get hosed by the protection from colors. Certainly up for discussion.
6) Artifact Deck (currently NOT supported):
In addition to adding 5+ of the signets and/or Lotus+Sol Ring+Mana Crypt+Lotus Petal, this boils down to adding the following cards:
Meta Game Considerations: This could be a fun deck to support, and as long as it doesn't involve adding in Lotus+Sol Ring+Mana Crypt it probably wouldn't be too unbalancing. Like most of the potential changes, this would probably make the best color (Blue) even better.
Sampling of Supported Archetypes:
Wildfire / Crucible:
http://www.cubetutor.com/cubedeck/953122
BR Aggro:
http://www.cubetutor.com/cubedeck/954153
http://www.cubetutor.com/cubedeck/949483
http://www.cubetutor.com/cubedeck/949159
http://www.cubetutor.com/cubedeck/949157
Recurring Nightmare / Tokens:
http://www.cubetutor.com/cubedeck/953027
UG Tempo Lands / Fastbond / Upheaval:
http://www.cubetutor.com/cubedeck/950669
http://www.cubetutor.com/cubedeck/950194
Dimir Reanimator / Control:
http://www.cubetutor.com/cubedeck/941777
http://www.cubetutor.com/cubedeck/949163
http://www.cubetutor.com/cubedeck/949222
Orzhov Weenies:
http://www.cubetutor.com/cubedeck/950660
Mono-Green Ramp:
http://www.cubetutor.com/cubedeck/950150
UW Control:
http://www.cubetutor.com/cubedeck/950285
http://www.cubetutor.com/cubedeck/950213
Bant Ramp Pod:
http://www.cubetutor.com/cubedeck/949106
The guild section is a little imbalanced, offsetting color imbalance for the most part.
Using fractional apportionment, the guild section works out to:
Black: 10.5 cards (54.5 total black cards)
Blue: 10 cards (56 total blue cards)
White: 10.5 cards (54.5 total white cards)
Green: 11.5 cards (54.5 total green cards)
Red: 10.5 cards (54.5 total red cards)
Thanks in advance for any thoughts or advice!
Abrupt Decay
Restoration Angel
Batterskull
Birthing Pod
Bloodghast
Bribery
Chrome Mox
Creeping Tar Pit
Entomb
Karn Liberated
Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
Lotus Cobra
Magus of the Moon
Mangara of Corondor
Mystical Tutor
Pack Rat
Pact of Negation
Ranger of Eos
Shardless Agent
Smokestack
Sword of Feast and Famine
Sword of War and Peace
Tezzeret the Seeker
Toxic Deluge
Umezawa's Jitte
Unexpectedly Absent
Vedalken Shackles
Vengevine
Voice of Resurgence
Yeah Presence versus Amulet was a tough choice. I went with Amulet because a) it can get you a green land if you don't have it b) you can drop it turn 1 c) it can make some 1 land hands keepable
You might be right on dropping a land for a Presence. On a side note, the Amulet is a little less than a land in the same way that a fetchland is less than a land because it thins out the lands in your deck. So I was probably running ~18.5 lands or something. Still a little high.
Then pack two, I open up Xenagos which I pick up (at the time) purely as a money card. But now I've got two very strong red cards (w/ the Chained to the Rocks) and the next pack presents me with Magma Jet versus mediocre options in color. I pick up the Jet, as well as a Polis Crusher and Two Minotaur Skullcleavers the next three packs.
Now I'm split basically evenly between white and red and heavier on green and I realize there's no way to cut either white (which has all my heroic triggers) or red (which has a ton of bombs). So I go with it and just draft Traveler's Amulet and Nylea's Presence over any mediocre cards I see (which I wouldn't play anyway, given my high number of playables).
From this experiment, the following deck results. Every time I mentioned I was playing 3 colors, or that I dived into a third color second pack I got looks of pity and confusion. But I 3-0 for the first time in Theros, after going 2-1 in each of my 3 other Theros drafts playing it safe. I guess it does pay to take risks sometimes!
5 Plains
5 Mountain
2 Traveler's Amulet
1 Hopeful Eidolon
1 Mistcutter Hydra
1 Leafcrown Dryad
1 Observant Alseid
2 Minotaur Skullcleaver
2 Chronicler of Heroes
1 Anax and Cymede
1 Polis Crusher
2 Staunch-Hearted Warrior
1 Centaur Battlemaster
1 Coordinated Assualt
1 Chained to the Rocks
1 Magma Jet
1 Dauntless Onslaught
1 Feral Invocation
1 Time to Feed
1 Divine Verdict
Sideboard:
1 Shredding Winds
1 Staunch-Hearted Warrior
1 Satyr Piper
1 Gift of Immortality
1 Lagonna-Band Elder
1 Satyr Hedonist
2 Setessan Griffin
1 Vulpine Goliath
1 Bronze Sable
2 Nylea's Presence
1 Commune with the Gods
Do you agree with taking risks like this? As you can see from the sideboard I could probably have built an ok two color deck. Have you had similar experiences and would you have built the deck differently?
4 Flooded Strand
4 Wasteland
7 Island
1 Plains
4 Mox Diamond
4 Ponder
4 Brainstorm
4 Land Tax
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Terminus
4 Daze
1 Temporal Mastery
1 Crucible of Worlds
4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Force of Will
1 Entreat the Angels
1 Plains
4 Flooded Strand
4 Tundra
4 Wasteland
3 Mishra's Factory
2 Ponder
4 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Brainstorm
4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Counterbalance
4 Temporal Mastery
1 Crucible of Worlds
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Terminus
4 Spell Snare
4 Force of Will
4 Purify the Grave
3 Stifle
4 Path to Exile
Here's what I've been testing (haven't settled on a SB):
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Flooded Strand
1 Polluted Delta
4 Tundra
1 Plains
5 Island
3 Delver of Secrets
3 Geist of Saint Traft
3 Jace, the Mindsculptor
4 Brainstorm
3 Ponder
4 Spell Snare
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Temporal Mastery
4 Force of Will
1 Batterskull
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
Grim Lavamancer is pretty much the nuts against that field. 4 pyroblast is sb is kinda a must, it's such a great card.
If you're not going to play Tombstalker, wouldn't you usually rather have Bob than Library (esp w/ unearth in the deck)?
Without StP you're quite vulnerable to KotR and Tarmogoyf, among others. SoFF helps but Lightning Bolt is useless again these guys and it doesn't do much that Grim Lavamancer can't do better.
This is one reason the deck is packing 8 free counterspells. If you drop a Mystic turn two, FoW and Daze can protect him or handle threats pretty well. Fetch a Batterskull, and it's only going to be another two mana at instant speed to get Batterskull in the game. SoFF, when you fetch it, should be speeding up your game rather than slowing it down.
WIth 3 snapcasters and no riptides, this really hasn't been much of a problem. You really just need to leave one or two good targets for Snapcaster in your hand or the graveyard.
This I don't understand at all.
1) If Tempo Thresh and Reaminator can get away with playing 17 lands, and Zoo can play 20/21, a deck with this curve can definitely get away with playing 20 lands. In fact, you shoot yourself in the foot if you play more because you dilute your threat and response density, as well as the density of instants and sorceries that can flip delver.
2) It's not hard to fish for lands AND flip delver with Ponder and Brainstorm at the same time. If you brainstorm into a land, just keep the land and put an instant or sorcery on top. If you Ponder and see a land, just arrange the three cards with a land first, then an instant or sorcery second. That way you draw the land and flip the delver. If you didn't see an instant or sorcery in those three cards - tough luck, you wouldn't have been able to flip Delver anyway, even if you weren't fishing for lands. Sure you can't shuffle and draw a random card (giving you some chance at an instant/sorcery on top) but a fetchland will achieve the same effect.
3) With 20 lands and 8 fetches, you actually have a high threat and response density. This is especially true with Brainstorm and Ponder which lets you draw into Fetches to further thin your deck, and also let you ship back excess lands when you are mana flooded, leaving you with more useful cards.
4) Last time I heard a boatload of Spell Snares, Force of Wills, Dazes and Swords to Plowshares to boot was pretty decent against Reanimator, with Tormod's Crypt, Spell Pierce, Red Elemental Blast all coming in from the board. Lets not forget Snapcaster to double the trouble.
To streamline the deck and become more quick and nimble, I cut down to the bare bones - no Jace, no Clique, no Riptide Lab. Lavamancer is an MVP here between all the instants/soceries, 8 fetches and 4 wastes. Lightning Bolt unfortunately doesn't make the cut, but Lavamancer is far more useful if you can get him to stick around a few turns [worst case he draws some removal].
4 Flooded Strand
1 Island
4 Wasteland
3 Tundra
4 Volcanic Island
4 Delver of Secrets
3 Grim Lavamancer
4 Stoneforge Mystic
3 Snapcaster Mage
4 Daze
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Batterskull
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
3 Stifle
1 Grim Lavamancer
4 Tormod's Crypt
2 Spell Pierce
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
3 Underground Sea
3 Volcanic Island
4 Flooded Strand
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Island
4 Aether Vial
3 Grim Lavamancer
4 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Dark Confidant
4 Patron Wizard
2 Vendilion Clique
2 Sower of Temptation
4 Brainstorm
2 Spell Snare
3 Counterspell
4 Daze
I guess if I were to build a new one w/ snapcaster it would look like this.
3 Underground Sea
3 Volcanic Island
4 Flooded Strand
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Island
1 Riptide Laboratory
4 Aether Vial
3 Grim Lavamancer
3 Spellstutter Sprite
3 Snapcaster Mage
4 Dark Confidant
4 Patron Wizard
2 Sower of Temptation
4 Brainstorm
3 Spell Snare
3 Counterspell
3 Daze
With Top out, you can recur loam whenever you don't like your top three cards. You can also use loam to recur fetch lands, allowing you to see news cards with your top.
With Brainstorm, you can swap the lands you recur with Loam for meatier fare, using a fetchland or recurring loam to get rid of the lands you place of top. Jace, of course, allows you to do this every turn. Jace also acts as the win condition, so this is obviously a pure control deck where the focus is on mitigating the opponent and gaining card advantage for an eventual victory.
Of course, Wasteland and Mox Diamond are auto includes in a Loam deck. Horizon Canopy is a bit more iffy, but it's still a really good way to give you the full three to recur. I've also added the Engineered Explosives/Academy Ruins engine, since this deck does not have a fast win condition and Loam makes the engine quite hard to disrupt (Crypt type effects must be sideboarded in).
2 Flooded Strand
3 Wasteland
3 Tropical Island
3 Horizon Canopy
2 Island
1 Forest
2 Academy Ruins
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Spell Snare
4 Brainstorm
2 Spell Pierce
4 Force of Will
3 Counterspell
4 Life from the Loam
4 Mox Diamond
1 Sensei's Divining Top
3 Engineered Explosives
4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor