Creatureless Format - U/G deck idea

[Gizmo]

I've got a Creatureless Format comig up soon - Vintage card pool, no creature or artifact creature spells allowed.

I'm going for U/G because I've narrowed the possible threats down to...

1) Decking
2) Token creatures
3) Man-Lands
4) Direct Damage

And U/G seems to offer solutions to all these threats. Working from a really heavy countermagic base I'll be packing solutions for what I expect to face and a few kill cards. So far the deck is...

3 Force Spike
3 Power Sink
4 Counterspell
2 Dissipate
2 Forbid

3 Naturalize
2 Capsize
1 Dominate
1 Nevinyrral's Disk
1 Briar Patch

3 Impulse (arguably surplus to requirements)
4 Fact Or Fiction
3 Gaea's Blessing

3 KILL CARDS (come to that later)

2 Faerie Conclave
4 Wasteland
4 Yavimaya Coast
5 Forest
10 Island

SB:
1 Dust Bowl
1 Naturalise
1 Splinter (lots of artifacts around these days, especially Darksteel ones)
2 Steal Enchantment (Hondens etc)
2 Quash (vs their Blessings if needed)
2 Dominate (manlands/tokens)
<i>Hidden Gibbons? Hidden Guerrillas? Multani's Legacy? Sandstorm? Teferi's Response?</i>

Those threats again...

1) Decking (pretty much impossible with Blessing in my deck)
2) Token creatures (Capsize and Dominate are cheap solutions to big tokens, Briar Patch controls decks making lots of 1/1 guys)
3) Man-Lands (Dominate and Wasteland)
4) Direct Damage (i'm packing a LOT of countermagic, and if Urzas Rage is an issue I can Capsize land to prevent kickering)

The kill cards in question need to be though about carefully. Right now the deck is light on anything you can Naturalize or Disenchant (Disk, Briar Patch is all) and that gives my opponents potentially a lot of redundant cards. Including artifact/enchantment kill sources is therefore a little counterproductive, but the other options are limited. Now with Blessings in the deck I can recycle what threats my opponent does destroy if need be, but it might still be nice to avoid that happening.

Cards I've considered...
1) Grindstone/Helm Of Obediance
2) Verdant Touch (avoids Naturalize etc)
3) Living Terrain (fat, but GG casting cost and very targetable as it's a land/enchantment)
4) Snake basket (quick finisher but expensive to drop and blow in one, so a valid Naturalize target)
5) Myr Matrix (Indestructible is good)
6) Biorhythm (+my own manlands to survive, but this might be crap)

I'm thinking of almost certainly packing the Snake Basket because it wins games fast, but only 1, then using two slots for Verdant Touch or Living Terrain. I'm also wondering about how necessary Force Spike is in a mostly-casual environment (don't expect to be playing against any silly combo decks like ProsperBloom or Replenish) and if could more usefully be more expensive and certain counters.

Thoughts on the deck, the threats I might not have considered, and especially my kill cards all appreciated. I go to play on Friday.

I guess it's about deck styles... Living Terrain makes me counter to protect my offense, but wins fast (like an Altran Beatdown blue deck) and I switch to aggro-beatdown (would Thwart or Foil become good in that case - sadly I have no FoWills), whereas other kills are slower.

The Impulses are questionable because I think I can drop them for more countermagic - Lapse, Leak, or Dismiss most likely. In this deck theres a lot of similarity between the cards and so being able to filter through might be less important than simply drawing more counterspells.

Also what's the thinking on the respective merits of Whispers/Accumulated Knowledge/FoF?

 

[Spiderman]

SeFRo played a creatureless deck here but didn't include a decklist... but apparently he used flashback cards for the win.

 

[Gizmo]

Yeah sounds similar - I played a deck like that to 6-0 at 2002 Nationals.

I'm going more control this time. Knowing who my opposition is I doubt I'll struggle to win regardless, but I can do my best to cut their odds as small as possible.

 

[Reverend Love]

Hey Gizmo here's a combo'ish land deck I built awhile back ago. It's quite capable of drawing 8 cards of a beacon turn 4. There's certainly better all spell based combo decks out there, but this one is a hoot. It's been mildly tweaked for multiplayer (early harvest/vernal bloom/fireball) but can easily be tweaked for dueling.

Since it's creatureless Sakura's can easily be replaced by the classic Nature's Lore. First appeared in Ice Age so I have no idea why that goofy portal card is displayed.

Enchantments: 3
3 Vernal Bloom

Creatures: 4
4 Sakura Tribe Elder

Spells: 30
4 Beacon of Creation
4 Rude Awakening
4 Collective Unconsciousness
4 Early Harvest
4 Kodama’s Reach
4 Skyshroud Claim
4 Rampant Growth
2 Fireball

Land: 23
20 Forest
3 Mountains

 

[Notepad]

Originally posted by Gizmo
Yeah sounds similar - I played a deck like that to 6-0 at 2002 Nationals.

I'm going more control this time. Knowing who my opposition is I doubt I'll struggle to win regardless, but I can do my best to cut their odds as small as possible.

Gizmo, your arrogance still comes through even in a three-sentence reply. Be sure to wear a shirt with your DCI rating on it, and inform every opponent what it means.

You should really consider Call of the Herd as a kill spell. Much more reliable and redundant than Living Terrain, which is another similar card you considered (both put about the same threat level on the board).

My experience is the elephants got thrashed by bounce or other methods of kill quickly in a beatdown build. But, if you're playing control, you should be able to stop that. Plus, a control deck can manage a win with a single 3/3, or two, if you play right.

Snake Basket is a fine consideration, but the reason I chose not to run it was because of the fact you almost didn't--kill spells. In creatureless, there will be a lot of artifact hate. Especially if your opponents know what they're doing. I ran Null Brooch (a fine card for my deck and the format) and a couple times had to use its own ability to save itself from destruction. And, that was against a very casual and limited-collection crowd. You really might wanna skip Snake Basket.

 

[Reverend Love]

If your going to be using Call just tweak cunning wish. It's already got an excellent control base and infinite counters/elephant tokens is nothing to snicker at.

But..it's quite possibly the most f'ing boring deck I've EVER played against.

 

[Limited]

I really like the dominate; perhaps you could add some more, to be able to consistently steal manland..
I'd play a couple of hidden gibbons maindeck, mostly because a possible 4/4 second turn could really tilt the game your way.

 

[NorrYtt]

How about a bunch of counterspells and Intuition for Call of the Herd or Beast Attack?

You can make it mostly monoblue but some green for late game Call of the Herd. Maybe Gaea's Blessing to recur the counters and Calls while you leave 3 Accumulated Knowledges in the graveyard.

Jesus I hate it when blue mages play with green cards because blue cards suck.