Intruder Alarm/Thopter Squadron combo

[Thallid Ice Cream Man]

About a week ago I discovered the following combo while sorting my cards:

Intruder Alarm
2U
Enchantment (Stronghold)
Creatures don't untap during their controller's untap steps.
Whenever a creature comes into play, untap all creatures.

Thopter Squadron
5
Artifact Creature (Exodus)
Flying
Thopter Squadron comes into play with three +1/+1 counters on it.
1, Remove a +1/+1 counter on Thopter Squadron: Put a 1/1 Thopter artifact creature token with flying into play. Play this ability as a sorcery.
1, Sacrifice a Thopter: Put a +1/+1 counter on Thopter Squadron.

Now, it should be obvious that with both cards in play, I can produce a Thopter and put a +1/+1 counter back on Thopter Squadron for 2, untapping all creatures in the process.

So I have two ideas for decks.
One (the obvious one) is a U/G deck with many elves to get infinite mana.

Ideas for creatures:
Llanowar Elves
Urborg Elf
Priest of Titania
Citanul Hierophants (unfortunately, it's not an elf, but all creatures I control gain "Tap: Add G to your mana pool.")
Quirion Elves
Deranged Hermit (possibly, but would require more effort. Probably I would only use this with the Hierophants, so I can tap the Squirrels for mana.)
What else?

Note that I do not want to use Birds of Paradise, because it's not an elf.

However, when thinking about the U/G deck I hit upon the idea of using Symbiotic Deployment to draw cards on the turn when I go off.
Also, what do I do when I go off? Stroke of Genius is too trite for my tastes. Maybe I should swarm my opponent with tokens from Master of the Hunt.

The other deck idea was a U/R deck with a bunch of Tims, something like this:

4 Prodigal Sorcerer
4 Rootwater Hunter
2 Thornwind Faeries
2 Shrieking Mogg
4 Moggcatcher
4 Thopter Squadron
4 Intruder Alarm
4 Rishadan Pawnshop
4 Curiosity
3 Statecraft
17 Island
4 Volcanic Island
4 Shivan Reef

Which deck concept is better?

 

[Jake74]

I'd say go with the tim one... you won't need a 'kill' card...
you could even try to put the Citanul Hierophants in it... then you can tap two for mana and ping with rest...

 

[clmax]

If you used Skyshroud Elves, you could add Kyren Negotiations. I have an enchantment heavy deck that uses Spiritual Asylum, Sacred Mesa, and Kyren Negotiations. Beware of Urza'a Armor (pack Overrun just in case). I love the Deployment too!!!!

 

[Gerode]

You have to throw in the Elves somewhere in order to gain infinite mana. And once the combo is going, you only need one Tim for infinite damage. I'd go with the Tim build, but also include enough elves to consistently get the combo working.

 

[Thallid Ice Cream Man]

Well, I thought of a design for a G/U build in spite of you all. It's probably just as good as some of the other decks; they are all somewhat fragile anyway.

4 Llanowar Elves
4 Urborg Elf
4 Priest of Titania
3 Fyndhorn Elder
3 Argothian Elder
4 Skyshroud Poacher
3 Thopter Squadron
3 Symbiotic Deployment
3 Living Lands
3 Intruder Alarm
3 Life/Death
1 Coat of Arms
16 Forest
4 City of Brass
3 Yavimaya Coast

I was very glad when I hit on the Skyshroud Poacher. I can use it in place of the Thopter Squadron when necessary, and if I have the combo out I'd rather have the Poacher anyway, because I can start bringing out more and more elves, to help pump the Priests of Titania, Coat of Arms, etc., or to bring out one of them. They also help set up the combo.
The Urborg Elf was included for its ability to add U, but if necessary it can help me cast the Death half of Life/Death to get a key creature (Thopter, Poacher) back.
Fyndhorn Elder taps for GG, and Argothian Elder taps to untap two lands, so both of them can single-handedly recoup costs of Thopter Squadron.
The only problem - and it is a big one - is mass destruction. So I think I might need to take something out for countermagic.
I'm thinking that maybe I should take out the Living Lands, replacing them with some counterspell that doesn't require too much U; possibly Powersink.
Suggestions for this deck (that don't include 'you should make it R/U anyway') would be greatly appreciated.
Maybe Propaganda? (Collective Unconscious is worse here.)

Edit: For future reference I meant Collective Restraint. I don't want Collective Unconscious anyway, because by the time I had enough creatures out to start casting Collective Unconscious I might draw too much of my deck.

 

[Captain Caveman]

You probably do need counter magic in the LL slot but you could
try Quirion Ranger first.

 

[Thallid Ice Cream Man]

train brought up an Intruder Alarm combo in Single-Card Strategies, and it reminded me of this deck.

Here is my most recent version:

4 Llanowar Elves
4 Urborg Elf
4 Priest of Titania
3 Fyndhorn Elder
3 Argothian Elder
4 Skyshroud Poacher
2 Llanowar Behemoth (a 4/4 which gets +1/+1 for each creature you tap: a kill mechanism)
3 Thopter Squadron
3 Symbiotic Deployment
3 Living Lands
3 Intruder Alarm
2 Life/Death
16 Forest
4 Yavimaya Coast
2 City of Brass

I was thinking that I should work on two things:
the support and
the kill mechanism

Should I use countermagic, for example?
Epic Struggle?
Tradewind Rider, as was suggested by train, who uses a similar deck?
Or perhaps diversify my kill methods: 1 behemoth, 1 coat of arms, and maybe something else?
Heck, maybe I should use Folk Medicine.
Manlands also might be useful in that they can't be countered.

So what do you think?

 

[train]

You could hurricane and taste of paradise... or altar of dementia...

 

[Mikeymike]

First off, what are the decks weaknesses? Does Masticore (roll it over (yes), too much mass destruction, Tim's got you crazy. I feel like Spidersilk armor could cure a lot of your woes.

If you are packing Skyshroud Poacher I feel like you should almost definitely be packing at least 1 Deranged Hermit in here. He's a win condition in and of himself. Rofellos ain't half bad either.

I know you don't like Stroke of Genius, but this thing is screaming for an X spell of some sort. I'd say Rocket Launcher or Tradewind Rider, but I know many people don't like infinite combos. Maybe something fun like Vitalizing wind. Epic Struggle would be fun, but you'd almost definitely need to run more Deranged Hermits to help cement it.

You've got 3 Arogothian Elder (hell yeah) yet no great non-basics to take advantage of with him. Gaea's Cradle would produce unreal amounts of mana in here, Yavimaya Hollow will help protect everything from Disk/Deed, Pendelhaven would give you an army of 2/3s, and Maze of Ith becomes a near auto-concession. Soldevi Excavations would be fun too, but you don't have enough islands to support it.

No Tropical Islands? Either way, if you do decide on running counters (I wouldn't bother) you'd need more blue sources.

 

[train]

you could play marsh vipers and give them "tim" abilities. Then they would die to poison counters.

edit - you could do nafs asps also - that would be cool....

 

[Thallid Ice Cream Man]

The question in my mind is what to remove for what? Should I remove some elves (and if so, which ones) to make room for this stuff, or should I cut down on things like Living Lands or Life/Death?

Gaea's Herald, I have just discovered, is an Elf.
Llanowar Sentinel might be good in that I can untap stuff several times in a row, but then I have to put in 4. It's low on my list of priorities.
Nomadic Elf could allow me to cast any spell in the game.
Magnify (an instant, all creatures get +1/+1 until end of turn, for G) might be useful.

If a creature is no longer 1/1 but 2/3 when a Pendelhaven's ability resolves - even though it was 1/1 when it was played - does it get +1/+2?
If so Pendelhaven is a nice kill card, allowing me to make any 1/1 creature X+1/2X+1. If not, it's still helpful (being no worse than a forest).

About Tropical Islands: I guess I was thinking about making this a deck I might actually build. I don't even have any Yavimaya Coasts so Trop. Islands are out of the question.

Altar is a possibility.
But in general (and this also applies to your other suggestions, train) I'd like to kill with one card and one card only, even if it takes a couple of turns.

Heck, I could always cop out and use Opposition .

 

[Spiderman]

If a creature is no longer 1/1 but 2/3 when a Pendelhaven's ability resolves - even though it was 1/1 when it was played - does it get +1/+2?

Nope

The current power/toughness being 1/1 is a targeting requirement so it is checked when announcing and again right before resolving. [bethmo 1994/06/22]

 

[Mikeymike]

I'd like to kill with one card and one card only, even if it takes a couple of turns.

Ambassador Laquatas? The 1UU stinks, maybe run some Quirion Elves too if you decide on her.

 

[Thallid Ice Cream Man]

Ambassador sounds good.
Elvish Fury could make a good kill card.

Thran Quarry might be good in small quantities - if, at the end of the turn, I don't have any creatures in play, if it's past turn 1, I'm probably screwed anyway.
If I'm about to go off Rainbow Vale has, similarly, no disadvantage.

Yeah, Undiscovered Paradise too. In fact I should probably run it in place of the Vale.

From now on I'll use this post to jot down ideas about this deck for this thread, and edit the post each time (unless I want to bump the thread up in a few months).

 

[train]

undiscovered paradise... in place of rainbow vale in case they can postpone your going off...

 

[NorrYtt]

A guy at our card shop plays an Intruder Alarm deck that puts a Squirrel Next on a Treetop Village for infinite Squirrels.

Extruder combos very well with Thopter Squadron. It allows a zero-mana instant speed way to replenish Thopters. I've lost to a guy who had Dragon's Blood and kept swinging with Thopter Squadron. Then he'd make like 5 Thopters and chump block my fatties, then make Thopter Squadron big again.

 

[BigBlue]

4x City of Solitude
4x Intruder Alarm
4x Intuition (to get what you need)
4x Counterspell

4x Prodigal Sorcerer
4x Suq´Ata Firewalker
4x Birds of Paradise
4x Quiron Elves
4x Shrieking Drake (the trigger)

8 Forest
16 Island

Like any combo deck, it doesn't work often, but when it works, goodnight.

 

[Thallid Ice Cream Man]

Note to self following deck contest on MTG.com: Jungle Patrol is grade - A shiznit.

 

[train]

Jungle patrol was a card I had long forgotten... man there's some good stuff under all this dust in my closet...

 

[Thallid Ice Cream Man]

I was just looking at the Onslaught spoiler and I realized Cryptic Gateway is really good with Intruder Alarm. It might even allow a mono-blue Wizard deck, with at least Wizard Mentor and Apprentice Wizard. I just need to find a Wizard I can tap for mana...