Believe it or not kids, I was not always good at Magic. Or, at least, not as good as I am now (which I will allow some variance on). But while my success has been a recent occurrence, my love for the home brews is anything but. I unfortunately only started playing with the release of Mirrodin, and only competitively since Lorwyn, so I never got to explore the craziness of the older sets like Urza’s block when they were at the height of their power. Luckily for me though, reprints do exist, meaning some of the crazier cards of yesteryear were given a new birth and I could actually experiment.
At my second States tournament, Ravinca-Time Spiral Standard, I employed one of these wacky cards to good effect; Polymorph. At the time, the best creature on the block was Akroma, Angel of Wrath, or Simic Sky Swallower for the safer return, but a turn 4 Akroma is still a scary thing. At the time, Solar Flare decks were looking to cheat fatties out of the yard, but I was content on losing a Call of the Herd or Vhitu-Ghazi token to do the same thing. Ultimately, that deck landed me a 9th place finish on tie-breakers and despite it being a deck that probably was not in tip-top shape, it did form a love between me and Polymorph.
In case you were unaware, Polymorph is back again! There was some buzz of the card when Khalni Garden was spoiled, but nothing really came of that except for murmurs or Progenitus and Iona. Well, it turns out that turn 3 Ionas and Progenitus (Progeniti?) are pretty good, even better than a turn four Akroma. Because of this, I looked back at Polymorph for a while, but couldn’t find a configuration I was happy with. Every version I was trying out had some corner of the triangle missing. Either its aggro matchup was bad, or its control matchup was etc.
Polymorph combo
While at work the other day however, for some reason or another, the idea of a Polymorph deck sprang back into the forefront of my mind and the following deck came as a result.
So the concept here is to abuse the powerful cards that Blue/White Control has at its disposal, like Jace the Mind Sculptor, Everflowing Chalice, and Day of Judgment, while presenting a faster clock and a series of threats that come from all angles. Rather than rely purely on the Polymorph kill, Thopter Foundry, Jace, Elspeth, or a hard cast Iona are all very capable of taking a game by themselves.
So let’s break down the components by category:
The Combo
I knew I wanted 2 targets for Polymorph in the maindeck as if I drew one, I did not want to have to rely on Jace to save my butt, but deciding on a split here came about after the fact. Originally, I had 2 Progenitus, which quickly became 2 Iona once I realized I would easily be able to hard cast her with all of the acceleration I had. In the (limited) testing I have done however, I have Polymorphed on back-to-back turns a few times now, which is only possible with two different (legendary) targets. Both Progenitus and Iona are solid, so hitting either one should be good in game 1. For game 2, you can take one out if the other is just strictly superior, or swap one for the Sphinx which we will talk about later. The ability to hard cast at least one of your targets remains in tact and the best of both worlds is had.
The Token Makers
Eleven of the 12 token producers all require a minimal payment of 1 or no mana the turn prior, or during, when you cast Polymorph, This means even if you wanted to set up a sequence of a token the same turn as your Polymorph, plus some protection in the form of Silence or Dispel, you are looking at 6 total mana, which is not too bad.
Generally you will be able to set the token up ahead of time, as the opponent rarely aims removal at a 0/1 right away, even if they know you are Polymorphing. It is ingrained into our heads that wasting a Maelstrom Pulse on a free 0/1 is bad, so most players will stick to that logic despite the token clearly holding a different value here.
Martial Coup is good on both ends of the deck, so it made it in as a one-of. I tried a 2/2 split between Day of Judgment and Martial Coup, but the Everflowing Chalices favored the Day of Judgments so much more that they ended up winning out. Don’t be afraid to turn your token generation into your win condition even without a Polymorph. Thopter Foundry and Elspeth can both hold the fort down or go offensive pretty easily.
The Protection
Jace isn’t exactly in the same category as the 1 mana instants here, but it is without a home so it decided to bunk up with them. While on the subject though, Jace allows you to recycle your bombs when you draw them which allows you to get away with only running 2 total copies of Polymorph targets. Without Jace, you would likely need to run 3ish targets to be certain to always have a target in your deck or else mulligan every hand with one in it. Jace obviously runs the full gambit here though as well, filling all the same roles that he does in U/W control.
Silence is the most proactive of answers, allowing you to maneuver through multiple removal spells in a single turn, or simply setting the opponent back a turn if they happen to be running some hyperaggressive deck that is looking to kill you faster than the reverse. Dispel on the other hand, is a reactive card but is better in the circumstances where you want a token the turn before. With Silence, assuming you could only produce 1 token and it was already in play, they can respond to the Silence by killing your token. Dispel prevents that.
The Removal
These require little explanation as they are fairly well explored by this point. Path can go offensive in this deck, turning a turn 1 Khalni Garden into a turn 2 Rampant Growth, which I have done a few times in testing. The most feared creature for this deck is Cunning Sparkmage, as it neuters your tokens while dodging both Dispel and Silence, so Path definitely wants to have a talk with that guy.
Day of Judgment can come down on turn 3 when need be, although often turn 4 will grab you more card advantage. You have enough token producers that being afraid to Wrath one of them in the process should be avoided. Play to win the game, not to preserve the combo, unless that directly leads to the first point.
The Mana
There is a slight lean towards white mana here as your double white spells are more abundant than the double blue which only comes in the form of Jace. The Borderposts are obviously perfect with Thopter Foundry as well as sufficient mana accelerators if you see yourself on the hard cast Iona route. Fetchlands are for abuse with Jace, and Misty Rainforest grabs the lone forest out of the board. Overall, there’s not much to talk about here.
The Sideboard
Dispel and Negate are primarily here to fight the control decks in the room. Basically, between Silence, Negate, and Dispel, you should be able to push the game long enough to be able to successfully resolve an Elspeth, Polymorph, or Jace, which should all present serious issues for the U/W Control player sitting across from you. One issue I have theorized on, although haven’t actually seen, is Celestial Colonnade. With the board plan, you are only leaving in 1 Path (or subbing it out for a Baloth Cage Trap if you see fit) meaning your answers to the 4/4 flier are limited. Thopter Foundry is good here, as it can turn the race in your favor, but this could be an issue that needs addressing in the future. Martial Coup stays in as a Token generator that gives you a white out to Iona (Polymorph and Jace are blue outs) while also mopping up their own Martial Coup if it comes to that.
Baloth Cage Trap is an interesting one that I haven’t gotten to use yet, but I think it could be spicy. Basically, against the Koros or Open the Vaults decks, the trap cost is almost always met, meaning a 4/4 flasher for 2 that can be Polymorphed as well. I think it is a fine addition here as he buys you time against aggro, sometimes even killing a dude, and provides a clock against Open the Vaults, which is key. I would test this one out to make sure it works as planned, but I have a feeling it is pretty spicy. Obviously bring in the Forest here too, to give you 5 more green sources.
Vapor Snare is intended to combat the big creature decks like Mythic, Vampires, or other Green/White strategies, as stealing their guy and either winning with it, or Polymorphing it, are both satisfactory. With Khalni Garden in the deck, the Snare is almost always going to be better than Mind Control, especially considering that it costs 4U instead of 3UU which could come up at times. I messed around with 3 of these, but with Day of Judgment and Path still in the deck, I don’t think 3 are needed.
Sphinx of the Steel Wind is another option for the Polymorph package that can impact the board against aggro. Against Jund for example, The Sphinx will often be better than Progenitus as it is just as untargetable, but offers lifegain against their burn and plays defense just as well as offense. Against decks like Mono-Red, the Sphinx offers the same package. Sometimes Iona will be enough, as they may not have any board presence and you simply need to keep them from casting spells. Other times however, with unearth guys in the yard and a Goblin Guide or 2 in play, Iona can’t carry the load on her own and has to wait for some help if she can even buy that much time. Because of this, the Sphinx comes in for Progenitus to just cushion your life a little bit.
Overall, I have gotten in a quite a few games with this, but nothing as extensive as if I were preparing for a Grand Prix or Pro Tour, so I would recommend a little extra testing by any prospective players. The biggest thing to note are the Traps in the sideboard. Still, the idea of a Polymorph deck has been floating around for a while now, and the tools exist to make it work, so there is no reason someone should not be willing to try to do just that. Good luck to anyone who sleeves this up, and shoot me some feedback in the comments section to let me know how it goes. Innovation should thrive in the times of stagnation, so capitalize on that. See ya guys next week!
Conley Woods
I just built this deck almost card for card two days ago. I didnt think about Thopter Foundry and the borderpost though as both extra token generators and another control element. Might just have to give this a shot then at the next FNM. I’ve already melded Turbo Fog to U/W control, and it just plays like a slightly better fog deck(only slightly better because your opponents think you’re actual U/W control for the first 3 turns.)
Pingback: MTGBattlefield
Have you thought about/tried splashing a one mountain red for goblin assault? Seems like that would be the most dependable token maker against jund outside of thopter foundry.
Also with your deck you’re playing a combo/control deck with no card draw besides a hard to protect jace 2.0? What happens when you don’t draw that polymorph? Seems like 2x Mind Spring would be good here.
On a more positive note, this deck looks like a lot of fun. Thanks Conley!
Sphinx of the Steel Wind hates Deathmark. ):
I built Polymorph, thopter foundry about 4 months ago. It also had a fabricate toolbox with several 1 off artifacts like scepter of dominance and scourglass. I ended up switching out the progenitus for a second Iona because of often hard casting Iona. Also inkwell Leviathan in the sideboard was a good board in. This build was pre worldwake and therefore had no dispels or gardens. Good deck to feature.
yea my list has two mind spring and 4 treasure hunt over Jace actually.
i hate polymorph decks, they are so cheap
speaking from a casual side of the game of course
I’m curious about Sphinx of the Steel Wind simply because Deathmark has become such a ubiquitous sideboard card. Did you think about Inkwell Leviathan instead?
Pretty sure no one is bringing in Deathmark for game 2 against you as it does absolutely nothing. If they decide to bring it in game 3 after seeing Sphinx, you can outdo them by taking it out and leaving them with dead cards. Against Mono Red or similar decks, (Mono Green) it is still always insane.
Thanks Conley, it’s always nice to see you thinking one step beyond the obvious question =).
One of my big beefs about Polymorph decks is should the Polymorph fail, then you have very few alternatives to the deck. Good to see Silence being used here to protect the combo =).
@Josh G
On a tangent, I think Polymorph would be a great deck to hybridize with another deck. When you said Inkwell Leviathan, I thought Spreading Seas. I’d say it’s worth a shot to try a Spread Em Polymorph deck.
interesting deck idea? It runs 4 jace and a bunch of elspeth? oh ok nm, tx anyway.
I would run expedition map in here. Not only does it find Khalni Garden and fix your mana, it can also be sacrificed to Thopter Foundry in a pinch.
man do i need to find someone with 4 jace to barn so i can play this deck on modo. Once I saw 4 silence I was sold to be honest.
I had a green blue variant on mtgo a week ago, but ill test it out with your suggestions. turn 3 terastodon is pretty strong against some decks, even u/w if u kill a white source. My variant won with either a fatty or a beastial menace/avenger/overun, I know it sounds bad but it was all in the name of testing. Home brews ftw!
Have the same deck. But I tried to use the green mana.
I play more green by using seaside citadel for Garruk and explore instead of Thopter and everflowing chalice. This makes the deck faster because I get to play Khlani garden turn 2 as third land. Garruk fixes mana, makes tokens and can even be an overrun for the tokens.
Not having the artifact tokens means the artifact borderpost are not needed.
Because I play more green I added bantcharm to the sideboard over Baloth cage trap.
Because I thought the deck got to many 4 drops I only play 2 jace and added 2 treasure hunt.
The deck performs well but I only tried it on FNM. Silence has been the MVP.
Have you tried Rite of Replication? Could be spicy against jund on a broodmate, sprouting thrinax or siege gang commander. You could easily get to nine mana and randomly win a game too.
I won a GB Nats Qualifier at the weekend with the following list:-
4 polymorph
4 jace, the mind sculptor
4 garruk
4 into the roil
4 ponder
4 explore
4 negate
2 rampant growth
2 wind zendikon
2 Iona
4 misty rainforest
2 scalding tarn
1 verdant catacombs
4 halimar depths
4 khalni garden
5 island
4 forest
2 tectonic edge
sb:
4 flashfreeze
2 unsummon
2 fog
2 dispel
3 naturalize
1 selective memory
1 progenitus
I really don’t see the idea behind the Wildfield Borderpost-s. You don’t need the green mana that much and Foundry usually doesn’t make more than 1-2 tokens per game. If it does, I think that 4 Chalices, 4 Boederposts and Foundry itself is more than enough. After all, you don’t want to sacrifice all your mana for it.
My point is that with only 4 cards to fix your colours and so many WW and UU casting costs it will often lead to mulligans and color shortage. In a long term it will lose you more games than you will win with multiple Foundry tokens. I would try it with Glacial Fortress instead of Wildfield Borderpost (and considering to replce Baloth Traps with something else).
a great player and deckbuilder friend of mine has been running UG polymorph with wind zendikon, garruk, and khalni garden to make tokens, with ponders, jaces, spell pierces, negates, etc. he runs 2 iona main deck and 2 progenitus sb. I know this isn’t exactly a fail-safe result, but he’s gone something like 12-2 over the course of the last 3 FNMs.
What about Gatekeeper of Malikir? You polymorph into some badass creature, only to have to sacrifice it. You better have a couple of silences to protect it!
god, sphinx of steel wind is so ridiculous.
It looks like some amount of Ponders is missing. Jace is the only way to dig for Polymorph/Silence
@Conley: nice deck and I always enjoy your innovation.. you seemed a little snippy in the comments when you said “Ideas are cool and all, but chances are I have already tried them.” – isn’t that what it’s all about? The people who like following your work are the people who like trying new things.
On the other hand..
@Petar: really… you’re going to declare that you can build this deck better when you don’t even mention TESTING. You must be an unknown super-pro.
@xaoslegend: Are you perhaps looking for a ‘Building on a Budget’ article.. they exist and might be more for you.
I got a few cards that i want to know if they’ve been tried:
Ponder?
Halimar Depths?
Garruk? (tokens/ramp)
SB Baneslayers? (Baneslayer on turn 3 is still good and who is really going to go “Damn, just a baneslayer :/”. Removal should be gone so you can play it like U/W Control does.)
@Evan: Please don’t tell Isaiah about this list. 🙂
@ Conley
I think this is a brilliant polymorph deck. Also, with RoE coming down the pipe, this might be the way to go to get out a quick Kozak and start destroying permanents (I know how much you love land destruction)
I played a similar deck at FNM a few times and I like your use of Thopter Foundry. However, I found that the deck needed ways to dig for the combo or counters to protect the combo instead of just hoping to have them in the opening hand.
Card I found to be useful:
Halimar Depths – Helps dig but doesn’t work well with so many border posts
Ponder – So good
Explore – It’s like having 4 more chalices to setup the turn 3 combo and cantrips to boot
I alway felt Polymorph combo was more fit for a transformative sideboard rather than an entire deck idea. Running Runeflare Trap game one then boarding out that combo and bringing in a 15 card Poly / Progenitus sideboard worked great for keeping an opponent off balance. Then switching it up the next week where the Poly is main board and the Runeflare is sideboard. Keep your local meta guessing. 🙂
Cobra trap pulled at me considering all the border post and planeswalkers for a quick massing of tokens for really cheap.
Probably going to test it.
I’ve been running U/G polymorph since WW came out. This week I was thinking to try and put in a U/W shell. U/G offers quite a bit by way of acceleration, and manaless token creation. You also get to run explore which is surprisingly good in the deck. One cool thing about this deck too is that you can really tailor the targets to specific sitiuations if you board well. I often had 1 Terrastadon and on Inkwell Leviathan SB because you can hardcast them. Novablast worm is another interesting option I’ve tried. Typically though this build I’ve found is great against control, and midrange, but lays out to aggro. I’ve tried fogs/sleeps, but it’s all been underwhelming. Hence my interest in trying out U/W.
4 Khalni Garden
4 Halimar Depths
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Dread Statuary
5 Island
5 Forest
4 Ponder
4 Wind Zendikon
4 Polymorph
3 Iona ( I was drawing too many that I wanted to up the count)
3 Dispel
3 Garruk
3 Jace the Mind Sculptor
4 Everflowing Chalice
4 Explore
2 Spell Pierce
2 Negate
SB:
2 Progenitus
1 Inkwell Leviathan
1 Novablast Worm
1 Terrastadon
4 Fog
1 Dispel
1 Spell Pierce
2 Sleep
2 Essence Scatter
Garruk is amazing in this deck. Accelerates, provides targets for polymorph, and lets untapped CIPT lands.
Sorry for the doublepost. Another nice thing about the U/G build is it’s not uncommon to win via tokens + Garruk. Plopping a Zendikon on Khalni Garden, or a Misty Rainforest is always good times as well.
I know its a bit early to be talking about Eldrazi, but how sick will this deck be with Kozilek, Butcher of Truth in it?
Poly turn three into a 12/12 getting you 4 cards and effectively winning the game in one attack…..Since they probably won’t have any permanents left on turn four even if they can chump block.
Then they can’t deathmark it, even if they do have a terminate or pulse in hand to kill it, it just shuffles itself and the polymorph back into your deck. Anything outside of Path looks ridiculous. Plus you already got 4 cards to replenish your hand for polymorph the next turn….or you drew the counterspells to protect him.
Fantastic deck Conley
I don’t think polymorphing into Kozilek gets you four cards… I think you have to cast it in order to get the cards? Polymorph just puts it into play.
ummmm…. you need to read Kozilek again. You get 4 cards if you CAST him, which means you need to pay that big old 10 at the top right corner. He will however be awesome if you can get him on turn 3/4 and he doesn’t get removed. If he attacks then, it’s probably any creatures they have and most of their lands. One sided obliterates is fun! But let’s be honest, game 1, they’ll have removal main board so you may want to try game 2
Knips you only get the 4 cards if you cast kozilek, but it would still be pretty sick, if you get to untap with it its basically ggs as you wipe out there permanents.
Dang! When it seems to good to be true……
Then the question is would he replace Iona in the main deck? Wouldn’t he give you a better chance against an unknown field? Makes me think of the article a few days ago on here about how people over use meddling mage when they don’t know what their opponent is playing. There’s not much value in a 2/2 that names the wrong card….Iona isn’t that good when she names a color your opponent doesn’t need to win.
I can see where Iona would be great in the sideboard coming in for mono colored decks like RDW, Vampires, WW, etc.. but one sided Obliterate seems better in game one.
Just my 2 cents on a card that isn’t even out yet. I’m a sucker for warpworld and polymorph decks.
I run Iona MD because in my meta there’s a lot of Vamps, WW, and RDW. Iona’s actually quite great against Jund naming black. Hits a lot of their stuff. Progenitus tends to race much faster though.
I think in an unknown field I’d run Progenitus. I think he may better than Kozilek MD if you’re afraid of removal. Kozilek is certainly devastating though.
Also looks like there may be more token producing spells judging by the spoilers.
“Ideas are cool and all, but chances are I have tried em.” — yeah. What a jerk that guy was for thinking he might possibly have an idea that the Great Conley hasn’t had already.
I love your columns, and think you’re awesome, but that comment was decidedly uncool.
great deck… certainly better than other polymorph decks iv seen
the only flaw i think is something like a thought hemmorage?
their could be a problem with that…
i like the thopter idea
with the mana availible, i probebly wouldnt run silence, due to the fact that it is most likely used right after you make a token and before you polymorph, in which case they are probebly going to use an instant, which they could use on your turn anyway
i would maybe run a fog package to give yourself move of a chance to draw polymorph, or just some way to ensure your not left with 7 mana, 5 tokens, and nothin to do…
looks really fun to play
Hey, What about bant charm over path to exile? You could play the 1 forest main and bant charm does basically the same thing as path without ramping them. It also destroys annoying artifacts or acts as a counter. Just an idea…It might be too mana intensive.
i don’t think bant charm works because it would be too intensive. The point of dispel is to play poly with an extra U up so that you can counter a bolt or terminate or what have you that tries to fizzle the poly. That’s turn 4/5 whereas bant charm would be 6/7.
And if you want to play kozilek, you should replace 1 card main deck to run 3 threats, or replace progenitus. Iona is just game over against tons of decks. You typically choose the removal color, but that in itself shuts down
Hey guys, that second comment was most assuredly not me. Pretty sure someone just used my name there as I have only had 2 people over who could have posted under my own email. So my apologies for the rudeness that appeared to be me- now onto some cards-
Expedition Map- I ran a 1 of Expedition Map for a while, but I kept finding it so slow that I was not liking it in my opening hand, which is theoretically where it should be best. You have enough token makers that you usually don’t need a Khalni Garden that bad. If you were running an Open the Vaults version of the deck, which is an idea I had, the Map would be sick obv.
Ponder- This deck is not looking to dig as fast as possible for its combo. Ponder is awesome in true combo decks because all they are looking for is combo pieces or card quality, where as this deck is looking for card advantage. Obviously finding your combo is awesome, but when you begin to make that all the deck wants to do, you turn into a different deck where Paths and Wraths become Ponders and Explores. While not bad, they are a different deck. This is a control deck with a combo finish, look at it like that and it makes sense.
Borderposts- The mana is pretty good most of the time, and the value of the borderposts are pretty nice in the late game. That said, If you were to want to get rid of some, I could see losing a few for a couple Celestial Colonade. I had that configuration at first, but decided the Colonade was a little too slow. Feel free to give it a shot though.
Iona- Iona is much better than Meddling Mage, as there are only 5 colors and not 20,000 of them. Typically, only 3 of the colors can deal with Iona anyway, in Blue, White, and Black. Most decks right now only run 1 of those 3 colors, or have answers that are gold so Iona just shuts them down. U/W control is the exception of course, so you can board her out if you like, although Post-board, you have a bunch of counterspells so it doesnt matter much.
Thanks guys, again, sorry about the confusion earlier.
So whenever I see Rogue deck lists, I bring an assumption with me of “What would I bring to the table if I KNEW I was going to play this deck?” (hence the deathmark question) and a second assumption of “how would I play the mirror?” I’m starting to realize it’s not accurate of me to do that, but I’m still left with some questions because of it =P.
It seems though that a lot of your confidence in the deck comes from knowing it’s underplayed rather than what its specific weakness is (i.e. we haven’t talked about Telemin Performance at all.)
You go rogue a lot and I’ve read your other articles on the importance of unanswered deck tech/meta choices, but do you think this deck would stand up in a field that knew about it?
Finally, someone who understands the value of a 3 color ‘morph deck… dunno how i feel about this list tho, might give it a shot. here’s the list i’ve been using, to much success against the major contenders in the field. Jund and UW matchups are a cakewalk… http://www.02drop.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=30 this has the potential to be a major contender
I ran a Iona-Polymorph deck at San Diego and it was a lot of fun to play, despite not making day two with it.
This deck is just insane against Vampires, Eldrazi Green (do people still play that deck?), Open the Vaults and certain builds of Jund. At San Diego I ran into a Jund list with Siege-Gang Commander plus Basilisk Collar out of the sideboard and I couldn’t keep Iona on the board.
I didn’t run the Thopter Foundry, the boarder posts, Progenitus or the Dispels. Dispel was run originally and then they became Negate, because Negate counters Jace, the Mind Sculpter and protects Iona against Maelstrom Pulse and Blightning, then protects your hand against Mind Sludge as well. Plus you have Silence to protect your polymorph.
I also started with the even split of one Iona and one Progenitus main deck, and found most of the time I’d rather just have Iona because she turns off most of your opponent’s deck, if not all of it. Then I would bring in Progenitus out of the sideboard for the appropriate match ups.
I didn’t like the Martial Coup and the Day of Judgments in testing, I want to protect Iona with Cancel or slow down my opponent with Essence Scatter. With the ability to get Iona (or Progenitus) on the board on turn 3 or 4 the Day of Judgments sat in my hand doing nothing most of the time, the Martial Coups were terrible except as an emergency way to get a token out there and if you’ll be running Thopter Foundry then there maybe no need for Martial Coup.
It’s definitely not a Tier One Deck, but there’s something about that look that a vampire’s player gets when he/she realizes that they can’t play anymore spells for the rest of the game that makes this deck worth playing at least once at a FNM.
WOW! Listen to Conley shout down at the peasants from his high horse — “Ideas are cool and all, but chances are I have tried em.” Man do I feel bad for that guy for talking. I mean doesn’t he know King Conley already has a Pro Tour Top 8 and not just one, but two whole Grand Prix top 8’s? You don’t question a guy with all that glitter.
edit – talking about the last list on the forum, not the first one…
On the question of whether it would stand up:
It seems to me that this deck asks the same questions of a meta that other combo finish decks ask. If the meta is prepared with silver bullets (telemin performance being one per Josh G) than this deck probably loses or becomes a coin flip post-board. However, and this is a big however for me, that’s only if the meta feels that it’s worth spending sideboard slots on. If the answers aren’t versatile, or people just don’t think it will be represented, they probably leave out the hate.
That said, if it’s your local FNM and people know that you are going to play this deck, the hate will be coming in waves 🙂
@Josh G and others
The existence of hoser cards like Telemin Performance and Thought Hemorrhage is nearly irrelevant. A deck like this is almost certainly not powerful enough to beat a prepared meta, but the only way your opponents will come prepared for this deck is if someone (maybe you?) crushed them with it last week.
Comment deleted. -Zaiem
Everyone can post with Conley’s name!
Also not me… I will figure out how to fix that from happening. Whoever is doing that btw, grow up plz
Many forums require user accounts so that people can’t imitate others, be consistently abusive, etc. It’s cool that this site doesn’t require them, though this does allow somebody to impersonate you, which is a serious d-bag move. My apologies for falsely accusing you of moderate d-baggery earlier, Conley.
“Generally you will be able to set the token up ahead of time, as the opponent rarely aims removal at a 0/1 right away, even if they know you are Polymorphing. It is ingrained into our heads that wasting a Maelstrom Pulse on a free 0/1 is bad, so most players will stick to that logic despite the token clearly holding a different value here”
Sentences like that really bother me in strat articles. Yes, most magic players, including many many on the pro tour, are bad. But I still really hate to read a paragraph, even if you think you have logic behind it, that essentially reads “Assume your opponent is a moron.” So many decks and concepts would be excellent if you could rely on your opponent being an idiot.
I realize that more testing is probably needed but what were the matchups like?
Glad to see some innovation, I’ve been considering a transformational sideboard out of normal U/W (to dodge removal) and really appreciate all of the great Ideas!
What this deck could use are some Ruinblasters to bounce back to your hand every turn with Jace, the Mind Sculptor. lol…
Actually … that wouldn’t be such a bad idea to build a deck around.
There’s a challenge for you Conley. Build “Bounce_the_Ruinblaster.deck”
I have played a UWR morph deck at FNM the past two weeks. It used goblin assualt and elspeth as the token producers. I can safely say that you should have 4 maindeck negate. Originally I thought dispel would be better (at least game one) because in terms of comboing off safely, it is strictly better. However, there were simply too many times when I would have strictly preferred negate. Dispel in invaluable in the control matchup, but I had a bad experience with it maindeck. Blightning, mind sludge, jace, ajani, and pulse are all good enough reasons to run negate instead…. i think.
Is this ideas better / worse / different from Summoning Trap w/ Jace 2.0 ?
I built a UGw Trap that seems less ‘needy’ when it comes to cheating win-cons. Just wanted opinion on that vs Polymorph
I like Polymorph better because you don’t have to litter your deck with a bunch of uncastables like 4x Iona. Granted, Summoning trap gets to run more creatures like Knight of the Reliquary though. Both have their advantages, I just prefer the Morph
Appreciate the feedback regardless.
Tezzeret would be quite interesting for this deck.
He ramps, fetches utility artifacts (pithing needle, thopter foundry, even chalice), gives an alternate win con, and can turn your artifacts into critters for the morph if necessary. Obviously we’d have to change a few things in the build., but I think one or two tezz would be strong.
Is there a reason that thopter foundry is better than just running 4 martial coups? You can always coup for less than 5….
this is a very interesting deck i would love to play against it some time that would be very fun in my opinion.