Iso-Horny (Legacy)

by Majician on 07 August 2011

Main Deck (60 cards)

Sideboard (15 cards)

Creatures (4)


Sorceries (2)

Artifacts (3)


Enchantments (6)

Submit a list of cards below to bulk import them all into your sideboard. Post one card per line using a format like "4x Birds of Paradise" or "1 Blaze", you can even enter just the card name by itself like "Wrath of God" for single cards.


Deck Description

Isochron control baby!

Most of the spells coupled with Iso can lock someone out quite easily.

Jace, Luminarch Ascension (for beat), Celestial Colonnade (for beat), or Phyrexian Metamorph (for beat), are the win-cons.

More often than not though, your win-con is your opponent quitting ;)


-Isochron Scepter
Iso+Remand - Counter, deck (through discard), and card draw? Wow.
Iso+Lapse - opponent always draws the same card forever! Excellent.
Iso+Orim's - activate during opponent's upkeep, and opponent can never play anything? Word.
Iso+Swords - if any creatures ever make it out, buh-bye ;)
Iso+Boomerang - Pretty obvious. The best is when you are at the point of boomeranging their lands back (because they don't have anything else out) and they will NEVER BE ABLE TO PLAY ANYTHING. This is extremely valid when you have 2 Iso-Boomerangs out. It can also bring back your Metamorph if you want to play it again and copy something new (but why would you want anything other than a copy of Iso? : p)

-Enlightened Tutor to Grab Iso/Phyrexian Metamorph (thanks dragin17 for reminding me!)

-Phyrexian can copy an Iso, allowing you to exile a card from your hand and imprint it on the Phyrexian Iso (that sounds pretty cool doesn't it?) It can obviously copy an opponent's creature to beat them up with (if they get one out/you allow them to get one out) before you exile/boomerang it. And last but (definitely) least, you can copy an activated Celestial Colonnade for whatever reason (another beater? REALLY need that extra land?), although this will NEVER happen...it would cost 8 mana at the very least...

-Academy Ruins is one of the best lands for blue/artifact decks, period.

-I changed out Glacial Fortress for Hallowed Fountain because access to a turn 1 white mana to play Enlightened Tutor can make all the difference.


SIDEBOARD
-Tormod's - graveyard-into-library hijinks
-Meddling Mage - specific threats
-Chill - red decks
-Spreading Seas - multi-colored decks (and card draw!)
-Day of Judgement - board sweep (because you are more often than not going to have a creature-less board on your end)

This deck is expensive, but the joy of completely shutting down your opponent is worth the price.a


---FOR BUDGET---

-you can trade out the Hallowed Fountains and Flooded Stands for slightly less good dual lands (Sejiri Refuge, Glacial Fortress, etc.)

-drop the Jaces for some other effective certain win-con (I just like Jace because he's...well, the man), or you could even up two of your 3-of Iso spells to 4-ofs. Your choice!

-use Silence in place of Orim's Chant. You lose the ability to pay that cheap kicker to stop creatures from attacking, but generally your opponent shouldn't have any creatures out against this deck anyway

Making those changes will put this deck closer to about $125 (not considering what you replace those cards with), which is MUCH more manageable to buy than $450. It won't work QUITE as effectively without those beautiful lands, but there are plenty of decent lands out there. You should still be able to control almost every game, no problem.

You can also take out the 4 Enlightened Tutors (and use Muddle the Mixtures instead) to drop the price even further to about $75, but THIS IS NOT RECOMMENDED. You WANT those Tutors. You NEED those tutors. Playing this deck without them is a huge gamble, and playing Magic is already a gamble enough.



-Edit-
Replaced Lightning Helix with Mox Diamond. Lightning Helix is basically unplayable without Iso, and a possible turn one Iso is pretty great.

Deck Tags

  • Combo

Deck at a Glance

Social Stats

19
Likes

This deck has been viewed 24,202 times.

Mana Curve

Mana Symbol Occurrence

1225000

Card Legality

  • Not Legal in Standard
  • Not Legal in Modern
  • Not Legal in Vintage
  • Legal in Legacy

Deck discussion for Iso-Horny (Legacy)

enlightened tutor instead of muddle the mixture since you mainly use it to grab iso and its abbility allows you to grab more iso's out if equiped to an iso

replace powerartifact with brainstorm, gintaxian probe, preordain, u know something that gives you draw power your a blue player so use one of your greatest strengths and draw cards

3
Posted 07 August 2011 at 07:54

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Holy shit man, I completely forgot about Enlightened lol. I was going around my ass to get to my elbow with Muddle the Mixture...it's counter use isn't variable enough to even be considered really.

In lieu of the inclusion of Enlightened, I'm switching Power with Brainstorm because 1) it can draw me that artifact I just put on top of my library and 2) it is another option for imprinting on an Iso to get basically infinite deck manipulation. The Powers were just tempting to couple with Iso, but after some testing they honestly didn't help that much.

I'm still not 100% sure whether I'm going to keep Brainstorm or use Preordain instead. It requires some testing to see which works better.

In all honesty, this is the ONLY blue deck I've ever made since Preordain came out that didn't include 4 of them. I really wanted Power Artifact to work lol

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Posted 07 August 2011 at 08:22

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ok i like the comment u left on the advertise thing that is pretty funny. this deck does seem like one where u pull it out ur opp sees it and goes uhm brb bathroom... half our later.. where did he go? lol i like it but the whole eplaning the deck isnt needed. keep it simple. let others try to figure out ur combos, instead of tellin everyone.

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Posted 13 August 2011 at 20:58

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Lol thanks man. And maybe you're right about explaining everything, I just like to let people know that there is a reason for every single card in a deck. But people commenting and asking questions is probably a good thing, right?

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Posted 15 August 2011 at 02:06

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welcome and yuuuuup thats how the deck grows and evolves =]

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Posted 16 August 2011 at 01:45

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my favorite alltime Iso target is Word of Command. everyone has a playset of those lyin around right?

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Posted 26 August 2011 at 17:29

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Having 1 Iso with Word and 1 with Remand out would would be blissful. The only dick thing about Word of Command is that it could sometimes possibly not really do much for you...oh, and even adding just 3 would add $150 to this deck's already mammoth cost lol

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Posted 29 August 2011 at 01:38

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This is a delicate balance but you could possibly use Angel's Grace? Or some of those dual cards like Fire/Ice... actually all of your Iso picks are better than the dual cards, although they are extremely versatile. But a few Angel's Graces could save you if you're struggling to get a lock out (probably won't ever happen lol.)
Why only 1 Luminarch Ascension though? Didn't you have a few Tezzy's in here before

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Posted 02 September 2011 at 00:32

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Thanks for the suggestions Carda. Believe you me, I sat there looking through all the cards I could imprint on Iso on the gatherer for a LOOOONG time lol. I think I've struck a good balance with the versatility of being able to play those cards when needed and sticking them on an Iso (or Metamorph copying Iso, which I don't see anyone doing in Iso-Control decks).

Angel's Grace was in my top tier of possibilities, but I don't see myself ever getting that close to death with this deck. Also, it wouldn't help against infect at all and a lot of my friends play speedy aggro-infect. Overall it just doesn't fit in here, although split-second is extremely sexy.

I figured Tezzy the Seeker was a stupid win-con to have in here, because I don't want to turn my Iso's into beaters and have them tapped. His first 2 abilities are cool but hardly necessary... one Luminarch Ascension will turn into a beater-factory in just 4 turns (because I'm definitely not going to be damaged by anything, lol) and I can search for it with Enlightened Tutors. That's why there's only one. If I had two I could possibly get it out more quickly, but I don't mind making my opponent suffer for a million turns...or just quit, because that's what usually happens.

Phew, sorry for the book haha. And thanks again for the ideas, I may take another look at some dual cards...

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Posted 02 September 2011 at 00:41

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No problem man, I alway s enjoy looking at your decks! Especially the pricey ones hahah I also like the For Budget section you added at the bottom, I think it would be cool if more people did that when they post expensive decks, it's pretty helpful.
As for this deck, I'll take the $80 one lol (must....save up for....fetch lands....pain lands.....kjlakjdkjkdfj)

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Posted 02 September 2011 at 01:17

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sculpting steel can come into play as iso as well. you can have 12 max! lol and you could use some kind of lifegain card to get to 100 life as another (long) win condition also silence has the same ability as orim's chant so you could have more of those... lol fun deck to play check out some of my decks. (click on my name)

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Posted 02 September 2011 at 04:12

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sorry didnt read the budget thing on the desc.

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Posted 02 September 2011 at 04:14

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Haha dude 12 Isochrons would be absolutely ridiculous!

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Posted 02 September 2011 at 10:09

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Could you help me with this deck?
http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=226951

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Posted 02 September 2011 at 05:04

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Absolutely! I like that deck a lot btw

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Posted 02 September 2011 at 08:32

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This deck makes me laugh when I look at it. It's totally intense in locking someone up! I ESPECIALLY like the Metamorphs, as they just love to jones off of whatever is good on the field artifact/creature-wise. Might I can't even think of a useful suggestion for this deck! Excellent!

-Score-
Deck : 10/10
Price: 3/10
Effectiveness: 10/10
"Lulz" factor: 9001/10

Feel free to critique my one and only http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=153232 and let me know what I can do with some easy-to-get cards.

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Posted 02 September 2011 at 08:47

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Thank you man! I especially like the "Lulz" factor rating haha

This deck actually works really well in it's $140-150 range version as well, but that is still a lot of money!

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Posted 02 September 2011 at 08:58

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O_O...... ow.... if this didnt cost a fortune i would SOOO make this deck

1
Posted 02 September 2011 at 09:21

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There's a reason that decks like this cost a gazillion bones lol. Take a look at some Smokestack decks, those things can get pretty ridiculous too!

What really sucks is that these great lands are sooooo expensive. I've never pulled a single fetch or pain land in my life, and they are must buys...so the wallet cries :(

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Posted 02 September 2011 at 09:30

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Aye, that's the painful part. Zoo decks start at $800+, $400 of which are just the lands, the other $400 are just the Tarmogoyfs. So many other decks are like that, too. Like SWN's extractors, $350 of the deck is just one land :P

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Posted 02 September 2011 at 14:56

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Oh god, Tarmogoyf. So freakin' good. SO freakin' expensive.

You could consider this deck relatively cheap compared to a lot of decks on the vault haha

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Posted 03 September 2011 at 23:12

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wow yet another isochron deck. Kill isochron scepter, win. easy enough.

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Posted 02 September 2011 at 13:02

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But can you get past all the control and kill all eight? :D

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Posted 02 September 2011 at 14:55

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there are 4 not 8, for the clones to work you need an a real scepter on the field which means you need to survive until mid game. the control is slow, and one can always play krosan grip, ancient grudge or null rod if fast beatdown and or burn are not enough.

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Posted 02 September 2011 at 19:39

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I assume the reason a lot of people make decks utilizing Isochron is because it is AMAZING.

I don't deny that there are plenty of ways to destroy artifacts, but are you really going to be running 4 Krosan Grip and 4 Ancient Grudge and 4 Null Rods in your sideboard, just in case you come up against an Iso-control deck? Because you would probably need all of that. The control is absolutely not slow! I honestly don't understand how you could even say that lol

You have an answer in Krosan Grip? I could just play another Isochron...anyways, good luck playing that with Orim's Chant being cast on your every upkeep!

Ancient Grudge? Counter. Or play another Isochron.

Null Rod? Counter. Bounce. (Pithing Needle is even better AND cheaper anyway)

Of course there are ways to beat this deck. You could get lucky with those cards you mentioned and kill a few Isochrons/Metamorphs, but that doesn't mean that you would win.

I'm very confident that this deck would take apart Stompy, aggro, and burn. I can't see a situation where burn would even ever be a threat. Extraction and control are probably it's worst match-ups.

I do appreciate the input though!

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Posted 03 September 2011 at 23:25

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How can this deck beat burn? It's an impossible matchup for you. Isochron scepter with chant can't stop burn spells for starters and a good burn deck kills you turn 4 which is just to fast for your deck. You'll be hard casting your spells to stay alive and not play scepters.
The only way you would win is if they run out of cards and you have a scepter with Memory Lapse imprinted and lock them that way.

Anyway I don't have an issue with you I just don't like Isochron scepter in casual decks, and this is a casual deck. It can't beat a tournament legacy deck, ever. And for casual play, people usually don't have sideboards and just suffer being locked out of the game which is ok for one game but it gets boring real fast. It's a deck that forces either yourself to play something else or your opponents to start building specifically to destroy your deck. They have no other option because it's either that or get locked out. I would never build a deck like this for that reason, it's not strong enough to be legacy viable and to strong to be casual and fun. It's also onesided, you can't win without locking your opponent which means if they can break your one strategy you're done with.




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Posted 05 September 2011 at 08:23

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...I've been playing this in Legacy, and it's actually done really well...

I would never play this deck casually. I did a few times when I first made it (it wasn't as complete then as it is now), but that's just because some of my friends really thought that they could beat it...and that didn't last long at all.

I've played this against burn in Legacy (and casual, as mentioned before) and I've never lost. You could chalk it up to luck, but it really wasn't! There are more than enough hard counters to keep me alive long enough to get a lock (not to mention Chill and Spreading Seas really screw red over hard.) I can understand why you would say what you are but it's just simply not the case, at least in my experience.

Ah, and in my casual circle, we all have 15 card sideboards for every single deck we play with...because that's generally what you do, unless you aren't used to playing Magic. So I would go as far to say that in casual play, people usually DO have sideboards...I've never played against anyone that didn't.

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Posted 06 September 2011 at 12:53

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Personally I hate everything about this deck. It works exceptionally well, there really isn't a whole lot of flaws in it. However, that being said I've played against decks like these so many times and there really isn't anything you can do once that combo comes out and it doesn't take long to get out. Great if you want to win, horrible if you want to play magic.

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Posted 02 September 2011 at 14:51

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Haha I hear you. But honestly, horrible is playing against a Flash deck... .. (#$&()#@*$#@()$*(#$

It's true that it's hard to beat this deck once the main combo is online, but it's not impossible!

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Posted 08 September 2011 at 00:13

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Could you help me with this deck? http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=226951

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Posted 02 September 2011 at 19:48

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Why Jace the memory adept? mind sculptor is so much better.

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Posted 02 September 2011 at 22:08

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Because I don't have any Mind Sculptors :'(. I would probably run them over Adept if I had them, or possibly 1 of each. Although, Adept is about 1 turn quicker with his win-con than Mind Sculptor's, but Mind Sculptor's overall ability set is better. He's just so damn expensive!

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Posted 03 September 2011 at 23:37

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hey, u should try the Chrome Mox, it's an oportunity to 1st turn the scepter

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Posted 03 September 2011 at 16:01

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Thanks for the suggestion! I've considered both Chrome Mox and Mox Diamond for mana acceleration, but I've struggled to think of anything to replace. I actually hadn't thought about this in a long time, but you've put it on my mind again... I think I would go with the Diamond over Chrome simply because of the color limitation Chrome would apply, and plus I don't want to exile any cards that could be useful early on.

Okay, I'm going to replace the 3 Lightning Helix (it's kind of silly in here anyway) with 3 Mox Diamond and see how that works out!

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Posted 03 September 2011 at 23:45

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reverberate would be great if you have another Isochron Scepter in play with another instant under it and if you feel the deck can cope with the land loss smallpox would be just evil under the Isochron Scepter.

i could do with some advice on my smallpox deck talking about that, oh and angelic destiny and bloodthirst decks if you would, many thanks indeed.

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Posted 03 September 2011 at 19:06

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Reverberate would be pretty cool on an Isochron, but I want all of the imprintable cards to be ones that I can play even without the Iso. It would suck to have Reverberates stuck in my hand instead of something I can play while my opponent is bashing my face in because I can't control the board while waiting for an Iso!

And Smallpox is a great card, but it's a sorcery. You can only imprint instants on an Iso!

Thanks for the comment! I'll take a look at some of your decks :)

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Posted 03 September 2011 at 23:49

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my bad on the smallpox, and is a big ask for a deck to cope with anyway, and i'm glad u see the benifits of the reverberate but yes i can see your thinking, u dont always have a iso free, thanks and do check the decks, good luck with this one, ive played against them before and they are powerful

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Posted 04 September 2011 at 00:36

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This really looks like a pain to play against, everything but crazy aggro (Goblins and Affinity) is in some serious trouble. I would suggest an instant, but your list has everything that came to mind.

Question: can you kick an Orim's Chant again and again if it is imprinted on an Isochron Scepter?

Give my decks a look please, especially "Legacy Goblins". Thanks.

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Posted 04 September 2011 at 00:24

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Yes! After you copy Orim's Chant with Isochron, you may pay it's kicker cost when you cast the 'free' copy, because kicker costs are paid as you cast. This makes playing a kicked Orim's Chant more expensive by one mana, but it doesn't matter if you're doing it every turn haha. Orim's Chant is the big "fuck you" in this deck to aggro.

Thanks for the comment! I'll definitely check out that Goblin deck

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Posted 04 September 2011 at 01:39

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Remand has always been a favorite of mine, but you may have forgotten Arcane Denial. You can turn any spell you cast into Ancestral Recall for the cost of [2], and the card advantage from that is sick (every Brainstorm type thing you draw becomes an Inspiration plus an extra card).

Once you're in business, Arcane Denial is also a hard counter against your opponent's spells. You should proxy a set and give it a try! :)

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Posted 04 September 2011 at 03:31

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This is one of the most interesting suggestions I've seen. Countering my own spells to draw 3 cards... I just don't know if I want to be countering my own stuff! It would be awesome if the 2 card draw was mandatory, that way I'd be making my opponent discard constantly by countering his spells. I may have to proxy some and see what's up.

Thanks for the suggestion!

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Posted 08 September 2011 at 00:11

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So many combos. Very impressive. I'd love some input on my new legacy goblin deck: http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=229571

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Posted 04 September 2011 at 07:47

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You should take out remand or memory lapse for Counterspell, its the better version of both those cards

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Posted 07 September 2011 at 00:39

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In this deck, Remand and Memory Lapse > Counterspell. By far! Counterspell is technically the better version of Cancel - actually that's backwards...Cancel is the shitty version of Counterspell.

Memory Lapse = they will never draw something new

Remand = they will probably have to discard at some point (especially with Boomerang), AND I get to draw a card? That's just sick.

I appreciate the enthusiasm for Counterspell though, it is an amazing classic counter!

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Posted 07 September 2011 at 01:32

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and add in vigor's amulet so you can untap isochron scepter =p

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Posted 07 September 2011 at 00:40

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Amulet of Vigor doesn't help Isochron, because Isochron doesn't come into play tapped.

I toyed around with the idea of Voltaic Keys for a long time but there isn't enough room...I've spent a lot of time balancing this deck. Unwinding Clock was a thought as well but it's CMC is too high and it would only be really useful with a few imprinted cards.

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Posted 07 September 2011 at 01:36

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Chewrida has deleted this comment.

Posted 07 September 2011 at 00:47

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Chewrida has deleted this comment.

Posted 07 September 2011 at 00:56

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haha yea i meant voltiac key sorry, but yea i can understand that, but trading out one of your counters for just counterspell i still think might be a good idea

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Posted 07 September 2011 at 02:43

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And btw man I like this deck for sure, has a great idea behind it of making the opponent able to do nothing. And if you have time I'd like to hear some feedback on what ya think of some of my decks, I'm always open to suggestions and constructive criticism

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Posted 07 September 2011 at 17:07

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Cool deck. One of my all-time fav cards is the Isochron. The most evil imprint has to be Timewalk.

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Posted 07 September 2011 at 19:34

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Yes. If only Time Walk wasn't banned in Legacy and didn't cost over $400 apiece :(!!!!

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Posted 07 September 2011 at 22:46

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Nice deck. Please check and comment mine U/R ;)

http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=230806

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Posted 09 September 2011 at 11:33

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Check out my new Legacy Hive-Mind combo deck! Comments are WELCOME

http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=231517

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Posted 09 September 2011 at 14:05

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i will, could you check my bloodthirst deck and my smallpox deck as i think there so close but still posing a few questions, cheers.

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Posted 10 September 2011 at 20:11

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