Summary (Iteration #2, June 17, 2017):
An attempt at converting modern living end to a competitive legacy living end list. We run 2 elvish + 1 simian spirit guide to accelerate into turn 2 living end if need be (elvish for blood moon lock). We run 4 Force of Wills to compete against faster combo and other counterspells. We thus have a blue-centric cycling list. Amonkhet has provided us with the best cycler, Curator of Mysteries. This is huge in providing a higher blue count for force of will, providing a mid/lategame body to cast, and allowing us to focus on the blue cyclers for better mana. We also run 1 Vendilion Clique in case we draw all 3 Living End's so we can tuck 1 Living End to the bottom. Clique is also interaction against control decks and decks like storm (if we survive till turn 2-3).
Sideboard Discussion:
SB is dedicated to gy hate, and lock piece hate, creature/hatebear removal, and a minor transformative sb. 2 Krosan Grip is for Rest in Peace / Leyline of the Void / Chalice of the Void. Ingot chewer is phenomenal against Eldrazi/Stax/D&T/trinisphere deck. 3 Leyline of the Void is brought in against dredge, reanimator, lands, ANT, RUG delver. Storm can certainly power through a force of will. The main goal is to sideboard in leylines to buy some time with graveyard hate. Other pieces of small interaction include vendilion clique, beast within on lands, and misdirection on duresses. It is also appropriate to consider that you can hold cyclers in your hand such that you cycle into a potential force of will only after they go all-in on infernal tutor.
Minor Transformative/side-plan SB:
Amonkhet provided another huge sideboard plan. The past idea was to play delve creatures like Tasigur, which we could accelerate out on turn 2-3. But Drake Haven (!) is far better for a few reasons. 1) it is an alternative win con that turns all your cyclers into 2/2 fliers - if it resolves, it can certainly take over matches in the delver or control games. 2) It plays through graveyard hate like rest in peace, relic of progenitus, leyline of the void, and deathrite shaman. 3) It is incredibly hard to deal with for control decks - the benefit of a brew is that they won't bring in disenchant effects and I suspect decay decks will take out decays against the >3cmc cyclers, so drake haven sticking is pretty effective.
Resiliency and Play to the Deck:
This deck is quite resilient in a few ways. 1) It is very consistent like the modern version. It cycles, seeing many cards, and each game does the same thing of cascading into living end. It goes off on average on turn 3 with close-to lethal power on board, but can definitely go off on turn 2 with 9-11 power on board.2) It has redundancy in cycling and its manabase is at its best in this current iteration. A basic island is tutorable via Shoreline Ranger (seems jank, but is actually very very good against blood moon/D&T taxing, etc and is force of will fodder at worst). Elvish/Simian spirit guides provide an extra push in mana when necessary. 3) Playing a blue-centric force of will deck is huge for living end. Being able to cascade into living end with force of will backup is great. Even if the living end + force is countered. There are 1-2 living ends still left in the deck so any other cascade spell will let you go off again. In that manner, you are much less "all-in", and it's hard for you to be blown out by counterspells since your deck is very redundant.4) Getting to play green for Beast Within in the mainboard is also huge because it lets you answer problematic mainboard cards like deathrite shaman (which is uber prevalent in this Grixis Delver/BUG midrange meta). However, deathrite shaman can very easily be overloaded if you cycle all at once. Thus, Beast Within can be a catch-all answer to more problematic, random mainboard hate like chalice of the void on cmc 0 or even blowing up Tabernacle.
Note on certain plays to the deck:1) The worst possible scenario is to get living end countered, then surgical-extraction'ed. This version of the deck, however, still has game by making land drops and casting Curator of Mysteries and dumb 4-5 cmc creatures. Just be careful not to let it get to that point. BUT in matchups like Delver where they bring in surgical's, you should have Drake Haven!2) Living end'ing for 3 creatures on turn 2 is still very good against certain decks. Putting 9-11 power on the board on turn 2 can be a fast clock for decks like D&T, and is strongly advised against decks like Storm. 3) Focus on mana efficiency and getting creatures into your graveyard fast by cycling through your deck. In doing this, consider how you tap your lands. Use street wraith first before fetching so you can have more info on what lands you want.
Contact and Testing
If you'd like to test, please buddy list or reach out to me on Cockatrice. My username is Continuum!
(Previous Iteration of the deck: Match Record)
-2 wins, 2 losses Storm- 3 wins, 2 losses Show/Tell- 5 wins, 1 loss Death/Taxes- 1 win, 0 losses WR Imperial Death/Taxes- 2 wins, 1 loss G/R Lands- 2 wins, 4 losses Infect (tough MU, not worth trying to improve too much; bring in Dismembers, kill creatures on their turn, play safe, and living end for 6 power = still a fast clock).- 4 wins, 4 losses Miracles (Krosan Grip's help from sb and try to keep up FoW for the right cards i.e. terminus rather than getting 1 living end countered... you have 2 more left in the deck).- 2 win, 0 losses U/R Standstill (getting cascade stifled is WAY better than getting living end countered).- 3 wins, 0 losses Big Red (landcycling + basics make it winnable, hold Beast Within for chalice on 0)- 7 wins, 3 losses Eldrazi (so many people play this deck on cockatrice...)- 1 win, 0 loss Miracles (weird list that maindecks RiP + Energy Field)- 4 wins, 2 losses Stax (winnable with 4 ingot chewers from sb)- 2 win, 0 losses Bant Stoneblade (most midrangey noble hiearch decks have a tough time against living end).- 1 win, 0 losses Esper Mentor- 1 win, 2 losses RUG Delver- 0 win, 2 losses Grixis Delver (hardest matchup due to DRS, delver, FoW, daze)- 4 wins, 2 losses Burn (early living end, do NOT use street wraiths if possible)- 2 wins, 1 loss Jund (easy matchup, but bring in all Krosan Grip/Beast Within against Leyline of the Void)- 1 win, 0 losses Goblins (relatively easy matchup - prepare for Rest in Peace and bring in Krosan Grip type answers).- 3 post-board game wins, 2 pre-board game losses Shardless BUG
