Earliest Possible Win: Turn 1
-1 land or Simian Spirit Guide, 1 Simian Spirit Guide, 3 of any combination of Simian Spirit Guide, Pyretic Ritual, or Desperate Ritual, 1 Through the Breach, 1 of either Protean Hulk or Summoner's Pact
Typical Turn 2 Win Hand:
-2 Land, 2 mana-ramp cards, 1 Through the Breach, 1 Protean Hulk or Summoner's Pact, 1 of any other non-mana producing card (draw into another mana ramp card).
Deck usually goes off turn 3 or 4. Mulligan any hand starting with more than 1
Disciple of the Vault
or an Arcbound Ravager.
Full Combo: Cast Through the Breach dropping Protean Hulk. Swing (if there is no risk of it being exiled from attacking or other similar shenanigans). Cast any 0 cost artifacts in your hand during second main phase. During end step, Protean Hulk is sacrificed. Search for all 0 cost artifact creatures, all
Disciple of the Vault
s, and one Arcbound Ravager. Sacrifice all artifacts to Arcbound Ravager to kill your opponent directly with
Disciple of the Vault
triggers.
Current Issues to Consider
-Stony Silence shuts down the deck.
-Thalia, Guardian of Thraben slows the deck to a crawl unless you draw multiple Simian Spirit Guides.
-If you are against a beatdown deck that goes first, you almost always need to win before their turn 4.
-Sideboard needs work.
-If your combo gets shut down, there is absolutely no backup plan, given the fact that you can't even cast 8 of the cards in the deck.
-If you don't win the same turn you cast Summoner's Pact, you will lose to it.
Playtesting Notes
-Deck seems to need more card draw. Manamorphose? Faithless Looting? Gitaxian Probe?
-Memnite is in sideboard for
Martyr of Sands
deck. That being said, I have yet to play against one...
-No enchantment destruction in sideboard, and no real options for enchantment destruction in an RU deck... Makes Stony Silence just too perfect of a counter. How to respond....?
-Purpose of Spell Pierce is to respond to countermagic and potential combo-stopping cards. However, most common combo-stopping cards seem to be creatures lately... Would Remand or Spell Snare be a better option, as they would cover both creatures and Stony Silence?
-Tormod's Crypt is to shut down other combo decks, since many utilize the graveyard. That being said, combo decks seem to be out since the most recent set of bans... still useful against Tarmagoyf decks, but is it worth it? Would Lightning Bolt be a better option?
-Pyroclasm is perfect for the sideboard against most beatdown decks. Would adding a 4th be beneficial?
-Would Peer Through Depths be better than
Eerie Procession
? Or maybe even better than Serum Visions or
Sleight of Hand
? It could potentially find either combo card, since it could find a Summoner's Pact as well.
-If this deck is going for speed and consistency, could Gemstone Cavern have a place in it, or would needing to remove a card from your hand actually slow the deck down?
