This build is my own spin on the kobold concept. Cheerios is most traditionally a kobold-based storm deck, using a big storm spell to beat your opponent: Tendrils of Agony, Brain Freeze, or
Grapeshot
. Each kill has their own perks in terms of either mana efficiency (GS/BF) or necessary storm count (ToA). Also, with the possibility of fizzling out on the storm combo or getting hit with Flusterstorm, many leave a secondary win condition with Beastmaster Ascension in the list.
That being said, I think that Laboratory Maniac is a better option to win with in this deck. Its greatest strength is in its ability to win at instant speed (which none of the other decks possess, since Brain Freeze still requires a draw, and makes decks like Sneak and Show more difficult to defeat). This is accomplished through cycling
Street Wraith
after youve drawn out the entire deck. A nice touch on this is that by running four of them, its much easier to respond to any kind of removal they have (including multiple Swords to Plowshares or Abrupt Decay) by having more answers in hand. Just be careful of the life count!
It's important that, as you're drawing through the deck and setting up to win, you make sure to hold Autumn's Veil until you're reasonably sure you can combo out. Since theres only one copy in the deck, your only real chance if you squander it is to hope for no counterspells in hand (checking with Gitaxian Probe is nice, and also is a splendid cantrip) or bring it back to hand with Noxious Revival. With the testing Ive done so far, NR does incredibly well in this deck. One scary reality is having the maniac as the bottom card of your library, and not being able to win. Ive found that by using the revivals, you can counteract the Glimpse count enough to squeeze in the win (assuming you didnt have to go higher than 2 glimpses to win try to steer clear of that, if possible).
The scariest part of this deck is the number of available mana sources. On one hand, it might be hard to get a mana source in hand (14 potential sources in the entire deck). On the other hand, you really dont want to flood yourself with mana sources when you try to combo out. Ive looked at using some of the other potential mana sources (Lion's Eye Diamond, Mox Diamond,
Mox Opal
, and I think each has a drawback that makes it too risky to play with this deck. Though the color wheel says differently, functionally this is only a Green and Blue combo deck.
Ive experimented quite a bit with using Chalice of the Void
+
Multani's Presence
as a secondary drawing engine, and as much as I like the ridiculousness of it I find it to be too unreliable and clunky to guarantee a win. With this route you have to use
Grapeshot
because its difficult to guarantee the mana for any other option, and since you are countering all of the little guys you cant go with an aggro finish either. So while its explosive, and sometimes awesome I cant justify using it. Chalice is good (and devastating against this deck), but its really tough to justify. I may leave the presences as a sideboard option against decks that run Chalice in SB, though, if it becomes a real problem.
One last, and very important, note is to keep track of the count of cards in your library. Generally speaking, you want to end the game with playing Laboratory Maniac (drawing you to 0 cards in library), playing a 0 costing creature, and holding your remaining Street Wraiths to respond at instant speed. Much like storm decks, you are constantly having to keep track of a number. Storm count is important in storm kills, but number of cards remaining in this deck is just as crucial.
Anyways, thanks for the look, and please feel free to give any comments/ideas/advice!
