Land (24)
Sorcery (16)
Creature (8)
Instant (12)
Sideboard
Artifact (3)
Enchantment (3)
Land (2)
Maybeboard
Creature (6)
Sorcery (4)
Riding the coattails of Squee_Spirit_Guide and Andramalech, I’d like to leech off their goodwill and ingratiate myself as a third wheel into their collaborative build-athon.
Of course, as I was not formally invited and am instead a party crasher of sorts, it goes without saying that each of their builds should be judged on their own merits and in no way ought mine to be factored in. I just so happened to be tagged by name in one of their dialogue exchanges discussing the proposed collaboration, and couldn’t resist joining in on the fun. So I picked a Magus, shoehorned it into an appropriate ‘work in progress’ shell and slapped the finishing touches on it. Enjoy!
This was by far the hardest part of the design process. Building an effective and consistent tri-color mana base is no small task, and to make matters worse I had the added stipulation of the end result needing to be budget friendly looming overhead.
•Shivan Reef, Sulfurous Springs and Clearwater Pathway are our workhorses, and are a decent compromise in lieu of über expensive duals, fetches or shocklands.
•Reliquary Tower is here owing to utility rather than the generic mana it generates. The limitless hand it permits will contribute toward our wincon, once everything else falls into place.
•A smattering of basic Grixis lands as a safeguard against Blood Moon effects is also included.
The answer involves a plethora of interactions revolving around Notion Thief. As a general rule this little rogue is weak and prone to removal, so it’s best to flash him in as necessary. Also, be prepared to lean heavily on our removal and countermagic as it’s likely he’ll become a priority for ‘planned obsolescence’ by your opponent. This is also why we run a full four copies, he being a central pillar to our entire operation.
To unlock Notion Thief’s true potential, we need draw spells. Not the typical 1 pip for 1 card spells that are oh-so-carefully balanced; no, we want to open the floodgates. All the usual drawbacks associated with big card advantage instead turn into boons, courtesy of Notion Thief.
Take Burning Inquiry for example. While it is true we will have to discard 3 cards at random, so will our opponent. The difference is we will get to draw our 3 cards, then draw their 3 cards, while they still have to discard 3 cards. It is truly the very definition of adding insult to injury.
•Magus of the Wheel has indeed brought gifts; a myriad of fresh cards for us, naught but emptiness and anguish for our opponent. Activating his ability effectively doubles our hand size while consigning your opponent’s hand (and hopes for the future) to the great beyond.
•Collective Defiance’s first option functions much the same. Watch the cards fall through their fingers like grains of sand, while you draw just as many.
•Prismari Command enjoys syndication in this stage of the game, as the second option nets us 2 cards while forcing the opponent to discard two. All the payoff with none of the work!
The Wincon Show
•With a Conflagrate waiting in the graveyard, flash in Notion Thief. You may wish to stretch your arms and fingers, as you’ll be doing quite a bit of repetitious reaching to and from your library…
•Brandishing a fistful of wheel effect spells, capitalize on the depraved and amoral one-two punch of stealing your opponent’s draws and forcing them to do the discarding, culminating in a meteoric blast from Conflagrate that will leave a smoking crater where their life total once was. Then sit back and watch your beleaguered opponent lamenting the fact they haven’t held a card for much of the game.
•Torpor Orb blocks irritating ETB’s, of which there are many in Vintage.
•Bojuka Bog for graveyard hate, and having access to another source of is never a bad thing.
•Pithing Needle goes a step further than Torpor Orb in shutting down abilities post summoning.
•Surgical Extraction cherry picks nuisances away.
•Grafdigger's Cage makes life a nightmare for Reanimation decks and graveyard-centric strategies.
•Nahiri's Wrath and Baleful Mastery for some good old fashioned creature removal, with the former almost certainly being a boardwipe while the latter’s alternate cost is particularly spiteful. Yes, I could run Boros Reckoner and target it with Nahiri’s Wrath, reflecting that lethal damage directly at the opponent, but I already have a Boros Reckoner deck and didn’t want to cross my streams, as it were.
•Sphinx's Tutelage is a nice little alternate wincon. Stick one early, and once the draws start flooding in sit back and watch your opponent’s library be erased two cards at a time.
•Find Squee_Spirit_Guide’s challenge build here: I'm not dead, you're dead!
As regards the Maybeboard, these are leftovers from a previous iteration of the shell before reappropriating it for this impromptu buttinski Magus build. I’ve left them here to show I am aware of them, were anyone thinking of suggesting them.
”To the wheels—to them was made the cry—O whirling wheel! in mine ears.”
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91% Casual
Competitive
| Top Ranked |
|
| Date added | 2 years |
| Last updated | 1 month |
| Legality | This deck is Vintage legal. |
| Rarity (main - side) | 0 - 3 Mythic Rares 30 - 7 Rares 10 - 3 Uncommons 10 - 2 Commons |
| Cards | 60 |
| Avg. CMC | 2.06 |
| Tokens | Treasure |
| Folders | Vintage, Cool decks |
| Votes | |
| Ignored suggestions | |
| Shared with | |
| Views |
Revision 4 See all
(2 years ago)
| +2 | Bojuka Bog | side |
| +2 | Burning Inquiry | main |
| -1 | Clearwater Pathway Flip | main |
| +1 | Conflagrate | main |
| -1 | Dismember | side |
| -1 | Grafdigger's Cage | side |
| +3 | Nahiri's Wrath | side |
| -1 | Relic of Progenitus | side |
| +1 | Reliquary Tower | main |
| -4 | Stormfist Crusader | main |
| -1 | Torpor Orb | side |
| +1 | Turbulent Dreams | maybe |
| +1 | Winds of Change | maybe |