"Exhausted Knowledge" Hardlock
For lack of a better name (if anyone has a better name, please let me know)
1. Introduction
Hello there! If you're anywhere near normal, you probably clicked on this thread not expecting much. In fact, once you saw the picture of Knowledge Pool, you probably shook and shivered in fear of how bad this idea is. However, this hardlock was relatively unknown, or at least hardly played, or a bit of both that contribute to the fact that enough people seemed to think that it deserved a primer. Including me.
First, an explanation of how the lock works:
1. Get Curse of Exhaustion and Knowledge Pool out at the same time. Preferably Curse of Exhaustion first, as Knowledge Pool will mess with your ability to cast spells.
2. With Curse of Exhaustion attached to your opponent (or yourself, if you choose), they are not able to cast more than one spell per turn. Combine this with Knowledge Pool, which forces the first spell to be exiled and the next to be uncastable, and they cannot cast spells from their hand whatsoever.
3. Profit. Magic becomes a one-player game.
Now that you know a bit about the deck, let's take a look at viable card choices to make this competitive.
2. Card Choices Explained
Before we start, I'd like to just say that the fact that this lock can be played in any color combination with white in it will make it difficult for me to cover them all without missing any, so I'll be focusing on the cards for the colors this has the best chance to be viable in (G, U, and W). Other than that, you probably are going to have to tweak it to what you think is best. Please, feel free to add to the thread anything that I may have missed. I'll try to update the primer as soon as possible.
Curse of Exhaustion - A card with its own merits, even without the lock. This shuts down Snapcaster Mage, as well as flashing back within the same turn.
Knowledge Pool - The other piece of the lock. This one is less playable (close to not playable at all) when Curse of Exhaustion isn't out. Probably don't need 4 in any build involving blue because of Treasure Mage, but other builds may need more.
G Birds of Paradise - Probably our only truly viable green one drop. Gives us any color we need.
U Phantasmal Bear - Great for aggressive starts, and is highly synergistic with Grand Architect. Fits into the Tempo-ish builds very nicely.
Delver of Secrets - Turn two flipped-Delver is probably in contention for, if not already, the best play in Standard at the moment. We probably don't run as many instant or sorcery spells he'd like, but we cannot discount such a powerful card that has the potential to win games by himself.
W Salvage Scout - Not very impressive, but its there I guess. Can fetch a Knowledge Pool that got killed by a flashbacked Ancient Grudge, but that's pretty much the extent of his use. Probably a bad idea to play him. Play Buried Ruin if you want the effect.
X Signal Pest - Good for aggro-oriented builds I guess. Probably not the kind of card we want.
Snapcaster Mage - Ponder flashback is nice, as is Vapor Snag flashback. Too powerful to ignore, its pretty much taken blue decks by storm.
W
Nothing notable. Many of the mana costs are too restrictive to warrant inclusion.
X Spellskite - Like the condom of defensive-oriented decks. This thing protects your junk like nobodies business. Its picture promotes this cause. Relates well to Grand Architect builds especially, but is pretty nice regardless.
Myr Superion - Can be cast off of Grand Architect and miscellaneous mana dorks. Not a 4-of unless you tailor your deck to specifically be able to handle his drawback.
Phyrexian Revoker - Probably a sideboard card, he shuts down stuff that needs shutting down such as problematic planeswalkers and artifacts.
G
Nothing of note.
U Grand Architect - Powers artifacts out, and serves as a lord effect for all blue creatures. Very good for our deck, considering that white is an allied color of blue. Should be strongly considered.
Treasure Mage - Searches for Knowledge Pool. Tutors are good, especially when we want the card that we search, and can often cast it the turn it is revealed with Grand Architect. Allows us to run less Knowledge Pools, which is a plus as well.
W Fiend Hunter - Double white is daunting. It does shift the board considerably though.
Mirran Crusader - Double white is still daunting. However, it completely rolls over a lot of decks with double strike and relevant protections. Good beatdown card.
U Frost Titan - Can protect the lock pretty well from control. Locking down that singleton green source that was used for Ancient Grudge flashback could be pretty useful.
Beast Within - Instant speed permanent removal. For the more midrange and control builds, its probably a good idea to have either this or Oblivion Ring.
Tempered Steel - This particular lock probably doesn't offer much room for innovation of such an aggressive deck as-is. Perhaps we'll see a new variant arise from this? A control version perhaps?
Day of Judgment - Lost some power with the advent of the Undying mechanic, but the fact of the matter is it is still the best Wrath of God effect in standard. Almost universally great.
Oblivion Ring - Playing white? Most builds probably want at least a couple, unless their aggro-oriented.
Grafdigger's Cage - In decks without any interaction with the library or graveyard, this is pretty good. Keep in mind that it does not shut off lands like Moorland Haunt, so you can still use those.
Ratchet Bomb - This card has really started to shine as of late with the Standard atmosphere becoming aggro-friendly. The bane of tokens, werewolves, and pretty much anything the runs cheap permanents, it often functions as a largely one-sided sweeper that can be splashed by any deck.
Karn Liberated - A phenomenal finisher in a control-based list. Exiling green sources for a flashbacked Ancient Grudge seals the game away.
Batterskull - Recurring lifegain and blocker that can be attached to other stuff. Aggro hates this card, as does control. Pretty good all-around inclusion in any midrange to control variant.
Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas - He sifts for artifacts. One of the lock pieces is an artifact. Another card he finds is Spellskite, a protector. Pretty good, and warrants a splash into black.
Buried Ruin - Salvage Scout's ability, only it doesn't take up a slot. Pretty good in any build with artifacts. Lessens in greatness if the only reason its there is to get Knowledge Pools back.
So, now that we know the choices available to us (I'll add the other colors later, as it seems that there is reason to go into red and black), we can take a look at some of the archetypes to rise out of this.
Within the primer so far, we have the following archetypes:
UWx Control
UBx Control (includes Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas variants)
UW Tempo (with or without Grand Architect)
Turbofog
Gx Birthing Pod
Solar Flare
Humans (GW or UW)
My current list is the one located in the UW Tempo section. I will be updating more as I see more lists.
4. Archetype Consensuses
This section will be updated with the strengths and weaknesses of each archetype as we go along in the development of decks that utilize the lock. For now, it will remain empty.
Also, I need a break. Typing all that took a while. I'm going to be participating in the thread discussion for a bit.
P.S. Mods, if the [Primer] tag wasn't okay, I apologize.
P.S.S. Please forgive the double post, I wasn't sure if there was a max length for a thread post.
A lot of card choices but I'm really liking the idea, it seems like a lot of fun! Can't wait to see a potential decklist!!!
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-If I was that Mike Long, my DCI rating would be higher.-
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Love it, I used to play a rule of law lock deck with spellburst while they were legal so this appeals to me greatly.
Ideas
A singeleton mindslaver might be cool to be treasure maged up, to offer alternate win con and a way to force them to play their win con into an active knowledge pool lock where you can tax it.
Names
"Cursed Knowledge", "Pool of Exhaustion",
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Smile your day could be worse, so I did smile and it was worse.
I definitely agree that this combo belongs in a U/W/x control list. Basically, sweepers and counters until you drop the combo pieces. I would probably splash red for Whipflare and Slagstorm just to deal with a meta full of fast aggro.
Updated primer. Artifacts to come. Decklists after. Post any decklists you may have here. I'll be taking samples of what archetypes we can anticipate using this lock and put them in the primer. Gotta eat first.
Even if you get the combo out, it requires you to have control of the board; this suggests to me that a pile of main deck sweepers would be good; it may be good to splash into Black or Red. It also increases the need for cards like Vapor Snag and also Silent Departure, and if you have hardlocked them out Snapcaster Mage is just as good a win condition as any.
Considering esper control with bitterheart for tutoring up the curse or I suppose diabolic tutor "could" work. This also allows for black sun's zenith and more removal. Solemen simulacrum should then be an auto include for mana fixing and chumping. Sphere of the sun's is a great artifact and ramp or mana lithe for being useful for longer.
I think you could also consider Counterlash and noxious revival in the deck. Would be a way to cheat them into play and help them get back to your hand if they are get countered. Counterlash could also go well with the Shape Anew + Blightsteel Colossus gameplan.
I hope this deck can get somewhere. It looks like a lot of fun!
A single Increasing Ambition is possibly your best option for finding Exhaustion. With Snapcaster it's Flashback is slightly cheaper and you get both of your combo pieces.
Here is my quick take on a decklist. I'm not sure how I feel about Mindslaver in there but can lock them out with Buried Ruin and Noxious Revivals. I feel it will also need some more counterspells, atleast in the SB, for control as that will probably be a bad matchup.
This particular lock would be awesome in a U/W/x control shell as others have spoken of. One of the interesting parts is that a combo piece is an artifact, and one that you don't want to run many of. This makes me think of Tezzeret.
A Tezzeret list could cast an end of turn Forbidden Alchemy and then untap, draw, and cast Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas and activate his first ability, and in one turn cycle have dug ten cards deep for the pool (Alchemy is 4, draw step is one, Tez is 5).
Section 2 is finished. More to come. I'm going to start taking decklists that have been posted and seem viable archetypes. Also, I'm going to start a poll for the name soon.
I would probably include SoWaP instead of FaF, but I don't have those. Also, the landbase is a little strange because I don't have the 4th Seachrome or the 4th Isolated Chapel.
Other than that, it's the shell of the old Koldatha Forgemaster deck that I believe Juza was winning with for a short while.
Im definitely feeling the u/w/x control lists for this shell, mostly because I want to be able to run faithless looting to have something to do with extra copies of Curse of Exhaustion. I also think that this lock-combo should take a back seat to a solid control game plan....
You'll notice my inclusion of all the tap effects (dungeon Geist, frost titan, tumble magnet).. These types of cards let you slam your combo down before worrying about clearing the board. If they only have a couple of permanents out, you should have no problem breaking the downside of knowledge pool with multiple threats that have the same type of built in answer.
Splashing Solely for faithless looting doesn't feel like a natural fit, but I think with this shell card quality is more important than card advantage. Faithless looting is great for digging for your combo pieces, as well as something reasonable to do with multiple copies of your combo pieces.
Lingering Souls feels like it could be in here as well... Its a great card to buy you a couple turns to get your gear together, but its just further stretching the mana base.
I could see this combo fit easily into a U/W Control list, especially Pristine Talisman control with MB Timely Reinforcements to hose aggro. Just toss in 4 Treasure Mage for tutor purposes and only 1-2 Knowledge Pool is needed.
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Just a question. Apart from stopping them play spells, how does this win? By mill? Because remember, you can only cast spells from the top 3 of each deck aswell... so, for example, in the list above, do you just hope you have already landed, or will flip over a Frost Titan?
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Temporarily retired from the game
Thanks a bunch to Rivenor from Miraculous Recovery Signatures for the awesome sigpic!
Just a question. Apart from stopping them play spells, how does this win? By mill? Because remember, you can only cast spells from the top 3 of each deck aswell... so, for example, in the list above, do you just hope you have already landed, or will flip over a Frost Titan?
The thing with this deck at this stage of development is that this question is rather hard to answer. I'm sure there will be those that dedicate the deck to the lock itself, which I feel is probably incorrect. The fact that the only requirement of the lock is that you are running white gives it a really broad range of decks that people can fit it in. For example, my UW Tempo adaptation has a primary gameplan of aggro-ness, with the combo as a goal as well. In UWx control builds, it may be trying to slam down the combo late game and have their opponent watch them as their Snapcaster Mage runs in unopposed. In a Turbofog build, sure, it may look to mill.
What the lock does not do for you is you the game outright; what the lock does do is make the game so much of a solitaire that its really hard to lose.
For lack of a better name (if anyone has a better name, please let me know)
1. Introduction
Hello there! If you're anywhere near normal, you probably clicked on this thread not expecting much. In fact, once you saw the picture of Knowledge Pool, you probably shook and shivered in fear of how bad this idea is. However, this hardlock was relatively unknown, or at least hardly played, or a bit of both that contribute to the fact that enough people seemed to think that it deserved a primer. Including me.
First, an explanation of how the lock works:
1. Get Curse of Exhaustion and Knowledge Pool out at the same time. Preferably Curse of Exhaustion first, as Knowledge Pool will mess with your ability to cast spells.
2. With Curse of Exhaustion attached to your opponent (or yourself, if you choose), they are not able to cast more than one spell per turn. Combine this with Knowledge Pool, which forces the first spell to be exiled and the next to be uncastable, and they cannot cast spells from their hand whatsoever.
3. Profit. Magic becomes a one-player game.
Now that you know a bit about the deck, let's take a look at viable card choices to make this competitive.
2. Card Choices Explained
Before we start, I'd like to just say that the fact that this lock can be played in any color combination with white in it will make it difficult for me to cover them all without missing any, so I'll be focusing on the cards for the colors this has the best chance to be viable in (G, U, and W). Other than that, you probably are going to have to tweak it to what you think is best. Please, feel free to add to the thread anything that I may have missed. I'll try to update the primer as soon as possible.
Curse of Exhaustion - A card with its own merits, even without the lock. This shuts down Snapcaster Mage, as well as flashing back within the same turn.
Knowledge Pool - The other piece of the lock. This one is less playable (close to not playable at all) when Curse of Exhaustion isn't out. Probably don't need 4 in any build involving blue because of Treasure Mage, but other builds may need more.
G
Birds of Paradise - Probably our only truly viable green one drop. Gives us any color we need.
Avacyn's Pilgrim - Birds of Paradise 5-8.
U
Phantasmal Bear - Great for aggressive starts, and is highly synergistic with Grand Architect. Fits into the Tempo-ish builds very nicely.
Delver of Secrets - Turn two flipped-Delver is probably in contention for, if not already, the best play in Standard at the moment. We probably don't run as many instant or sorcery spells he'd like, but we cannot discount such a powerful card that has the potential to win games by himself.
Vedalken Certarch - Pretty "meh" here, but he does work with Grand Architect and could be pretty useful when metalcraft is on. Consider for Grand Architect builds.
W
Salvage Scout - Not very impressive, but its there I guess. Can fetch a Knowledge Pool that got killed by a flashbacked Ancient Grudge, but that's pretty much the extent of his use. Probably a bad idea to play him. Play Buried Ruin if you want the effect.
X
Signal Pest - Good for aggro-oriented builds I guess. Probably not the kind of card we want.
G
Dawntreader Elk - Probably the most viable green two drop, if at all. Its not as susceptible to Vapor Snag as Viridian Emissary.
Viridian Emissary - Could be useful, but with the surge in the usage of Vapor Snag, its not as useful as it used to be.
U
Lord of the Unreal - Great for the aggro-oriented builds. Can provide you with hexproof Grand Architect mana sources.
Merfolk Looter - Grand Architect fodder as well as the ability to sift through your deck. Pretty good.
Phantasmal Image - Lord of the Unreal.
Snapcaster Mage - Ponder flashback is nice, as is Vapor Snag flashback. Too powerful to ignore, its pretty much taken blue decks by storm.
W
Nothing notable. Many of the mana costs are too restrictive to warrant inclusion.
X
Spellskite - Like the condom of defensive-oriented decks. This thing protects your junk like nobodies business. Its picture promotes this cause. Relates well to Grand Architect builds especially, but is pretty nice regardless.
Myr Superion - Can be cast off of Grand Architect and miscellaneous mana dorks. Not a 4-of unless you tailor your deck to specifically be able to handle his drawback.
Phyrexian Revoker - Probably a sideboard card, he shuts down stuff that needs shutting down such as problematic planeswalkers and artifacts.
G
Nothing of note.
U
Grand Architect - Powers artifacts out, and serves as a lord effect for all blue creatures. Very good for our deck, considering that white is an allied color of blue. Should be strongly considered.
Treasure Mage - Searches for Knowledge Pool. Tutors are good, especially when we want the card that we search, and can often cast it the turn it is revealed with Grand Architect. Allows us to run less Knowledge Pools, which is a plus as well.
Trinket Mage - Can search up a toolbox of stuff, including Sylvok Lifestaff, Nihil Spellbomb, and Hex Parasite.
Civilized Scholar - Merfolk Looter 5-8 that can beat face.
W
Fiend Hunter - Double white is daunting. It does shift the board considerably though.
Mirran Crusader - Double white is still daunting. However, it completely rolls over a lot of decks with double strike and relevant protections. Good beatdown card.
Blade Splicer - Beats Mirran Crusader. Also a good beatdown card.
X
Palladium Myr - It ramps I guess.
G
Thrun, the Last Troll - Good versus control.
Tree of Redemption - Good versus aggro.
U
Frost Titan - Can protect the lock pretty well from control. Locking down that singleton green source that was used for Ancient Grudge flashback could be pretty useful.
Phyrexian Metamorph - An artifact clone. Can be used to set up a Mindslaver lock in conjunction with Mimic Vat.
Consecrated Sphinx - Another card that can just lock the game down, or help you draw into the lock, or... well, drawing cards seems good.
W
Hero of Bladehold - Pretty good in any kind of white-oriented beatdown builds.
Sun Titan - Tempting in any deck tempted to run Phantasmal Image. Also good for recurring dead beaters. Probably wanted in a more control-type build.
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite - Beats most of the field when it lands (realistically speaking, control just isn't as good right now). Wins games quickly.
Stonehorn Dignitary - Can lock anyone down when used with Venser, the Sojourner or Mimic Vat in Fog-builds.
Razor Hippogriff - Read Salvage Scout.
X
Wurmcoil Engine - A good card. Lots of decks fold to him. However, bear in mind that Vapor Snag, Oblivion Ring, and Fiend Hunter have emerged in the metagame.
Steel Hellkite - Wipes tokens and flies. Two pretty relevant abilities. More vulnerable to removal than Wurmcoil Engine however.
Blightsteel Colossus - Wins games unless dealt with immediately. Good in Grand Architect or Shape Anew builds.
Rites of Flourishing - For Turbofog builds, an automatic 4-of.
Birthing Pod - Another build-around-me card like Grand Architect. Could warrant the splash into black for Bitterheart Witch.
Beast Within - Instant speed permanent removal. For the more midrange and control builds, its probably a good idea to have either this or Oblivion Ring.
Shape Anew - Another build-around-me card. A build with this card can also be used to find Blightsteel Colossus.
Mana Leak - Playing blue?
Vapor Snag, Unsummon, Disperse - Tempo-oriented builds want these. To what extent and how many, I cannot say.
Gitaxian Probe - Some love it, some hate it. I'm of the first group. Auto-include for tempo builds.
Think Twice - Great for keeping Mana Leak mana open.
Forbidden Alchemy - Could warrant the inclusion of a black source or Shimmering Grotto. Digs hard for the lock.
Dissipate, Negate, Turn Aside, Psychic Barrier, Flashfreeze, Bone to Ash, Steel Sabotage - Lots of counters. These are all optional. Writing a description on each of these would've driven me insane.
Tempered Steel - This particular lock probably doesn't offer much room for innovation of such an aggressive deck as-is. Perhaps we'll see a new variant arise from this? A control version perhaps?
Day of Judgment - Lost some power with the advent of the Undying mechanic, but the fact of the matter is it is still the best Wrath of God effect in standard. Almost universally great.
Oblivion Ring - Playing white? Most builds probably want at least a couple, unless their aggro-oriented.
Timely Reinforcements - Good against aggro.
White Sun's Zenith - A nice alternate win condition for control builds. Recycling itself is nice.
Elspeth Tirel, Gideon Jura - For control builds.
Angelic Destiny - Perhaps an include in beatdown type decks. Fights for the 4 slot with Hero of Bladehold (who would probably be in the deck if you're playing this), as well as Curse of Exhaustion.
Ray of Revelation, Revoke Existence, Celestial Purge, Divine Offering - Sideboard cards are sideboardable.
Mindslaver - A nice Treasure Mage target. Can also be used in conjunction with Phyrexian Metamorph and Mimic Vat. Probably a 1-of type card.
Grafdigger's Cage - In decks without any interaction with the library or graveyard, this is pretty good. Keep in mind that it does not shut off lands like Moorland Haunt, so you can still use those.
Ratchet Bomb - This card has really started to shine as of late with the Standard atmosphere becoming aggro-friendly. The bane of tokens, werewolves, and pretty much anything the runs cheap permanents, it often functions as a largely one-sided sweeper that can be splashed by any deck.
Mox Opal - Good for Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas lists as well as any other artifact-based strategy, such as Grand Architect and Tempered Steel.
Karn Liberated - A phenomenal finisher in a control-based list. Exiling green sources for a flashbacked Ancient Grudge seals the game away.
Batterskull - Recurring lifegain and blocker that can be attached to other stuff. Aggro hates this card, as does control. Pretty good all-around inclusion in any midrange to control variant.
Sword of Feast and Famine, Sword of War and Peace - For builds utilizing creatures. The power level of these cards is well known.
Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas - He sifts for artifacts. One of the lock pieces is an artifact. Another card he finds is Spellskite, a protector. Pretty good, and warrants a splash into black.
Venser, the Sojourner - Can establish the Stonehorn Dignitary softlock. May be useful in Turbofog builds.
Geist of Saint Traft - Useful in beatdown builds. Also is a hexproof Grand Architect buddy.
Buried Ruin - Salvage Scout's ability, only it doesn't take up a slot. Pretty good in any build with artifacts. Lessens in greatness if the only reason its there is to get Knowledge Pools back.
Phyrexia's Core - Good with Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas lists that like to have Ichor Wellsprings and Mycosynth Wellsprings.
Shimmering Grotto, Evolving Wilds - Mana fixing. Allows us to be flexible in the sideboard with Ancient Grudge and Ray of Revelation.
Moorland Haunt - Good for aggro-based decks.
Gavony Township - Good for aggro-based decks.
Phew. That took forever.
3. Archetypes and Decklists
So, now that we know the choices available to us (I'll add the other colors later, as it seems that there is reason to go into red and black), we can take a look at some of the archetypes to rise out of this.
Within the primer so far, we have the following archetypes:
UWx Control
UBx Control (includes Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas variants)
UW Tempo (with or without Grand Architect)
Turbofog
Gx Birthing Pod
Solar Flare
Humans (GW or UW)
Samples of each archetype can be found below.
2 Frost Titan
Lock (7)
4 Curse of Exhaustion
3 Knowledge Pool
Instants (9)
4 Mana Leak
4 Disperse
1 Negate
4 Ponder
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Lingering Souls
Artifacts (2)
2 Ratchet Bomb
Enchantments (4)
4 Oblivion Ring
2 Treasure Mage
1 Sun Titan
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
Lock (3)
2 Curse of Exhaustion
1 Knowledge Pool
Instants (14)
4 Mana Leak
4 Think Twice
3 Dissipate
3 Forbidden Alchemy
Sorceries (7)
4 Day of Judgment
3 Lingering Souls
Enchantment (2)
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Gideon Jura
2 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
Land (26)
4 Island
3 Plains
1 Swamp
4 Seachrome Coast
3 Glacial Fortress
2 Isolated Chapel
2 Darkslick Shores
2 Drowned Catacomb
3 Ghost Quarter
2 Nephalia Drownyard
3 Snapcaster Mage
3 Treasure Mage
1 Wurmcoil Engine
Lock (4)
3 Curse of Exhaustion
1 Knowledge Pool
Sorceries (12)
4 Ponder
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Day of Judgment
4 Pristine Talisman
4 Shrine of Piercing Vision
1 Chalice of Life
Enchantment (3)
3 Oblivion Ring
Land (25)
11 Island
4 Plains
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Glacial Fortress
2 Buried Ruin
4 Treasure Mage
3 Snapcaster Mage
1 Wurmcoil Engine or Batterskull
Enchantments/Artifacts (5)
3 Curse of Exhaustion
1 Knowledge Pool
1 Oblivion Ring
Instants (12)
4 Vapor Snag
4 Mana Leak
2 Negate or Dissipate
2 Think Twice
4 Ponder
3 Day of Judgement
Planeswalkers (3)
2 Gideon Jura
1 Karn Liberated
4 Solemn Simulacrum
2 Treasure Mage
1 Consecrated Sphinx
Lock (5)
3 Curse of Exhaustion
2 Knowledge Pool
Instants (8)
4 Mana Leak
3 Forbidden Alchemy
1 Noxious Revival
Sorceries (12)
4 Ponder
4 Gitaxian Probe
3 Timely Reinforcements
2 Day of Judgment
3 Shrine of Piercing Vision
1 Mindslaver
Land (24)
6 Island
6 Plains
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Glacial Fortress
3 Evolving Wilds
1 Buried Ruin
3 Treasure Mage
3 Snapcaster Mage
1 Wurmcoil Engine
Lock (6)
4 Curse of Exhaustion
2 Knowledge Pool
Instants (12)
3 Mana Leak
3 Think Twice
3 Dissipate
3 Forbidden Alchemy
4 Ponder
3 Day of Judgment
Enchantment (3)
3 Oblivion Ring
Land (24)
9 Island
4 Plains
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Glacial Fortress
3 Inkmoth Nexus
4 Timely Reinforcements
4 Flashfreeze
3 Consecrated Sphinx
2 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Sword of War and Peace
1 Day of Judgment
4 Vault Skirge
4 Solemn Simulacrum
3 Spellskite
Artifacts (13)
4 Sphere of the Suns
4 Chalice of Life
3 Pristine Talisman
2 Knowledge Pool
Enchantments (2)
2 Curse of Exhaustion
3 Lingering Souls
3 Midnight Haunting
Planeswalkers (5)
3 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
2 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
Land (23)
6 Plains
5 Swamp
4 Vault of the Archangel
4 Drowned Catacomb
4 Isolated Chapel
4 Spellskite
3 Solemn Simulacrum
3 Koldotha Forgemaster
2 Phyrexian Metamorph
2 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Blightsteel Colossus
Lock (5)
3 Curse of Exhaustion
2 Knowledge Pool
Artifacts (7)
4 Sphere of the Suns
2 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Mindslaver
4 Dispatch
2 Day of Judgment
Planeswalkers (3)
3 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
Land (24)
5 Plains
4 Island
2 Swamp
4 Darkslick Shores
3 Seachrome Coast
1 Glacial Fortress
3 Isolated Chapel
2 Buried Ruin
3 Trinket Mage
2 Ratchet Bomb
2 Divine Offering
2 Tribute to Hunger
2 Witchbane Orb
1 Elixir of Immortality
1 Grafdigger’s Cage
1 Day of Judgment
1 ?
2 Curse of Exhaustion
1 Knowledge Pool
Artifacts (10)
4 Ichor Wellspring
3 Ratchet Bomb
2 Druidic Satchel
1 Spine of Ish Sah
Instants (12)
4 Forbidden Alchemy
4 Mana Leak
2 Dissipate
2 Go for the Throat
2 Day of Judgment
1 Black Sun's Zenith
Enchantments (3)
3 Oblivion Ring
Planeswalkers (5)
3 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
2 Gideon Jura
Land (24)
3 Phyrexia's Core
21 Other lands
4 Phantasmal Bear
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Grand Architect
4 Treasure Mage
2 Merfolk Looter
Lock (4)
3 Curse of Exhaustion
1 Knowledge Pool
Instants (8)
4 Mana Leak
4 Vapor Snag
4 Ponder
4 Gitaxian Probe
Land (22)
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Glacial Fortress
9 Island
2 Plains
3 Moorland Haunt
4 Flashfreeze
4 Negate
2 Dissipate
2 Trinket Mage
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Sylvok Lifestaff
1 Hex Parasite
4 Grand Architect
4 Treasure Mage
4 Delver of Secrets
3 Phantasmal Bear
1 Wurmcoil Engine
Lock (4)
3 Curse of Exhaustion
1 Knowledge Pool
Instants (12)
4 Mana Leak
3 Dissipate
3 Vapor Snag
2 Redirect
4 Ponder
Sweepers (2)
2 Day of Judgment or Ratchet Bomb
Land (22)
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Glacial Fortress
9 Island
5 Plains
3 Snapcaster Mage
1 Razor Hippogriff
1 Sun Titan
1 Trinket Mage
1 Treasure Mage
Lock (4)
3 Curse of Exhaustion
1 Knowledge Pool
Artifacts (4)
2 Ratchet Bomb
1 Elixir of Immortality
1 Ghoulcaller's Bell
4 Fog
4 Clinging Mists
2 Moonmist
Sorceries (4)
4 Day of Judgment
Enchantments (4)
4 Rites of Flourishing
Planeswalkers (4)
2 Jace, Memory Adept
2 Gideon Jura
4 Snapcaster Mage
Lock (5)
3 Curse of Exhaustion
2 Knowledge Pool
Instants (12)
4 Fog
4 Clinging Mists
2 Blunt the Assault
2 Beast Within
Sorceries (8)
4 Ponder
4 Day of Judgment
4 Rites of Flourishing
Planeswalkers (3)
3 Jace, Memory Adept
Lands (2526)
6 Island
5 Forest
4 Plains
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Sunpetal Grove
3 Hinterland Harbor
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Avacyn's Pilgrim
3 Viridian Emissary
3 Phantasmal Image
3 Blade Splicer
1 Aether Adept
1 Treasure Mage
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Tower Geist
1 Stonehorn Dignitary
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
2 Acidic Slime
1 Bitterheart Witch
1 Sun Titan
1 Frost Titan
1 Wurmcoil Engine
Lock (2)
1 Curse of Exhaustion
1 Knowledge Pool
Other Spells (6)
4 Birthing Pod
4 Venser, the Sojourner
Land (24)
6 Forest
2 Island
1 Plains
1 Swamp
4 Razorverge Thicket
4 Hinterland Harbor
3 Seachrome Coast
3 Sunpetal Grove
3 Timely Reinforcements
2 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Sylvok Lifestaff
1 Trinket Mage
1 Skaab Ruinator
1 Mentor of the Meek
1 Viridian Corrupter
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Stonehorn Dignitary
1 Peace Strider
1 Hollowhenge Scavenger
1 Stingerfling Spider
Coming soon!
Coming soon!
My current list is the one located in the UW Tempo section. I will be updating more as I see more lists.
4. Archetype Consensuses
This section will be updated with the strengths and weaknesses of each archetype as we go along in the development of decks that utilize the lock. For now, it will remain empty.
Also, I need a break. Typing all that took a while. I'm going to be participating in the thread discussion for a bit.
Modern: U Living End
Standard: UW Approach of the Second Sun
P.S. Mods, if the [Primer] tag wasn't okay, I apologize.
P.S.S. Please forgive the double post, I wasn't sure if there was a max length for a thread post.
Modern: U Living End
Standard: UW Approach of the Second Sun
Legacy
:symb::symg:Eva Cheap:symg::symb:
:symg::symg:Elves:symg::symg:
Extended
:symr::symu:Ascension:symu::symr:
Standard
:symb::symg:B/G Land Destruction:symg::symb:
EDH
:symw::symu::symb::symr::symg: The Sliver Legionaires:symw::symu::symb::symr::symg:
:symw::symb:Infinite Life Clerics:symb::symw:
-If I was that Mike Long, my DCI rating would be higher.-
-I'd spend more money on cards if I didn't have a beautiful woman to spend it for me.-
If I were going to try this out, I think I'd try out a mono-white control list.
Name suggestion: Knowledge lock.
Follow the link for nice cheap clothing.
Playing:
Death's Shadow Jund
Played:
Kiki Chord, Zoo variants, Goblins, Burn
Ideas
A singeleton mindslaver might be cool to be treasure maged up, to offer alternate win con and a way to force them to play their win con into an active knowledge pool lock where you can tax it.
Names
"Cursed Knowledge", "Pool of Exhaustion",
1st Draft:
2 Gideon Jura
1 Karn Liberated
Creatures:
2 Snapcaster Mage
Spells:
2 Blue Sun's Zenith
3 Curse of Exhaustion
4 Day of Judgment
3 Dissipate
2 Knowledge Pool
4 Mana Leak
2 Negate
2 Oblivion Ring
4 Ponder
2 Ratchet Bomb
2 Timely Reinforcements
1 Buried Ruin
4 Ghost Quarter
4 Glacial Fortress
8 Island
6 Plains
4 Seachrome Coast
Pauper - 450
EDH
B Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker
Modern: U Living End
Standard: UW Approach of the Second Sun
I feel like the biggest weakness is the ability to find Curse of Exhaustion.
But if you run something like 4x Ponder, 4x Forbidden Alchemy, 4x Gitaxian Probe it shouldn't be much of a problem.
Knowledge Pool isn't too hard to find with Treasure Mage or Shape Anew + Splicers.
Even if you get the combo out, it requires you to have control of the board; this suggests to me that a pile of main deck sweepers would be good; it may be good to splash into Black or Red. It also increases the need for cards like Vapor Snag and also Silent Departure, and if you have hardlocked them out Snapcaster Mage is just as good a win condition as any.
Here is a draft list.
4 Ponder
4 Forbidden Alchemy
1 Gitaxian Probe
Wincons(7):
1 Gideon Jura
3 Snapcaster Mage
3 Treasure Mage
2 Knowledge Pool
4 Curse of Exhaustian
Spells (13):
3 Day of Judgement
4 Mana Leak
3 Vapor Snag
3 Silent Departure
4 Darkslick Shores
4 Evolving Wilds
4 Seachrome Coast
2 Glacial Fortress
1 Swamp
8 Island
2 Plains
WRGBCombo MillWRGB
???
Modern:
UUWWErayo AffinityWWUU
WWGUEnchantress ControlUGWW
EDH:
GGBBGlissa MultiplayerBBGG
RRRRKazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs Land DestructionRRRR
Follow the link for nice cheap clothing.
Playing:
Death's Shadow Jund
Played:
Kiki Chord, Zoo variants, Goblins, Burn
I hope this deck can get somewhere. It looks like a lot of fun!
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I await a decklist to attempt.
RWGNaya AggroGWR
UBZombiesUB
BBBFNM Mono-Black ControlBBB
2 Knowledge Pool
3 Curse of Exhaustion
1 Mindslaver
Spells: 24
4 Mana Leak
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Ponder
3 Forbidden Alchemy
3 Shrine of Piercing Visions
3 Timely Reinforcements
2 Day of Judgement
1 Noxious Revivals
4 Solemn Simulacrum
2 Treasure Mage
1 Consecrated Sphinx
Land: 24
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Glacial Fortress
3 Evolving Wilds
6 Island
6 Plains
1 Buried Ruin
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A Tezzeret list could cast an end of turn Forbidden Alchemy and then untap, draw, and cast Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas and activate his first ability, and in one turn cycle have dug ten cards deep for the pool (Alchemy is 4, draw step is one, Tez is 5).
3 Phyrexia's Core
21 Other Lands
Artifacts
4 Ichor Wellspring
3 Ratchet Bomb
2 Druidic Satchel
1 Knowledge Pool
1 Spine of Ish Sah
2 Curse of Exhuastion
3 Oblivion Ring
Instant
4 Forbidden Alchemy
4 Mana Leak
2 Dissipate
2 Go for the Throat
2 Day of Judgment
1 Black Sun's Zenith
Planeswalker
3 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
2 Gideon Jura
Rough list off the top of my head...
Sigil: an MMORPCCG ">Mexus: An MMORPCCG
Modern: U Living End
Standard: UW Approach of the Second Sun
Other than that, it's the shell of the old Koldatha Forgemaster deck that I believe Juza was winning with for a short while.
2 Wurmcoil Engine
4 Spellskite
3 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Blightsteel Colossus
3 Koldatha Forgemaster
3 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
2 Knowledge Pool
3 Curse of Exhaustion
1 Mindslaver
4 Sphere of the Suns
2 Sword of Feast and Famine
2 Day of Judgment
3 Seachrome Coast
1 Glacial Fortress
4 Darkslick Shores
3 Isolated Chapel
4 Island
5 Plains
2 Swamp
2 Buried Ruin
2 Ratchet Bomb
1 Day of Judgment
2 Divine Offering
2 Tribute to Hunger
2 Witchbane Orb
1 Elixir of Immortality
1 Grafdigger’s Cage
3 Trinket Mage
Heres my rough take.
2 Knowledge Pool
4 Faithless Looting
4 Ponder
1 Negate
3 Oblivion Ring
3 Tumble Magnet
2 Gideon Jura
3 Spellskite
2 Frost Titan
You'll notice my inclusion of all the tap effects (dungeon Geist, frost titan, tumble magnet).. These types of cards let you slam your combo down before worrying about clearing the board. If they only have a couple of permanents out, you should have no problem breaking the downside of knowledge pool with multiple threats that have the same type of built in answer.
Splashing Solely for faithless looting doesn't feel like a natural fit, but I think with this shell card quality is more important than card advantage. Faithless looting is great for digging for your combo pieces, as well as something reasonable to do with multiple copies of your combo pieces.
Lingering Souls feels like it could be in here as well... Its a great card to buy you a couple turns to get your gear together, but its just further stretching the mana base.
Currently Playing:
Standard: Bant Tokens / Jeskai Tutelage
Modern: Temur Twin / GR Tron
Legacy: Miracles / Grixis Delver
EDIT: I'm going to avoid taking decklists until the decklists have been polished a bit. Most look really rough-drafty right now.
Modern: U Living End
Standard: UW Approach of the Second Sun
Temporarily retired from the game
Thanks a bunch to Rivenor from Miraculous Recovery Signatures for the awesome sigpic!
Rage quit reason of the moment:
The thing with this deck at this stage of development is that this question is rather hard to answer. I'm sure there will be those that dedicate the deck to the lock itself, which I feel is probably incorrect. The fact that the only requirement of the lock is that you are running white gives it a really broad range of decks that people can fit it in. For example, my UW Tempo adaptation has a primary gameplan of aggro-ness, with the combo as a goal as well. In UWx control builds, it may be trying to slam down the combo late game and have their opponent watch them as their Snapcaster Mage runs in unopposed. In a Turbofog build, sure, it may look to mill.
What the lock does not do for you is you the game outright; what the lock does do is make the game so much of a solitaire that its really hard to lose.
Modern: U Living End
Standard: UW Approach of the Second Sun