So Plagiarize (torment) is a spiffy card:
plagiarize: Instant ~ 3U ~ Until end of turn, if target player would draw a card, instead that player skips that draw and you draw a card. ~ R ~ TO
I decided that the fast mana and powerful draw effects available in t1 could make it somewhat viable thus:
Copy Right Violator:
win condition
4 Urza's Rage
combo bits:
1 Winds of Change
3 Anvil of Bogardan
4 Plagiarize
draw effects
1 Timetwister
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Library of Alexandria
search
2 Merchant Scroll
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
disruption:
2 Mana Leak
2 Arcane Denial (can be plagiarized)
3 Duress
mana acceleration
4 Nightscape Familiar
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Tolarian Academy
Lands
4 Badlands
4 Volcanic Island
4 Underground Sea
3 Shivan Reef
4 Underground River
SB: 1 Zuran Orb
SB: 3 Burnout
SB: 3 Misdirection
I think there's a lot of flexibility in card choice and strategy: The basic idea is to plagiarize an anvil draw or two, get out some familiars, plagiarize a timetwister for 14(!) and a mind twist, and rage for kill. It kind of works!
I've played and won against mono black of various stripes, mono red sligh and land d, and 5c control of a couple times. Sort of viable!
I'm interested to hear from the forum on issues of a better mana distribution, or interesting card choices.
ARCANE DENIAL???
to explain some card choices (above isn't mine)
arcane is a 1 u spell so synergizes nicely with familiar, and gan be plagiarized, or stopped with a plagiarize. i've found it to be stronger than leak. the cantrip value helps you set up a massive mindtist combo, so not to worry too much about the card disadvantage.
I am considering removing leak in favor of more arcanes.
winds of change is kind of an obscure card, but acts as a weaker wheel/twister effect to combo with plagiarize, sometimes 1-2 critical turns sooner. I dont think more than one is worth playing at all.
I am really liking how rage acts as a win condition, particularly with tons of land, some recursion, and the ability to duress or otherwise disable any possible misdirections.
Win updates: 3-0 vs neo enchantress, 2-0 vs OSE piloted by good players.
So who has good sideboard ideas?!?
Why no Wheel of Fortune and no Time Walk?
how could you play this without prosperity? you draw double the cards for 1/2 the mana.
Zombie Infestation might be a better kill card?? If you twist for fourteen cards its pretty strong.
Here's the current decklist:
4 Urza's Rage
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Timetwister
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Plagiarize
4 Nightscape Familiar
2 Merchant Scroll
1 Fire/Ice
1 Mystical Tutor
3 Arcane Denial
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
3 Duress
3 Anvil of Bogardan
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Time Walk
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Library of Alexandria
4 Badlands
4 Volcanic Island
4 Underground Sea
3 Shivan Reef
4 Underground River
SB: 1 Zuran Orb
SB: 3 Misdirection
SB: 3 Red Elemental Blast
SB: 1 Propaganda
SB: 2 Viashino Heretic
SB: 2 Diabolic Edict
SB: 1 Fire/Ice
SB: 1 Ivory Tower
SB: 1 Duress
Fire and ice has proved an excellent utiity card, and merchant scrolling to kill two tapped out river boas is suweet.
Timewalk was overdue for addition, and is included.
Infestation is an interesting choice, but it lacks some of the utility/stay alive value that rage is great for.
I dare someone else to play this, since I'm tired of developing it in a vacuum. It works pretty well vs most "good" decks by gaining convincing card advantage. Aggro decks, including suiblack are usually a winning matchup. Play tip: once emptying your opponents hand, keep the plagiarize lock on, including arcane deny your own rages and duress.
Man i fuckung suck, using two cards two counter one spell (denial, plagiarize) instead of using counterspell
yes, really, with nightscape, counters for just U suck, plagiarizing arcane sucks, arcaning rage for 3 cards sucks, evening out the mana base sucks, cycling through the deck for wheel/plagiarize sucks. This is the casual mill for decks that suck
I really must register the nick.
maybe I should rebuild the heavier blue version to support uu for more counters to set things up. The very first version of the deck had FOW and good stuff like that, as well as obsessive search for fun with the anvils.