If you want to become a better deck brewer my advice to you is to share ideas with other brewers. Especially brewers who might not agree with your ideas, or who see things from a different perspective. For example, my friend Jason Grigely is a fellow Show and Tell aficionado, but that is where our similar viewpoints end. He is a fan of the Cunning Wish variations of the deck, while I favor Sneak Attack in my lists. As a result, we disagree constantly about what direction the deck should be taken in order to attack the metagame.
This difference in opinion is actually one of our greatest strengths, as it allows us to tackle problems from two totally different angles. We are able to trade ideas and explore avenues of thought that we would not be able to come up with on our own. This is exactly how today’s showcase deck came into existence.
Not too long ago, Jason posted an idea in the Show and Tell brewers Facebook group, MTG – Real Thing Presentation Education. His idea was to use As Foretold and Ancestral Vision as a way to gain card advantage in the Omnishow deck. I decided to take this idea one step further, as I attempt to breathe life into an old forgotten legacy deck. After ironing out a few wrinkles with John Lawrence, another fellow Show and Tell brewer, I arrived at the following list.
Show and Told
Spells (29)
4 Show and Tell
3 Hypergenesis
1 Dream Halls
4 Ancestral Vision
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
3 Misdirection
4 As Foretold
2 Omniscience
Creatures (15)
3 Griselbrand
2 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1 Tidespout Tyrant
2 Progenitus
4 Shardless Agent
3 Elvish Spirit Guide
Land (17)
3 Tropical Island
1 Forest
2 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
3 Polluted Delta
2 Ancient Tomb
2 City of Traitors
The goal of the deck is to cascade into Hypergenesis with Shardless Agent, or cast it for free off of As Foretold. Ideally this will be done on turn two with help from Elvish Spirit Guide, City of Traitors, and Ancient Tomb. Once Hypergenesis resolves, we flood the board with some of the biggest, meanest and most destructive creatures ever to grace the battlefield.
As Foretold is really the lynchpin that holds the deck together. It provides an answer to one of the biggest weaknesses of the old Hypergenesis lists, namely a backup plan for Shardless Agent. Before As Foretold was printed, the deck was forced to splash another color just to run embarrassing cards like Violent Outburst and Ardent Plea. Now we can cut the lackluster cascade spells and strengthen the mana base at the same time.
Becoming less reliant on the cascade mechanic also allows us to relax a bit on the deck restrictions. The original Hypergenesis lists had to make sure they hit the namesake card 100% of the time. As a result nothing in the deck could cost less than three converted mana. Otherwise you would risk cascading into the wrong card. As Foretold solves this problem by giving us an alternative way to cheat Hypergenesis into play. Now we can run other synergistic cards, such as Ancestral Vision and Brainstorm that also work well with Shardless Agent.
The Spicy 61st
I was really torn when it came to deciding today’s spicy 61st card. Dream Halls and Eureka both present interesting options. Eureka is the granddaddy of cheat a creature into play combo cards. However, Dream Halls also has a long history of cheating spells into play and at one time was actually banned in Legacy for being too good. The card advantage generated by Ancestral Visions was also a strong proponent for Dream Halls which requires you to have plenty of cards in hand.
Ultimately Dream Halls won out. Eureka is just too similar to Hypergenesis and loses to the same hate cards. Dream Halls allows us an out to cards like Containment Priest by allowing us to “cast” our fatties, even if it is in an unfair way. As an added bonus Dream Halls is a very affordable $10, while a single Eureka will run you as much as $180. Luckily in this circumstance, the better card is also the more affordable option.
Jerry Mee is a Boston Native who has been playing Magic since Onslaught Block. Primarily a Legacy player, he cohosts the weekly Leaving a Legacy Podcast found on Mtgcast.com. He can be reached on Twitter at @Jmee3rd