Satin doll

Satin doll

By Frédéric Meurin on Sunday 1 October 2006, 22:18 - Decks - Permalink

A fellow frenchman once built a deck before a major tournament. When I mean "before", it reads : "the night before". He created a brand new standard deck from an old concept.

Deckbuilder was Antoine Ruel, and the tournament was PT Honolulu 2006. The standard deck was Owling mine, and reached top 8. Can you copy/paste the concept of bouncing in ordre to make damage through an artifact ?

First, you have to rejoice : Ebony Owl Netsuke is nice, but in Peasant magic, you can play 4 Black vise.

I know. It's ugly.

That's from this observation that davyd_t_gnome worked, and submitted on Yahoo groups a list called Satin doll.

Deck color was indeed blue, and victory condition was having a Black vise on turn 1. Rest of the deck are bounce spells. Chris Morling, IdfTrotter, and myself suggested some changes and betterments, and I submitted a new list on magic-ville.com : there's a strong PEZ community over there.

My list was mainly a collection of the previously suggested changes, plus few adjustments, side included. This side was already lifted to higher levels thanks to Pokpok who suggested Flash flood rather than Hydroblast.

And then someone, Bidasse, not to name him, reminded to everyone that Gigadrowse was a must have in the original Owling Mine deck. This spell is not a litteral bounce, but by inducing mana death for the opponent, it prevents him from playing spells, and thus lets him with cards in hand.

Here is what the deck looks like for now, with a quickly made sideboard.

Lands

4 Seat of the Synod
17 Island

Creatures

2 Trinket Mage

Other spells

4 Black Vise
4 Lotus Petal
4 Arcane Denial
4 Boomerang
4 Gigadrowse
4 Hoodwink
4 Rescind
4 Words of Wisdom
1 Prosperity
4 Eye of Nowhere

Sideboard

3 Man-o'-War
4 Echoing Truth
4 Flash flood
4 Curfew

If you, dear reader, have another stroke of genius to enhance this deck, or want to criticise some build options, please let us know ! Comments await you !

Comments

1. On Tuesday 3 October 2006, 22:13 by Kannon Yamada

The Satin Doll deck is a fantastic idea. However, there are some minor problems with it. First, it's pretty much a control deck, so it can afford a slower tempo and should emphasize getting a lock on the table before it kills. Trinket Mage is not really a must.

I'd prefer to go with four Black Vise and a single Arcane Laboratory in the fifth uncommons slot. You could then use Drift of Phantasms as a four-of to fetch for it. Or, alternately, you could use Isochron Scepter instead of the lab coupled with four Muddle the Mixtures for fetch.

The Lab build would then use Capsize as a win condition: It works like this, you have Arcane Laboratory on the table, along with Capsize and counter. You then bounce whatever permanents your opponent attempts to lay down, while, at the same time, racking up damage with the Black Vise.

2. On Wednesday 4 October 2006, 00:06 by Frédéric Meurin

I wonder if the Arcane Lab is that good. You need 3 mana to get it, plus 3 other to play it. Since the deck is a control one, you won't do this without having the classic two untapped islands. So you won't lock before turn 5, I guess...

Capsize seems way too expensive to me : 3 mana plus 3 for buyback is a lot. On the other hand, if you play it in your lab build, you will have plenty enough time to get these 6+ mana.

[Edit] Actually, I understood Arcane Lab as an alternate play option against Combo et fast aggro (elves) deck : you should rush in to get the lab as quickly as you can. In this option, you should play, as you said, 4 drift of phantasms and 4 lotus petal for mana acceleration. So Trinket mage is a good option. To be continued...

3. On Wednesday 4 October 2006, 22:50 by Kannon Yamada

Four Lotus Petals would probably get the job done. However, I would prefer to not use them as they oftentimes cost card advantage. I mean, they're good, but the Satin Doll deck just seems like it needs card advantage over getting Arcane Lab out early.

Certainly, the earlier Arcane Lab comes out the better. However, I would think that Desert and Mishra's Factory would be effective in keeping early creature rushes from succeeding. After all, this is a control deck.

I would like to experiment with a combination of colors, rather than just mono blue. Of particular interest is a UG Tempo deck with Black Vise as the kill, rather than token creatures.

I would probably use green for deck thinning, artifact/enchantment removal and mana search. Blue for bounce and counter. Also you could use the potent Temporal Spring if Green were splashed. However, that wouldn't contribute to Black Vise. :-(

4. On Thursday 5 October 2006, 10:42 by Frédéric Meurin

UG is another great idea. I don't know if it can be done without loosing to many bouncers. Swawagon suggested on the yahoo groups discussion list that Snap could be use. In a build like the one I'm working on, it could be useful to get back Trinket mage and tutor something else, or to get back Drift of phantasms and use it as a tutor. It could also be use against any aggro/creature based deck, of course.

I think I will reintroduce Capsize as a single, to be tutored in late game with Drift of phantasms.